...and logging on.
First of all, sorry for being away for a little while.
I felt I needed a little break away from the DLF/ALS forum because of some things happening.
For the last time I will give my view on things that happened and then leave it behind me.
Several guys on the forum asked me about the warehouse in Belgium. This also happened during Eurocade. Coincidenlty I had visited the warehouse again a couple weeks before Eurocade because I wanted to see if the Hard Drivin' was still there, and examine it if I'd like to buy it.
While there, the seller mentioned that the Power Drift could leave for 100 Euro, and the Taito's for 50. Following this I thought he was pretty much willing to sell everything at rock bottom prices.
(This was not entirely true in the end, as he did ask somewhat higher prices for other cabs, I think mainly triggered by the large number of guys turning up, he may have thought he could get better prices, I don't know...)
So, since I was only interested in the Hard Drivin', I figured I'd "share the wealth" with the guys here on the forum. This is why I started the "Warehouse Groupbuy thread".
I explained how we would do it, I made the arrangement with the seller and all those interested, I put up and updated a "resevered" list so that everyone could get what he wanted in the most fair way possible.
I let all interested parties know that I would let the address know on friday night. You may or may not agree with such an idea, but I thought it was the smart and safe way to go.
I know some of you guys very well, some a bit shorter, and some I had never met. So, I didn't want anybody to travel for 100's of km's and arrive at an ""empty" warehouse, or even that one cab they wanted gone....
Despite this 2-mad "ordered" me to give the address. Now, I am a person who values a decent way of communication.
"Give me the address." is a sentence that I'm not likely to comply to, instead it raised my neck-hairs because it was CLEARLY explained I wouldn't do that until the time I indicated.
I had also CLEARY stated that the warehouse was near Gent, one of Belgiums major cities and thus it was easy for everyone to do a close estimate on how much km's they would have to travel. It's not exactly rocket science.
With that information it was also very possible to rent a car and know how much costs it would be with gas and price per km.
No-one complained about any of this. Except for one person.
The way 2-mad decided to communicate further is not the way that I think decent people treat eachother. Following this I decided to not give him the address.
For me it is 100% clear that this was his own fault. As stated in the thread, I do not owe anything to anyone in this. It was a favor for friends, not something you could force me to do.
Had communications been normal, even if we disagreed, he would probably still be in the deal.
I met 2-mad at Eurocade and there were no problems at all. That gave me even more reason to wonder WHY he was acting this agressively to me.
Following my decision he decided to start throwing names, comparing me to God (which could be hurtful for people who are religious, which I'm not, but I still didn't like it because if you organize something like this, it is completely normal that that person puts up the "rules").
Further he wrote that the other guys were crawling in my back, something I thought was very offensive to me and all the other guys who did not have any problems with the way I was dealing with the deal. Through this he insulted everyone involved on the day...
Following this, I simply ignored this guy because IMHO he was not someone I wanted to have contact with any further, or spoil me time and energy on.
If you are either too lazy or too stupid to read all the info that I repeatidly gave in the thread and PMs, or simply don't agree with the "rules" then that is fine with me, simply do not join, but why start insulting people?
Anyway I kept silent about it although I did mention it to Bruno, who already also had seen it and wasn't very happy about it either.
Then a few weeks later 2-mad starts a thread about a new machine he bought. In there he starts to childishly complain about the group-deal again.
To my utter surprise some guys actually responded positivly to the thread, apparantly having forgotten what he wrote in the warehouse groupbuy thread, and also apparantly ignoring his words about it in the first post of that thread.
I was really disappointed by this and mentioned it in that thread.
(I want to make clear that when I wrote "this garbage" I meant the childish writing about being left out of the group-deal, not the guy as a person.)
So that's it that's the reason why I was gone for a while. Think of it what you want.
I received several PM's about this, thanks for that. The reason why I didn't reply was because I needed the break.
In essense it comes donw to this:
I felt I was doing something positive by helping guys to some machines they wanted. Then I got into this shit but I had already put it behind me and completely ignored it from that point (as I mentioned to several guys during the group-buy day in person).
I am glad that Bruno put up some rules which we all will have to follow here. I already suggested doing that a long time ago, right after another conflict.
With these rules it is clear how we are expected to conduct and since I consider using this forum as being a guest in Bruno's home, I will naturally follow these rules.
So, for me this is now closed and left behind. All the energy and irritation this took was a complete waste and I want to put my energy and time in positive things.
