A few weeks ago I get this mysterious email from a ‘Jim Shorts’ inviting me to “check out” a new forum web site dedicated to Triumph Bonneville’s. Lovely, just what the world needed… another Bonneville forum. But what the hey, I go and check it out. Turns out to be a rehash of the same old stuff you see on reputable sites like Triumphrat.net and the Delphi NTB forum. I notice all these threads created by Bud, aka: “Bonifide” as in a bonafide tool and one or two of his minions. So I email this ‘Jim Shorts’ guy back the following:
“Thank you Jim. I need you to be very candid with me. Do you have any objections to me posting on your forum? I ask because I see a lot of members from the other NTB forums who know me well including a couple dickheads who always take pleasure in giving me a hard time.I don't want to cause any disharmony or leave any impression I'm using your forum as some sort of infomercial. At the end of the day, I'm just another Bonneville enthusiast who loves to see what others have done to/with their bikes.Please give it some thought before replying and whatever you decide, I'm comfortable with it.”
I revisited the site and decided that I would only post on off-topic subjects, like the thread on guns. A couple days ago I get an email direct from Bud asking me if I wanted to sponsor the web site for $200. Being a lot of things, but not one of them being a down-right fool, I replied” “no.” First-off, how can I trust someone who blatantly flames me publicly over a situation mostly his own damn fault for not properly identifying himself in his emails. And secondly, I do not sponsor any forum, as there is simply no return on my investment. I’ve been down the road before with click-through banner ads and such and they just not worth the cost. My support of forums is my participation in discussions and the technical knowledge I share… for free. And if I can make someone smile by cracking-wise now & then, consider that added value.
So Ol’ Bud replies back and politely says OK and offers me to reconsider in the future. But here’s the kicker… I can’t use my common screen name of BellaCorse and he’s changing it to “Mike.” Petty and juvenile at the least, but I understand how he doesn’t want any reference to my company in his little playground. Sort of like saying you can’t wear your Windows T-shirt inside the Apple store. So I ask him if I can use my Delphi nom de plume: Racedweeb? Nah, it’s going to be MikeS (as Mike was already in-use) and nothing more said.
I fired off an email to “Jim Shorts” outlining the situation and asking for some intervention. I also speculated in my email that “Jim Shorts” and “Bud” are indeed one in the same, but just on the odd chance they’re not, maybe he can help me. No reply back. [EDIT: I did erroneously accuse Bud of ripping me off for $132. This is not true. I had mistakenly confused Bud with that other dickhead Bruce Horne – see earlier blog entry. I do apologize for my mistake and said so in an email to Bud]. So I jump onto the Whoisit registry and plug in the URL and sure enough, Wallace (Bud) Morton is the owner. No doubt “Jim Shorts” is an alias for Bud, who apparently has the creativity of an 8 year old.
So back to the web site I go to take a quick sniff around and I see several posters who have hyperlinks in their signatures to commercial entities including motorcycle parts vendors who are not sponsoring the web site and at least one fellow who’s screen name is the name of his MC parts web site (I won’t say who as he’s a customer of mine and seems like a nice guy). I guess Bud has one standard for me and another one for everyone else. What this boils down to ladies & gentlemen is pure censorship. Bud does not want anyone to somehow put A & B together and ultimately end up on my web site.
This form of censor is nothing new for me. Long time Delphi NTB forum members will remember the late “Capt. Ron” and his Ace Café Forum, or as I preferred to call it; “The Hate Café Forum.” This Jew-hating motherfucker has such a hard-on for trashing me after flaming me on the NTBF and being ‘dressed-down’ by about 80 other forum members for being such a jerk, that he started his own forum and FORBID anyone from making ANY reference to BellaCorse. He went as far as filtering posts blocking the brand name as if it was some four little word. And the lies and insults he and his henchman Lee Alexander hurled at me were as sad & sickening as any rhetoric coming out of Tehran. Capt. Ron dropped dead of a heart attack and the forum ultimately disbanded. Alexander, the sniveling coward, vandalized my helmet at Mid-Ohio VMD last Summer. What a turd. I always thought there were gay overtones with his puppy dog loyalty to his parts vendor of choice.
OK, Bud wants his sandbox for himself and that’s just fine with me. But who is really getting shafted here? I say it’s all the other members on Bud’s forum. I don’t claim to be the Oracle of Truth for new-gen Triumph Bonneville’s, but after seven years of running -arguably- one of the larger & better known vendor sites and having personally owned a dozen Hinckley twins, I think I’ve gained a certain level of expertise and insight about this bikes. How many times have I read incorrect and flat-out bad advice one these various forums? Like the guy who recommended using rubber o-rings as an alternative to the aluminum oil drain plug crush washer, or just today, the newbie who claimed that a Thruxton front wheel & rotor are interchangeable with those from a T100. People read this stuff and take as gospel, only to find out the hard (and often expensive) way that it’s wrong.
I’m not here to police these sites and everyone is entitled to their opinions, but I strongly feel that I have some valuable input to offer, and I cheerfully do so. If I sell a few parts along the way, great, but no one is holding a gun to anyone’s head to buy from me or anyone else. And most of what I sell is available from multiple sources. But I guess that will not the case with Bud’s forum. So if you are looking for uncensored information about your Bonneville without the politics and Jihad attitudes, I can personally recommend Triumphrat.net, Bonnevilleamerica.com and the various Triumph-related Delphi forums.
posted by RaceDweeb @ 11:53 PM
