Hi there, Rob Lloyd here.
Huddled here at the Godlike Towers we make absolutely no apologies for removing the two threads.
They were an editorial decision. Neville decides whether anything you write gets into his magazine - we do the same here.
Neville asks you pay for adverts in his magazine - especially if you are running a mail order enterprise.
The cost to advertise here for a month is $50 .
I will repeat that -
$50 usd
That is for the whole site not just here. 35,000 readers per day. 100,000 individual readers per week.
I'll leave you to make your own estimates of how much he has laid out in postage sending out sample magazines. A month's advertising with us is less than the cost of a scan and cromalin proof of a single photo in his magazine - fact!
We have not edited or removed any of Neville's posts before.
We have not objected to him promoting his magazine for you to try.
We have not removed his criticism of our actions nor those of you sympathetic to his views.
We have allowed this despite seeing him in action on other forums over the years playing the same soft sell game.
We have seen the angry, vitupertive flame wars he has indulged in elsewhere. Even before PPRuNe was conceived and started 6 years ago we watched him in action on an American bulletin board. His actions and threatening posts are a matter of record and the moderators subjected to all this were Mal Gormley and Bob Peters, both highly respected editors on the very well known American magazine, AvWeek.
We have allowed him to operate here despite knowing it would be only a matter of time before there were tears and tantrums.
We
refuse to act as a mail order outlet for his magazine -
a commercial enterprise. He crossed the line and his advert was binned. Neville himself acknowledges that placing it was a mistake.
Despite removing adverts every single day from all over the site only Neville has seen fit to to call us gods and dictators. The two helo forum moderators have access to them in the admin forum and can confirm just how many businessmen recognise the promotional medium this site is. We won't allow cheapskate charlatans to ride on our backs for free.
The only time prior to this that Neville wrote to us was to ask for a free PacRotors forum here on PPRuNe.
Huh??
I'll run that one by you again: A commercial, for profit enterprise has a forum run for free by volunteers working in their own time using their own money to promote his magazine?
Neville Dawson is a superlative photographer - just you try running his shots in company promotional material or another magazine without credit or payment. He protects his hard won skills and investment like anyone else.
In turn our moderators have built this site up from a single, blank html page. Their own time, their own money for year after year. We protect their investment of skill, experience and sheer hard work from businessmen who want to take advantage for free not just on this forum but across the whole site.
Finally, nothing is black and white. You're all too well aware that there are two sides to every story.
I have alleged that we watched exactly the same thing happen elsewhere in the world of aviation bulletin boards. Very few of you will take the time to confirm the history of tantrums, insults and, most especially,
threats with the AvWeek editors or through the exquisitely archived contents of their bulletin board.
Therefore I am taking the unprecedented step of publishing the only other letter we have received from our chum without comment:
I saw the ****ty message you sent to Helidrvr re myself and wanted to have the pleasure to tell you that you are not going to like the publicity you get in the next issue of my magazine.
We have tried to support the forum and the members but after your head up your ass comments the other day which Helidrvr showed me you can shove your forum up your ass.
Neville Dawson
Publisher - Pacific Rotors
P. S. You are about to see what freedom of the press means
[ 14 October 2001: Message edited by: PPRuNe Towers ]