I said earlier:
I agree with you that it is Danny's site and he has full authority over it.
I also know "The Campfire" has become a controversial issue with Afrikaans being used, but traditionally a campfire has always been a place where people in just about every country around the world ended up at some stage in their lives to shoot the breeze (chat and banter), relax, share experiences and jokes and chat about everything, not just flying issues.
According to me "The Campfire" gave us that VERY good balance in PPRune, where one could have forums where serious aviation matters would be discussed, the work hard part of our daily lives, but "The Campfire" afforded us the play hard part of our lives where one could relax and meet up and do the "shooting the breeze" thing and have a quiet laugh, before moving off to sleep.
Africa, being a third world continent, has many campfires and "The Campfire" forum being under the Rest of the world & non- English forums, just lead to a natural progression of speaking in Afrikaans, not on purpose to exclude anyone. It is as a matter of fact the only forum to my knowledge the guys have used to speak Afrikaans in, and in so doing respected the other users in other forums.
Being an Afrikaans speaking individual touring into Nigeria, I find many South Africans and Afrikaans speaking people of all professions scattered throughout Africa and also the rest of the world.
Afrikaans is our mother tongue, which has been said is very descriptive and colourful, as is the characters that speak the language, albeit a minority of your users.
Work hard, play hard is an international concept and your website has had all the right ingredients and that is why it is the best aviation forum based website on the internet and thus so popular.
I ask you please to rather increase your website, to include a "Die Kampvuur" for Afrikans users or allow us to continue in our mother tongue on "The Campfire" forum, than chase us away. I bet your decision wasn't based on the guys being malicious on the forum.
I am sure that just about every person involved in the global aviation industry has dealt with a South African professional pilot or engineer, either Afrikaans or English or Zulu for that matter, somewhere in his career and had many experiences and many things to say about us, albeit good or bad.
We are a fun loving nation, we are definitely colourful and we have made our mark in the aviation industry worldwide.
Your favourable consideration will be highly appreciated, regardless of what results you might find on the poll.
Much later....:
I see the Campfire has gone out and it's a cold place to be with an unwelcome atmosphere as the forum seems to be deleted.
I will not post on PPRune anymore. I know it will not affect your life in the slightest Danny or anybody elses for that matter, as it seems you have already made up your mind and the poll actually means nothing.
Sadly, even in Africa, dictators, benign or not, aren't really liked.
By the way, Professional pilots usually have more to talk about than just work and work related issues, no matter what the language, race or creed. Balance is a good thing, you should try it.
Enjoy your throne while it lasts and by the way, sarcasm is the lowest form of wit....
Tot Siens