Important Announcement

I have just spent over an hour scanning through this Important Announcement and the For Mark thread and the Welcome to the New Site Owners threads. Although I hardly know anyone and practically no one knows me I feel the need to pitch in with something.

Having seen the simultaneous out-pouring of grief and joy, tearful fair-wells, congratulations and welcomes I know there is a COMMUNITY here of good, honest, genuine, sincere and loving people. A community that you MARK clearly created. Something, which you should rightfully be very PROUD of. Thank you is so inadequate.

At the same time, I can see a great deal of FEAR in the posts attached to the Important Announcement, a community in SHOCK. An understandable reaction to sudden change. All of you that have been so positive and grateful to Mark, I would hope you would try to keep the community TOGETHER and help make the FUTURE Swinging Heaven at least as good as the one you have enjoyed. A community that would like to wish the new site management GOOD LUCK in keeping the site going for everyone.

And one again Thank You to Mark, although we have never met, you clearly made this COMMUNITY possible.

Hi we are not big users of the forum as you all know but like with every other change I guess its like the poll suggests "wait and see time"
We will for sure keep updating our ads, popping into to read the forum and chat room (cos we know it winds some up pmsl) as long as the site remains free

Sorry but we refuse to pay for any site know matter how good they think they are.

Last edited by on 19th Nov 2005 - 3:44pm; edited 1 time in total

Firstly …… Mark, diamond geezer….. I don’t think anyone really blames you mate, you built a world in which we all reside, and not only in VR but in RL too, now that takes some doing and I have to say I do not know of any other individual who has managed to achieve this quite so successfully. I take my hat off to you and will take this opportunity to thank you from the bottom of my (and Caron’s) heart. SH has changed our lives irreversibly and we will be forever grateful. We hope that wherever the road takes you from here, that the journey will be an easy, comfortable and enjoyable one.



Well ……….. That was a bit of a roller coaster ride of emotions for a Friday/Saturday viewing, what can I say that hasn’t been said already?

I have to admit that my first reaction was along the lines of “ Oh ffs, the last bastion of truly free internet spirit has finally succumbed to the money grabbing moguls. This clearly stems from my inherent philosophy which I grew into the net with, which was then, in the early days of the net, and still is now, that the web is a free entity, it should not be censored or charged for in any way, a free resource for the people of the world to enjoy whatever their financial circumstances. The last bastion of freedom and a form of harmless anarchy.

Then of course I gave myself a shake back to reality and had a closer look and to be honest, it was inevitable, sadly in this day and age the whole ethos of “by the people, for the people” has been lost in the furore of commercialism so the question was never “if” but was always “when”

As for what’s on offer? Well it all sounds pretty exciting doesn’t it boys and girls, and if the new owners stick to the letter and spirit of their promises I can see everyone on this site benefiting in one way or another. I for one look forward to the locator map thingy and would have no problem with our “rough” location being pinned to a map for all to see, and being able to search profiles within a given range of our location can only be a good thing.

If the new owners have the resources to attract even more like minded folk to the site, surely that’s a bonus too? (especially if you live in the south …..sigh)

Yes we are like a big family, a rather incestuous one I admit, but a family of sorts never the less, and when the chips are down, families have a way of sticking together, even the black sheep like me.

All in all I think this is a good thing, yeah I know, there’s a but hiding in there somewhere….. My fear? Ok I’ll tell you ………. Despite promises to the contrary I am worried that the core membership of this site will lose out in the long run, I just can not see a commercial entity allowing us to keep our “Privileged” status for ever, if they do I will eat humble pie and rejoice, but just at the moment, I can’t see it.

The other problem I see is one of reputation, more and more pay sites are getting a rep for being nothing more than a con, invented profiles designed specifically to rip you off, join for fee, browse for free, but if you are a serious player you have to pay…. Purleeeeaaassse, gimme a break, as if. I would so hate this site to gain such a reputation, unfortunately, due to unscrupulous site developers, this rep is spreading like wildfire and there has been a recent and drastic downturn in pay site memberships, could it be that the writing is on the wall?

Well I hope its not the wall I am sitting on ……… for now, at the end of the day I can only speak for Caron and myself, and despite the tone of this post, we are cautiously optimistic, but I will make one thing abundantly clear, the first time we get a “you can no longer use this feature, please upgrade your account” type message and we will be so oudda here. Lets hope it never happens.

Good luck guy’s as has been said already, if you can generate the kind of friendship and loyalty that this site has for Mark, then you are on a winner. I wish you every success.

Afternoon Elliot

How's the head - you need to do a runner to go get another bottle of Southern Comfort?

Steph

MOTHER OF GOD........that took some going through, my head is about to explode.

I hope that this change in ownership DOESN'T change this site in any great way because one thing that comes across very clearly is that most people, like Pete and myself, are adamant that if this becomes just another pay site we'll be gone. That would really be a shame. Pete and I don't attend the socials and the munches, but we enjoy reading and sometimes contributing to the posts, and the Dogging forum has enabled us to have some really enjoyable nights out.

Please, new boss-type people..............listen to the people who make this site what it is. I will be really p*ssed off if the fun I've had here has to come to an end. To coin a phrase.....'Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry' I might not turn green, but I do rip all my clothes off, and that's a really scary sight

The only thing to do is sit back and wait, hopefully the new owners will give all members the chance to comment once we see the new add ons etc to this site. How the heck can we comment over something we ain't yet seen. At worst we get 12 month freebie of the goodies on offer. Some folk were down right rude and abusive last night and that is not the spirit of the forum.
Off to the Ghetto before it dissapears!!!!!
Clint

PHEWWWW


I thought we'd done him in or something!!!!! lol

There is??????????????

Too bloody true Dawn which is why I refuse to vote in the poll as I do not see it serves any purpose. Cant we get rid of it?

I agree with both Dawn and Steph BUT to get rid of the poll at this stage would only invite such comments as = "Freedom of Speach" has gone and we are being gagged.

Let the Poll stay.

phredd