The time has come to bring closure to this.
When Herm posted this statement:
"Why must you call people names as you have often done. It is no wonder that this forum has gone to the crapper, who wants to be treated as inferior to you, HYDRIVE. Shame on you."
, we had to make a decision whether to delete it or leave it up. I said that I wanted it left up because I believe in dealing with such things head on. I don't run and hide. It's just not my nature to do so. Several comments are encased in those three sentences and here are my thoughts. It is true that I do call people names but that happens only in the Classified section and usually when I am talking about a Seller. I do that for expediency because I often have to bang out quite a few posts in a day along with a lot of other duties on this site. In addition, I do have a life outside this forum so for me, time is often of the essence. If I have offended anyone with my propensity toward name-calling, I apologize. Calling some anonymous Seller who is asking $3000.00 for a $400.00 tractor an idiot gets the point across quickly.
The next statement was that this forum has gone to the crapper. Herm was asked to tell us where and when that happened. He has not done so. However, he did point a finger directly at me and implied that I was to blame. The next statement implies that I treat people as if they are somehow inferior to me. To be fair, this is a difficult medium to express oneself. Flat words on a flat screen can often be interpreted more than one way. There is no body language, eye contact, facial expressions or tonality of voice to give the reader additional clues as to where you are coming from. Those who know me well from other forums know that I deliver my information straight from the hip. It is done in a factual manner that sometimes includes sources to back up the veracity of my statements. My style certainly does not please everyone. That I do know. Whatever some people read into my style, that is their take on my words but I assure you, it is not my intention to talk down to anyone. As for the SHAME comment, I have this to say. I am far from ashamed that I chose Jack and Chuck as my partners to start this forum. I am not the slightest bit ashamed about what the entire Team on this site has built. I am not ashamed of all the people I know I have helped since 2004 and will continue to help. I am not ashamed of the words i use in the Classified section either. These are my opinions. Nothing more. Those reading them can either agree or disagree with them.
If you choose to disagree, then you are welcome to do so right here on this forum but in a civil manner that does not attempt to inflame the members or cause them to want to leave. I also expect you to bring facts to back up your position or you are just wasting both of our time.
After a considerable number of posts in the "Reply to Crusty" thread, none of which supported Herm's positions, Herm chose to create this thread and offer the membership the following.
spiritofT90 said:
In response to my post, I should have choosen my words better, I meant no disrespect to the members of this forum.
The remark from Tom about the price payed for wheel weights set me off, What I or anyone pays for any item is my choice. I now have a set of weigts that are no longer manufactuered. As a collector how does rim gaurd replace real weights. There is no relavance to how many weights a dealer sold as a set, the ad specified that there were two weights. The $200.00 price is not stupid if you need the item in question.
I waited to talk to Jack before posting this. In the future I will PM Jack with any problems.
Thank You;
herm
I have purposely refrained from commenting on the above for the past 24 hours to allow anyone else a chance to say their piece. My view of Herm's words are as follows. To me, this is fundamentally an explanation for his outburst. It is not an apology by any stretch of the imagination because it does not contain the word "apology" nor the word "sorry" . If you think differently, then that is your right to that interpretation. If you go back to my original thread of "e-Bay has made me crusty", you will not find a single thing contained in those posts that identifies Herm as the buyer of the cast iron wheel weights. For some time now, e-Bay has implemented new measures to permanently hide the true identities of all who bid on auction items. IF Herm wanted to keep this transaction private, then all he had to do was say nothing to anybody.
However, e-Bay is a public space that is seen world-wide. There is no expectation of privacy when it comes to what was for sale, how many bidders were involved or what the final price paid was. Therefore, all of those things are fair game for discussion and comment. I have said this many times before and I will say it again.. THIS forum is a learning site. If you are not interested in learning about these tractors, then perhaps this is the wrong forum for you. Unlike some forums who seem to feel "ownership" of their members, we view you as free agents with brains in your head. Come here if you like us. Go elsewhere if you don't. Therefore, as a learning center, I informed the members that a D-8 or D-10 wheel weight KIT was sold originally with 4 cast iron weights along with the mounting hardware. Like it or not, that IS relevant. If Case engineers concluded that a single pair of weights would make a difference to traction, then they would have marketed them that way.
Herm is a collector. So am I. Collectors look at things quite differently than the rest of you do. We are trying to preserve pieces of history for others to see. Some of us are quite anal about how we go about restorations. Everything must be exactly as it was when the tractor rolled out the factory door. Now....in fairness to Herm.... perhaps he already owned a pair of those D-8 weights and all he needed was one more pair to make up a perfect D-8 kit. If he wants to pay nearly $200.00 for that pair so he can complete a restoration, then that is his choice. But when I made that comment about $200.00 being stupid money for a single pair of weights, I did so in the context of an owner wanting to find more traction for his Lo Pro tractor. RimGuard offers far more bang for the buck and that's the point I was trying to make. We have over 1500 members registered on this site. I can guarantee you that we don't have 50 bona-fide collectors here. Therefore, the collector crowd represents a mere 3.3 percent of the membership and for the most part, my posts don't really interest them too much.
As such, Herm's earlier post pretty much astounded me because I couldn't understand why he was so upset. However, as it stands now, Herm has been given the opportunity to say whatever he wanted to say. I have taken the opportunity to respond to Herm's remarks. The matter is at an end. Life will go on for everyone. Because there is no plausible reason to debate any of this any further, I have decided to LOCK all three threads and let them slide into the archives. I thank all of you for your posts in the three threads. I thank all of you that continued to read them. If anyone has any further comment, you know where to find my PM and e-Mail buttons.
:thumbsup:
