Members of SuSE Linux Forums,

Over the last few months, we've become more and more concerned about the erratic behavior of one of our cherished members, and one of the co-founders of the board, Vir@s. As the board membership grew, and the community became more diverse, some change became inevitable, as the staff grew and the responsibility of running such a vibrant community became heavier.

Recently, the staff has been divided in opinions over several issues, frequently with Vir@s on one side, and everyone else on the other. While this in itself is not of much concern, and with changing issues would most likely change, Vir@s' reaction to these disagreements has been extreme, emotional, and frankly, scary.

Of note, and the reason for this change, is his threat to shut down the forums by shutting down the server, and I quote from a post in the staff forums this week.


----begin quote----
post Jan 31 2005, 04:56 PM
IP: 80.108.185.239 | Post #21|


Code Monkey
Group Icon

Group: Banned
Posts: 2,744
Joined: 31-December 01
From: Vienna
Member No.: 1




You know what guys? You really suck - I'm out of here and so is the server. Good bye.
----end quote----


The following morning the servers were down for several hours and we were unable to communicate with Vir@s. We don't know for sure, but we think Vir@s was demonstrating his power, as he is the only person will full access to the server. Even allowing for the possibility this was a coincidence, the event has us worried, very worried, that in his current mental state Vir@s might do something to damage the community. The community is bigger than any one of us, and we believe should not exist at the whim of one person.

Therefore the rest of the Admin team has decided to move the server to a new host, to protect this community and the contribution it makes to the Linux community as a whole.

Beginning immediately, please redirect your browsers to:

www.suseforums.net to access the forums, which for a short time we will call SuSE Forums (New Version).

We fully expect Vir@s to object, and he may keep an instance of the forums up at his domain in protest, but each of you has to ask yourself if you want to be part of a community that values everyone's opinion and isn't controlled by one person, or a community that is controlled by one person who calls himself a dictator?



----begin quote----
Vir@s
post Today, 04:28 PM
Post #48


Code Monkey
Group Icon

Group: Super Admins
Posts: 2,768
Joined: 31-December 01

I already admited I'm a dictator. I mean you don't have to bring that up again.
----end quote----

Each of us must decide what type of community we want.

Sincerely,

kastorff
Shadow
69_rs_ss
Storm

D*mn,

I learned so much there.

Adler

Glad to have the new forum.

Well, that's all very confusing, but thanks for the heads up!

Immediately redirect my browser? Why has the forum I signed up to been removed?

Thats pretty presumptuous.

How does one go about stealing a whole database and the members who signed up without those members permission?

Seems also pretty disruptive to me, but -- hey -- what the heck.

That's the best SuSE Linux Forum that there is.

They'll be back. As far as I can tell it became an internal argument, not about content, but about service and hosting issues.

I'm not sure one could call it stealing. One of the co-founders is on one side of this, the other co-founder and the admins are on the other. 4 of the 5 domains point to the new host...only the domain the other co-founder owns still points to his server.

It's a mess, but we didn't start it. He had a temper fit this afternoon and started removing staff access to the forums...including the other co-founder. It wasn't really like anyone had a choice. He also refused to talk to us about a compromise solution we wanted to discuss.

Tough, but true.

Mere words cannot express the depth of feeling we are undergoing in these turbulent days. The truth on why the group split up needs to come to light.

http://nextgen.no-ip.org/~andrew/ForumSplit/index.html

Review the screenshots, and make a decision for yourself.

~~ Andrew D.
linuxnoob@wi.rr.com

PS: I have posted this on three forums -- LQ, forums.suselinuxsupport.de, and www.suseforums.net. May truth never be silenced.

Well I'm sad that you guys brought it even here.
I do not intend to fight a dirty war - if you can even call it war.

For me the sitation was that I got home after 11 hours of work and found myself in the wrong movie. I'm sad that you guys believe that with badmouthing about me you can start a community - but if that is what you intend to do - just go on.

A short comment about the post of andrewd18: At the moment of writing this thread a friend already informed me about the situation - hence my rude words and my sarcasm.

After discussing this at length with several individuals, I've come to the difficult decision that I will no longer participate at either forum, those forums being suseforums.net and suselinuxsupport.de.

I find this a very disturbing mess to return to after being gone for a few days. Frankly, no matter who is at fault or what exactly went on, this type of activity is not something I want to experience ever again. As many of you read, I initially sided with the staff at suseforums.net, but as more information came to me from various people about the whole ordeal, I don't feel that my time would be well spent at either location, when such a smell of chaos is in the air. Who knows what could happen next week, next month, etc.

Will the forums at either location experience another schism? Will there be another location? Will I have to adjust all my links at various places again and again if this sort of thing happens often or with server temp. locations?

And so, I have resigned as a moderator at both of the above mentioned forums and will no longer participate at either.

Thank you to all the kind people who have participated in the Latest Versions area, and to those who have thanked me in the forums and via PM, it's appreciated. I've enjoyed the time I spent on those forums, regardless of where they were hosted, but this is much too tiring for me.

Now that this has all been said, I wish all the admins, mods, and everyone on either forum the best of luck. Peace!

Sad to say, "No Man is an Island".

I've bookmarked the Forum @ www.suseforums.net.

Let's get back to helping the SuSE Learners community. AND get this off LQ.

Actually I did not want to discuss this topic any further, but as I got several requests from members, complaining about the fact that they are now registered at four more domains without their permission, I would like to give everyone the chance to write me an e-mail about their complain.

You can send an e-mail to me: viras@suselinuxsupport.de

I will collect all e-mails and bring them to the local costumer protection agency. They will take the further legal actions against the owner of the new domains.

I'm sorry that it got that far, and it was really not my intention to do that - but my inbox says other things.

You can find more information about it on the local homepage: http://www.arbeiterkammer.at/

Vir@s,

I speak fluent German. Your link -- http://www.arbeiterkammer.at/ -- is to the unemployment office.

Now, what is that suppossed to mean?

Well the Arbeitkammer is responsible for right protection of costumers (my member in this case) - what you mean is the AMS. Just because you speak it, it doesn't mean you understand it.

Actually as I understand it there were 2 co-owners. So if one co-owner took the database and made a new forum you cant do a damn thing about it. Because he is technically also an 'owner' and he has the right to do that. Having that sayed, the owners own all accounts on the forum, and the users cant do much about that..

[edit] Also your members are NOT customers. They are simply members at a bulletin board where they help other members and get help. They have no real legal status for their account (that depends on the country though).