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Old April 17th 2009, 12:03
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NO_H2O NO_H2O is offline
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Time to clear the air

I just got an email with a link to a thread that I view as a gross distortion of the truth about the re-birth of our Germanlook site/forums.

http://www.superbeetlesonly.com/foru...howtopic=10904
Below is a copy of the text in case the link does not work.

************************************************** ********

NOTICE:

The "German Look Forum" (that I created), which was a spin-off of the "Euro-Look" Forum (that I created) on STF after I helped Brian [last name not to be disclosed] create the STF because he was a Club SBO! member...

...the above said forum has now been hi-jacked by a group of people that worked against me instead of with me. The Team of Moderators here on SBO! have always worked with me but for some reason the "people" that were appointed Moderators on my German Look forum didn't perform as well as the ones here.

Here is the hi-jacked forum that I created, they can continue it because I never was against it going into their hands, they just didn't know how to do business negotiations correctly; but then again, I have a degree in Business Management and they do not:
http://www.germanlook.net

Also, you can join another one here:
http://www.germanlook.org/

That being said, SBO! is still going and the German Look forum is now "open source" (links below) to anyone that wants to start a German Look forum with the data provided below. You have my personal permission to download all of the data (data base, pictures, etc.) and start your own German Look forum with this data.

All you have to do is get a (free) PHP board and then take the vbulletin.sql database and convert/upload it to the PHP board. I ask nothing in return and wish all well with this hobby. The domain name (www.germanlook.com) has always been mine and always will be but the database belongs to the people.

Sincerely,
James "Supe"

http://www.germanlook.com/forums/ <----- get pictures here
http://www.germanlook.com/forums/vbulletin.sql <----- get database here
http://www.phpbb.com/ <----- get (free) PHP board here
http://www.phpbb.com/support/documen....0/quickstart/ <----- install PHP board here
http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=54908 <----- convert PHP board here

Have fun!!!

************************************************** ********
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Last edited by Sandeep; April 17th 2009 at 12:45.
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Old April 17th 2009, 12:22
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Bugorsh Bugorsh is offline
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OK so where is the gross distortion of the truth? I'm glad the GL forums are back too but Supe turned over the database to allow you to help get the forums back up sooner on GL.com and you took it and moved it to GL.net to create your own site. The former moderators would still have been moderators if it was on GL.com.
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Old April 17th 2009, 12:37
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NO_H2O View Post
...the above said forum has now been hi-jacked by a group of people that worked against me instead of with me.
How did we work against Superman ? Explain this one please. The fact is Superman tried to convert the original database to his preferred format, figured out it did not work as planned, and reached out for some help, on his terms and conditions.

The GL tuning site was his priority, not the forums ...

Quote:
Originally Posted by NO_H2O View Post
I have a degree in Business Management and they do not:
Why spew garbage on the internet about people you do not even know ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by NO_H2O View Post
That being said, SBO! is still going and the German Look forum is now "open source" (links below) to anyone that wants to start a German Look forum with the data provided below. You have my personal permission to download all of the data (data base, pictures, etc.) and start your own German Look forum with this data.
A great response from someone with a BM degree that has lost a potential client base of ~3000 people for his new business venture.

I see Superman is 'chums' with Topline John again, after slandering Topline's first to market product. Give me a break .... you can't fix burned bridges.

Sandeep
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Old April 17th 2009, 12:58
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Can you please talk to Superman and have DTMEngineering's link removed from that awful germanlook.com homepage.

Thanks

Sandeep
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  #5  
Old April 17th 2009, 13:03
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I'm sure there are details on both sides that will remain private. I thought VW owners were a special breed and tried to get along. I just think it could have been handled better by everyone involved.

Edit: I'll let him know about the link.
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Last edited by Bugorsh; April 17th 2009 at 13:10.
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Old April 17th 2009, 13:28
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NO_H2O NO_H2O is offline
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I wish I could have typed my second part fast enough to get it in before other posts were made.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bugorsh View Post
I'm sure there are details on both sides that will remain private. I thought VW owners were a special breed and tried to get along. I just think it could have been handled better by everyone involved.

Edit: I'll let him know about the link.
Yes it could have been handled better.

1st: Superman should have posted when questions were asked on other forums when germanlook went down instead of having someone else act as his spokesperson. This put you in a bad spot as you did not have all the facts.

2nd: He did not ask that the site remain on germanlook.com he said that the content belonged to the germanlook community but the domain name was his. He offered to hoast the site on his server but did not make that part of the deal. He was just looking to get everyone off his back. We came up with the plan to change the hoasting plan and domain name because the track record of hoasting it with him was very bad and putting all of the work needed into rebuilding the site would not be worth that risk.
I tried to contact him several times but he could not be reached and would not call back nor has he replied to my emails.

We tried to get this site up as fast as possible and stay within the agreement I had with Superman. For him to go back and change his tune now is poor form. I will keep the rest of my coments to myself.
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Last edited by NO_H2O; April 17th 2009 at 22:41.
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Old April 17th 2009, 13:18
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NO_H2O NO_H2O is offline
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I find this disturbing and will relay the facts as I know them.
I joined the original Germanlook site when if spun off of the Eurolook section of STF. I only recall Alex and Sandeep as the builders and admin staff of the site. I remember when life changes created the need for Alex and Sandeep to pass the site on to someone else. Zen stepped up to take the lead roll and cary the site on. The domain name registration was passed from Alex to Zen. Superman's name was not listed in that domain registration nor was he a part of that transaction. Years later family, life and work teamed up on Zen and he needed to hand the wheel to someone else as he did not have the time to dedicate to the site. Superman stepped in and the site admin and domain registration was passed to him. Many here know what happened to the site under Superman's watch. The site suffered several outages, the main landing page went down and never came back. All of the tech articles, galleries, member galleries, and links were dead and only the forums were reactivated. Then sometime after the first of the year the site went down again. Sometime later we were treated to a germanlook.com page the stated it would be an online store selling struts and other performance parts geared toward the Germanlook tunning crowd. There was no talk of the forums or main site content on that page. Threads on the Eurolook section of STF spured Superman to first contact Zen in an attempt to give the forums back or get Zen to fix them. Zen did not have the time to put the forums back togehter for Superman given the fact the work and family would not allow the time needed and germanlook.com by then was veiwed as damaged goods. Superman then called me and offered to turn over everything but the domain name germanlook.com so that I could get the forums back up and stop people from bashing him. I told him that I was not an IT guy and know nothing about building a forum site. Hell I don't know the difference between http and hmfic. It seemed to me at the time that Superman's reason to step into the admin roll at germanlook.com has to get control of the domain name.
A few calls from Superman later, he saw the Sandeep was ready to take his old backup, get a domain name and rebuild the site. He asked me to contact Sandeep and ask him if he would take the database and mainsite information and rebuild the site but again would not give up the domain name germanlook.com. Superman said that the domain name was his but the content of the forums and the site belong to the community that created it. Superman gave me a username and password for Sandeep to retreive the files needed. He then later called be back and said the the site COULD be hoasted on his (Superman's) server at the Germanlook.com domain name. By this time I had already contacted Sandeep and gave him the username and password and he downloaded the files and started to see what was needed to get them working. I told Sandeep that the site could be hoasted with Superman at germanlook.com. We talked with Zen, factored in the comments from all of the people (from the germanlook comunity) who had emailed us after reading the thread on STF and decided that given the history of the site while under Superman's watch and while living on his server, it would be best to hoast it on one of zenwebservices plans and secure a new domain name. I tried to call Superman and inform him of our plans but all of my calls went directly to a voicmail box that was not taking mesages at that time. Sandeep continued to repair the database and secured a hoasting plan to upload it to. I secured the domain name germanlook.net and soon after Sandeep had the forums up and running.
Superman called me one day later (Wed. April 14th) while I was sleeping (I work the midnight shift) and left a voicemail stating that he was glad the forums back up and that was all he wanted all along. There were some other personal comments that I will keep to myself but that was the content of the voicmail. I again tried to call him back but got the same inactive voicmail box.
Then I get a link to this thread on SBO. I knew better than to waste my time posting this on SBO only to have him delete it. I can't beleive that he clings to his statment that germanlook was created by him when we all know who built it, He also told me that the domain name germanlook.com always belonged to him when I know that it was controlled by Alex and then Zen before Superman. I also can't believe he now says the forums/site were hi-jacked after he said the site content belongs to the community that built and used it and he gave us the username and password to get the files to rebuild it. I don't know how many times he told me the he has a degree in business managment with a minor in accounting. He claims that he is a great businessman. I am still trying to grasp the business plann of creating a store to serve the small germanlook community and set out to piss that community off before you are get it open for business. I now have my opinion of who and what Superman is but I will keep that to myself. I do want everyone to know how the events that brought us here unfolded and for everyone to know the truth. I am sure that Zen and Sandeep will confirm my account of the history of both the .com and .net germanlook sites.
I hope that Superman will stop tryng to say that we hi-jack the files when most view him as the hi-jacker of the community we all built.
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Last edited by NO_H2O; April 17th 2009 at 17:07.
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  #8  
Old April 21st 2009, 15:35
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NO_H2O View Post
I find this disturbing and will relay the facts as I know them.
I joined the original Germanlook site when if spun off of the Eurolook section of STF. I only recall Alex and Sandeep as the builders and admin staff of the site. I remember when life changes created the need for Alex and Sandeep to pass the site on to someone else. Zen stepped up to take the lead roll and cary the site on. The domain name registration was passed from Alex to Zen. Superman's name was not listed in that domain registration nor was he a part of that transaction. Years later family, life and work teamed up on Zen and he needed to hand the wheel to someone else as he did not have the time to dedicate to the site. Superman stepped in and the site admin and domain registration was passed to him. Many here know what happened to the site under Superman's watch. The site suffered several outages, the main landing page went down and never came back. All of the tech articles, galleries, member galleries, and links were dead and only the forums were reactivated. Then sometime after the first of the year the site went down again. Sometime later we were treated to a germanlook.com page the stated it would be an online store selling struts and other performance parts geared toward the Germanlook tunning crowd. There was no talk of the forums or main site content on that page. Threads on the Eurolook section of STF spured Superman to first contact Zen in an attempt to give the forums back or get Zen to fix them. Zen did not have the time to put the forums back togehter for Superman given the fact the work and family would not allow the time needed and germanlook.com by then was veiwed as damaged goods. Superman then called me and offered to turn over everything but the domain name germanlook.com so that I could get the forums back up and stop people from bashing him. I told him that I was not an IT guy and know nothing about building a forum site. Hell I don't know the difference between http and hmfic. It seemed to me at the time that Superman's reason to step into the admin roll at germanlook.com has to get control of the domain name.
A few calls from Superman later, he saw the Sandeep was ready to take his old backup, get a domain name and rebuild the site. He asked me to contact Sandeep and ask him if he would take the database and mainsite information and rebuild the site but again would not give up the domain name germanlook.com. Superman said that the domain name was his but the content of the forums and the site belong to the community that created it. Superman gave me a username and password for Sandeep to retreive the files needed. He then later called be back and said the the site COULD be hoasted on his (Superman's) server at the Germanlook.com domain name. By this time I had already contacted Sandeep and gave him the username and password and he downloaded the files and started to see what was needed to get them working. I told Sandeep that the site could be hoasted with Superman at germanlook.com. We talked with Zen, factored in the comments from all of the people (from the germanlook comunity) who had emailed us after reading the thread on STF and decided that given the history of the site while under Superman's watch and while living on his server, it would be best to hoast it on one of zenwebservices plans and secure a new domain name. I tried to call Superman and inform him of our plans but all of my calls went directly to a voicmail box that was not taking mesages at that time. Sandeep continued to repair the database and secured a hoasting plan to upload it to. I secured the domain name germanlook.net and soon after Sandeep had the forums up and running.
Superman called me one day later (Wed. April 14th) while I was sleeping (I work the midnight shift) and left a voicemail stating that he was glad the forums back up and that was all he wanted all along. There were some other personal comments that I will keep to myself but that was the content of the voicmail. I again tried to call him back but got the same inactive voicmail box.
Then I get a link to this thread on SBO. I knew better than to waste my time posting this on SBO only to have him delete it. I can't beleive that he clings to his statment that germanlook was created by him when we all know who built it, He also told me that the domain name germanlook.com always belonged to him when I know that it was controlled by Alex and then Zen before Superman. I also can't believe he now says the forums/site were hi-jacked after he said the site content belongs to the community that built and used it and he gave us the username and password to get the files to rebuild it. I don't know how many times he told me the he has a degree in business managment with a minor in accounting. He claims that he is a great businessman. I am still trying to grasp the business plann of creating a store to serve the small germanlook community and set out to piss that community off before you are get it open for business. I now have my opinion of who and what Superman is but I will keep that to myself. I do want everyone to know how the events that brought us here unfolded and for everyone to know the truth. I am sure that Zen and Sandeep will confirm my account of the history of both the .com and .net germanlook sites.
I hope that Superman will stop tryng to say that we hi-jack the files when most view him as the hi-jacker of the community we all built.
Wow, I'm really glad you wrote that, my fingers are sore just thinking about it. I might not have been around from the very very beginning either, but this post is EXACTLY how I remember it all going down as well, but again I wasn't there from the very beginning. It's becoming more and more evident to me that James has taken a wrong turn somewhere, and hearing about his academic accomplishments and seeing how things are unfolding at the same time is only cementing my thoughts. I don't think James is a bad person at all, it just seems like his ego might be getting the better of him. I hope things do work out for him regardless, the community needs active people with passion regardless of the motivation.

Jason
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Old April 17th 2009, 13:30
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Thanks, it is nice the hear both sides of the story.
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Old April 17th 2009, 13:48
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NO_H2O NO_H2O is offline
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At this point I do not care what he thinks. 4 of us were in on this and 3 of us have the same story to tell. 1 of us F@*&ed the site up like a soup sandwich then acted like he wanted to work together to bring it back. and the other 3 worked together to try to bring it back with the help of the community it serves. Then the 1 who F@*&ed the site up in the first place wants to slander the 3 that fixed it because he doesn't like the way it was fixed after it was fixed the way he had in mind when we talked on the phone the first time.
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Old April 17th 2009, 13:58
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I was not trying to make a snide comment, I genuinely thank you for posting your side of the story. I like the get all the info I can and yours provides the other point of view that was missing.
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Old April 17th 2009, 14:16
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NO_H2O NO_H2O is offline
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I believe you. All I ask of you is to tell Superman to pull his act together. His post on SBO is way out of line. I'm sure you can figure it out. I'm sure your powers of observation are good.
Also tell him to get the link to my website off his website. I do not want to be linked to him in any way. I have emailed him several times over the last few days about it and like my many phone calls, my emails are without responce. This coupled with his post has pissed me off.
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Old April 17th 2009, 14:24
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Sorry for turning this thread to something personal to me. I started it to inform our members of what Superman was trying to start and the history related to it. It is ment to post the true story of this site and what brought us to this point. If I have any errors in my story, please let me know.
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Old April 17th 2009, 14:30
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Great post Dave.

There is a record of the comments made on Shoptalk forums. We provided a plan of attack for all to view in getting the forums up, and I can tell you, I had NO cooperation from Superman.

Had he provided the client # and password for the VBulletin licence when I needed it (not when he decided to provide it, at his convenience), this site would have probably been running on his servers. The maintainability may have been in question, but the forums would have been up and running.

I want to make it clear that I never did receive the licence or client # / password from Superman. I did receive a long-winded email from him but do not wish to disclose what the conversation was about.

Lets see if Superman has the BALLS to post his version in this thread. I can assue you it will not be moderated.

Sandeep
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Old April 17th 2009, 14:23
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I will pass that info along the next time I talk to him.
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