86 replies to this topic

[m7mini]

If anyone else wants to go.................leave gracefully..........stop posting.........we have heard all the "stories".............I no longer wish to read about the in house (or other) claim/counter claims.

The man who set up this site has made his statement. Leave it as that.

If you dont like it, vote with your feet but dont harp on about it.

Whatever the intentions were it has done harm to individuals and maybee this site.

Please no more.


Dave

I agree, the site and the members are what they are..

If you dont like it then go

[Jinder]

one more for steve's quote... youre a popular lad boy!!

[johnyoung]

As another relatively new and confused member, can I suggest that these 'greivances' which I for one just haven't a clue what they are, are either resolved in a less public manner, or if they have to be aired, are done so in such a way as to be clear, understandable and answerable. It strikes me that the person being accused has no way of being able to address or defend himself from such vague innuendo, wespecially when 90% of us have no idea whay you are talking about. I believe that this is one of, or maybe THE best, funniest, most entertaining forums on the web. Perhaps some of the long standing members should give some of us newbies a chance to become long standing members too by getting this sorted. …or maybe we should have a new forum section entitled POLITICS… I for one would happily pay a reasonable annual subscription towards its upkeep, to access this site, and would be more than happy for the person running it to make a return. My company is a design agency that writes and maintains websites so I know just how much blood sweat and tears goes into running something like this. It is much easier to heckle from the sidelines than to play the game.

[Ducati996Senna]

I think about everything that needs to be said has been. I went to Donnington, I was with Skiddo and Stumpy, and a few others. I dont know what Thorney and Colin BLOWER did wrong. I do know that John got me and my son into the hospitality suite provided by Vauvxall for the Monaro. We watched the GT race from there and John seemed very suprised that the others hadn't joined us as he told them what he intended to do and where to meet. Lets move on and rather than keep posting just leave with grace and do your own thing.

[wickywire]

Everyone had gone by the time me, turboman and cheeky got there. We did find Thorney and cheeky had a nice cuppa tea. Found out we had missed the VXR monaro aswell which was a downer. It's a shame as me and Louise went for the racing and to meet new people. Then you find out that all this happened. However some of the remarks i can remember hearing at the time do make a lot of sense now and do fill the gaps regarding the comments that have been made on here such as the Colin Blower remark. Anyhow ducati, were you the person with the boy near the spitfire. Nice to meet you. This is what this club/forum should be all about.

[trescoman]

I'm with you Dave.

For F**** sake SHUT UP.

It's Thorney's site. He likes doing it. If he earns out of it then that's fine by me. All this sh*t has nothing to do with the car.

Go and squabble somewhere else.


Steve

couldn't agree more.

Seconded

Ditto that

Ditto.
Please if your'e not happy - go set up your own site/club/meets etc - just don't try to stir up dissent before you go!!!

I agree with Steve's quote.

Totally agree, leave this site alone !

[Jim_Cross]

I'm very much with Cheeky on this. I have concerns, I don't believe the members who are leaving are doing so through self interest. Just look at the members who have left, their positions within the community, and the contribution they have made over the past months. However, I don't intend to leave as for me the experience here is made by the other members and the community as a whole. I can't see that a second site will provide a solution - just two smaller communities with a lot of crossover, and it will be a lot harder to keep track of what's going on. But for those berating the people leaving, just stop and think for a while. I wish we could have transparency from those that are leaving, but with the talk of legal proceedings over allegations made, I guess they have to be very careful about what they say.

[Ricky2772]

VEX, can you pls stop this thread as well?!? if somebody has nothing better in life than SERIOUSLY consider legal proceedings over a car forum/club, that do so w/out pouring their corrosive bile on the VAST majority of the forum members. thousands of people are being killed and tortured around the world, are we are here wasting web-space and time talking about power-trips and pathetic money-issues.... nuf said.

[benw]

Well, should there be another 'Club' I will certainly be applying to join it regardless of who set's it up or runs it. I join a club primarily for it's members - everything else is secondary. I might have concerns about the way the club is run but I'm certain that won't lead me to leave the club, let alone start a public argument with the intention of upsetting everyone. I think we should learn from this past week. Next time anyone has a greivence please, for christs sake, have the balls to come out and say it so we can have sensible public discussion rather than start their own private army. Anyways, someone PLEASE lock this thread soon. The sooner we forget about it and move on the better.

[PaulCP]

Just got back from a weeks holiday to all this Seems to me that all involved need to meet to clear the air. Exchanging views via the forum/email will never solve anything and will only fuel confusion & mis-understandings. For gods sake arrange to meet and get it sorted!!!!!!!! Paul

[rubber]

Thread stopped

[Thorney]

Sorry Rubber, I don't mean to countermand your locking of this thread but I'm entitled to have my say. A lot has been said of me (all without evidence on any kind) and I've done nothing than openly answer any questions that have been asked of me. The initial thread that started this off was from Purebob basically asking for some changes....if you read that thread I said on page 1 that I fundamentally agreed and even suggested separate members and bank accounts etc. If the intention from these people was to effect change surely that was done back then. However 'they' have taken the opportunity to assasinate me publicly (again without any evidence). Lets go back in time a bit. Way back last summer some of you may remember there was a European meet. Stumpy kindly took along a couple of hundred quids worth of clothing to sell which he duely did. The meet was in June. After a few weeks I enquired of Stumpy what happened to the clothing and was ignored. He proceeded to ignore me for 3 months. Lo and behold at the September meet he approached me with £270 saying how sorry he was, considering he simply ignored 6/7 emails and PM's I guess he felt guilty as he said the extra £70 was 'to say sorry, put it toward the club funds'. I rejected this money saying it wasn't necessary and that I understood over the delay but Stumpy was insistant so I reluctantly agreed. This £70 makes up part of the £225 donated. Time passes on and at Hethel a very drink Stumpy literally acosts me accusing me of theft and fraud and there was no such thing as a server fund and no such server existed. I was obvioulsy upset by this and make this clear to several members there. To be accused of being a "fcuking liar" at the top of a clearly annihibrated Stumpy was not my idea of how to end our Christmas party. Several PM's then ensued where I offered to provide whatever evidence he wanted and even got Matt Taylor to send him an email attaching a copy of the server invoice and that I had written him a cheque for £500 were all ignored by Stumpy. Despite pressing for a resolution he simply ignored me so I considered the matter closed. We met again at Donington where I explained to Skiddo that I was still a bit raw at being called a liar and not getting an apology and Skiddo assured me he would keep the peace. Stumpy at that time was courteous, I wouldn't say friendly but as it was clear he still thought ill of me I didn't want to bring it all up again. The next thing I hear is that Stumpy has contacted 4 other members and arranged a secret meeting. The ostencible purpose for this meeting was to discuss the club, however when everyone arrived it became an agressive 'Thorney bashing session' and led to Purebobs post (which in theory was simply designed to elicit change). During this meeting no evidence was presented against me (and none has since been forthcoming). During the course of that thread I presented all the evidence in my defence (despite STILL not receiving any evidence or even accusations against me) and I received three emails from three members of that meeting. TWO MEMBERS members explained they felt they had been duped into the meeting and were 'set up' to somehow legitimise a personally derived attack on me by stumpy and a third expressed reservations as to the conduct. Of those three members, one has resigned and has asked that all these threads be deleted as he feels he has stupidly contributed to damaging the forum though being manipulated by anothers pent up anger. One member has offered to leave saying he was a terrible judge of character of these other 2 members and realises exactly who has been telling the truth and who has simply tried to manipulate him into getting their way. I refused his offer to resign/leave as I honestly believe he had no idea he was being manipulated until the evidence came out. The other member sent me an email saying he 'couldnt it good conscience have a beer with me unless he told me what happened' Do these sound like the accounts of people hell bent on changing the site/club? So, what do we really have? Basically Stumpy had pursuaded Skiddo that I'm Lucifer personified - that is the sum total of the issues, however what has really come about is the fact that people not knowing what is happening can lead to suspicion and that shouldn't happen to a club. I was waiting for Vex to come back with some kind of idea but I'm going to pre-empt that by suggesting the following. Firstly I still maintain I've done nothing wrong however people not having full transparancy is at best confusing and so we need to change. I propose we select/elect three people from the board to act as a membership committee. One of these members should be Membership, one, Treasurer and one Events. I am NOT proposing that I stand for any of these positions, however I DO propose at least one of these 5 members of this illicit meeting ARE selected. They attended a meeting in good faith (at least 3 possibly 4 of them did) and are not responsible for the actions of another. Regardless of my own personal suggestion all three of these people should be selected by the board. Despite these members different titles ALL should be involved in the planning, execution and financial detail of any event and any club merchandise. I will pass over responsibilty (and stock) of any and all club merchandise and any current event planning. I leave it open to the forum as to whether we have a separate bank account for the club, I am happy for Thorney Ltd to still book (and accept liability) for any events etc and as the financial detail of any event/deal will be open to these members (and by virtue of open posting on the board) all the members I am not exposed to further slanderous comments on my character. The site and forum will remain free, paid for by any profit the non club related merchandise and any advertising revenue it can generate. The end result is a VX220 Owners Club, run by a small committee of people selected by the board separate from the site.

[Thorney]

Oh and I think I know about the Colin Blower comment. As some here will know I was the one to organsied and solicited 2 VX220's from Vauxhall to give to Colin to set up the team. Since then I've tried to help (in an unpaid, enthusiasts way) the team in any way. As I know bugger all about fixing cars I tried to help financially by raising sponsorship. Colin I think thinks of me as a well meaning fan and nothing more, which is fine. However after a few meetings I managed to pursuade a corporate Sponsor to contribute £20,000 to the team. However a week before we were due to meet again to finalise details he receives an annoymous phone call saying he shouldn't sponsor the team as there are problems between the principals. Based upon this revelation he declined to invest a significant sum of money into something which had potential for internal conflict. I agreed with him. This potential sponsor was called on his mobile phone, I had only mentioned his name to one other person, I leave it to you who you think that is.

[Blanchie]

Yipes Thanks John for putting us in the picture. I actually understand WTF is going on now. I Know this isn't much i'm only another car feak, but you've got my support. Iain

[EX-VX]

just wanted to add my support, have john to thank for my carbon fibre. yes, there was a delay, but he didn't take any money until the whole lot was ready to ship, i have dealt with other shops/companies who would gladly have taken the money straight away. he kept me informed, answered my e-mails/pms, and offered support and advice for fitting. keep up the good work

[speedyK]

Of those three members, one has resigned...

One member has offered to leave...

The other member sent me an email saying he 'couldnt it good conscience have a beer with me unless he told me what happened'

Thank you for that, Thorney

A lot is clearer now and I feel the following needs to said:

On the basis of this info from Thorney, I would like to say that I feel the required transparency should no longer be a problem. Those members who felt compelled to leave have succeeded in their desired improvements and, though there has been a lot of unbecoming behaviour, we are surely all big enough (even at 5'6" in the case of one ) to put it down to experience. I would be delighted if they would reconsider their decisions. I am sure I am not alone in feeling that.

Let's get back to our regular business of eulogising about the VX, pontificating about the world in general and initiating entertaining – even outrageous – threads together.

Come on, guys – the VX world is too small for you to leave us!

Newbies may not appreciate what you have contributed and say, "Big deal – so what if they fcuk off!", but I'm sure I speak for many when I say I feel there is a place for you here.

How about it, Purebob? How about it, Skiddo? Come back and let's have fun together again!

[The Knobs]

I may be being cinnicle, but is it possible that the early members that are leaving, are possibly pissed off because the site has got so big that they do not feel important enough, or that they are not making a buck or two out of it? Also i think vauxhalls take on the matter is how much money will all this generate for them, do we really believe they give a sh*t about us vx owners. At the end of the day the vx was only produced to try and give vauxhall a better image! lets just enjoy our cars and meet up when we can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[speedyK]

early members ... pissed off ...not feel important enough,... ...not making a buck or two out of it?


vx was only produced to try and give vauxhall a better image!

Nothing wrong with a healthy cynicism, but WRT to these two members I'm sure you are as completely wrong as you are completely right about GM's reasons for commissioning the VX.

You would have to look hard to find more enthusisatic, non-selfserving people than Thorney, Purebob and Skiddo IMHO. Which is why they should all still be here.

[Thorney]

I have to defend Vauxhall here, what other car manufacturer gives a club a £5k trackday for free. What other manufacturer gives inside, pre-release information about the product. Stu brought the first ever VXT on the road along to NOMPTIES run . I have the same reservations over delaers as everyone here but I dont think we can criticise Vauxhalls support for the site in any way. By way of a comparison, as some here know I'm also a member of BM3W. BMW actually threatened to sue Matt if he didn't take down the BMW roundel off the site.