Why did you delete the threads?

[AFTICA]

Moving this to a private PM first to as I am unable to delete it.

PM sent to:
brewmaster15

[Kindredspirit]

Xporta~

I do not think there were deleted, per se' , only moved to the appropriate section....




Marie!http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/3/3_10_3v.gif

[Dave C]

Ok, after reading all of the posts by Kumar I don't get it. I am in the process of trying to purchase some fish from this man. I was looking at the photos that he had posted on this forum while a sponsor. I assume he is no longer a sponsor because of a disagreement about his posts. But is that a reason to delete/remove these threads completely? If they're aren't removed can someone please guide me to them?

If a sponsor stops being a sponsor does that mean the forum mods go back & remove all of the threads that he posted regarding his fish for sale? If so I assume you refunded more then a pro-rata part of his sponsorship fee... by that I mean if I post pics of my fish, as a sponsor, for 6 months and then stop being a sponsor I assume I'd work a deal whereby I'd get 1/2 of my annual sponsor fee back. But if the pics & threads I posted while a sponsor are removed then I think I'd get back the entire fee for the year since I'm not getting to keep online what I worked hard at posting & paid for. I know many will say that Kumar should just repost the pics on his website, and I assume he'll do that. But it takes a lot of time to set up a thread like the one he did and that time is now wasted.

If this forum is truly for the benefit of the hobbyist then I, as a hobbyist who is thinking about buying from this former sponsor, feel like the needs/feelings of the forum administrators are being placed above the needs of the hobbyist who read the forum. How is the hobbyist being served by removing these threads?

[Kindredspirit]

Hey Dave~

I am sure you know more of what you speak than myself, but I think all his photos are in Photo Section or the Sponser Section. I think that is where I viewed them recently~

When i first joined Simply, I was posting in all the wrong places! They were moving my threads/posts to the correct place. I wasnt upset at all, I just felt dumb! LoL!!

I am sure there is more to this than we know and probably is none of our business~


I really think Kumar's photos are in the Photo Section and itz not that far, really! Why do you sound so angry lately? Come on.....please?





Marie~http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_11_7.gif

[Dave C]

They are not in either the photo or sponsor section. At least I can't find them. I don't believe he is a sponsor anymore.

I haven't seen football shapped fish or pointy noses, but given the pics are gone I'm not sure how I could argue this point. I don't recall anyone saying anything but nice things about any of the pics when they were posted. And I am not angry in the least. None of the online forum stuff ever makes me angry, it might make me wonder what the heck is going on, but never angry. If anything, your statement about football & pointy noses seems out of line. I thought there were rules about that sort of thing on this forum. It seems like when a supposedly valued member of this forum leaves or ceases to be a sponsor the gloves come off... at least that's what that comment tells me. Unless you posted your opinion of his football/pointy nosed fish before this member left as a sponsor.

[AFTICA]

The threads in the sponsors forum were actually deleted. I agree with you Dave. I did move my exact comments to a PM to the forum owner - but needless to say I am very disapointed in this action myself.

[Dave C]

I understand why you removed your post and sent a PM instead. But there are 5000+ members on this board... should they all have to send a PM to find out what happened & how it served the interests of the Discus hobbyist? I'm just confused and had I paid money for the privilege of being a sponsor I'd be ticked that my posts that were made while I was a sponsor were deleted.

[Kindredspirit]

They are not in either the photo or sponsor section. At least I can't find them. I don't believe he is a sponsor anymore.

I haven't seen football shapped fish or pointy noses, but given the pics are gone I'm not sure how I could argue this point. I don't recall anyone saying anything but nice things about any of the pics when they were posted. And I am not angry in the least. None of the online forum stuff ever makes me angry, it might make me wonder what the heck is going on, but never angry. If anything, your statement about football & pointy noses seems out of line. I thought there were rules about that sort of thing on this forum. It seems like when a supposedly valued member of this forum leaves or ceases to be a sponsor the gloves come off... at least that's what that comment tells me. Unless you posted your opinion of his football/pointy nosed fish before this member left as a sponsor.




Dave~


I apologize, I hadnt really thought about the impact of that statement....I was thinking out loud I guess....I have or had no idea that Kumar left or did leave. How would I know that? I edited that post just now~


I was sure I saw a whole bunch of his photos somewhere, after they were moved.. Perhaps they were not the same of which you speak~





Marie~:angel:

[Don_Lee]

OK, let's give this a bit of time before we let it become some kind of big issue. I was not aware of the posts being deleted, but I can verify Kumar will not be a sponsor here anymore. If you want to see his fish, perhaps he has a website or you could email him and ask for the pics to be sent to you. Let's not let this become a big negative thread, just give us some time and we will be able to explain why the posts were deleted.

[candyl70]

I think that there is definatley more going on than we know about, and that is ok. We are just hobbyiest, and the pollitcs that are involved on this site don't really concern us. It's not our business. If someone wants to continue to do business with Kumar, then a pm would be the appropriate action. Isn't that why pm's were created?

I wish Kumar the best in his business. And i would like to say thanks to the mods who are working hard to keep Simply a great site. They do what they have to, and we may not know all the issues that are being disscussed. So let's show them some respect and wait to see what it is that they are going to share with us.

Candy

[AFTICA]

Don Lee;

Please check your PM -

[Barb Newell]

Dave, no I don't believe that Kumar is no longer a sponsor here. I think we can all see that because Sponsor's names are in green and say sponsor. I guess my suggestion to you would be, ask Kumar and if you have further questions, send a pm to Al.


What I can say, Sponsors have rules to abide by, there must be mutual respect for other sponsors, members, etc..... and if any of us repeatedly violate the rules and expectations, our Sponsorship will be revoked. When becoming a sponsor, the rules are layed out, for all of us.

I guess that's life.... there are rules for everyone, everywhere... no exceptions.

The right to enforce these rules, is the right of the gentleman who created this board for us! Without rules, Simply Discus would not be the board that it has grown to be.

May I suggest again, that you might ask Kumar what has happened? rather than throwing it around here? searching for answers from other members who have no idea seems meaningless.

That will only cause chaos and confusion! and how many of us choose to create chaos over gathering information from the individuals who have it?

A Private Message to Al (the owner) may also help answer some of your questions. I am sure he will discuss what he chooses to discuss with you around this issue.

If purchasing fish, you must know how to contact Kumar, if looking for pics of strains, he has a website as do the rest of us selling our fish.

Barb

[Dave C]

I was unaware that asking questions caused chaos. I do know Kumar's website, I also knew he was not a sponsor, I thought that was obvious from my first post. I was unaware of the reasons why he was removed and was not enlightened by asking him, since I don't believe it was his decision to be removed. Much of this was played out in public on these boards so it made sense to publicly ask what was up. Therefore I was gathering information for my own understanding. I will search elsewhere for answers rather then further fuelling the chaos.

[Barb Newell]

I was unaware that asking questions caused chaos.

Hi Dave, no asking questions does not cause chaos IF there are people who can answer them, what I am saying is that the people who have the answers are Kumar, and Al and.... if a sponsors sponsorship is revoked, no it's not our decision.

It wasn't supposed to be played out on the public boards.


Copied and pasted from this thread;
http://forum.simplydiscus.com//showthread.php?t=45868

Kumar,
I have opened this thread to reply to you. I have been ill for the last month and in my absence the sites moderators have done their best to carry this board as if they were me. That is what I expect of them and they have not let me down in any way. One of my sponsors has.

I asked you to be patient while I looked into things reguarding you as a sponsor multiple issues about you that had transpired. ...and that I would get back to you as soon as I could. Thanks for waiting a few days! After reading everything and now seeing this BS.. I have a very good understanding of whats going on. and I am not thrilled with this.

You have not been treated unfairly and I do not appreciate the allegations that you have been.. If you are not happy as a sponsor here, I explained that I would gladly refund your sponsorship pro-rated. I personally feel you have abused your sponsor status repetively and I am tired of it. Abide by the rules of this site or leave. Accept the decisions of the moderators or appeal it privately if you have an issue...I expect sponsors to act a level above the rest of the board in all aspects of their dealings here. I made that clear to you and all sponsors when you signed on.
Though we rely on sponsor fees to help pay for this site..I would take a second mortage on my home before I deal with anymore BS like this.

This matter is closed as far as public discussion and should never have taken place on the forum.

-al
__________________

Owner ...Simplydiscus.com

Please support the website that supports you


Barb

[Dave C]

I understand that Barb. Sometimes when a member of a forum asks a question like this of the other members they're asking because they want to get a feel for how the other members feel about what has happened. In this case I was curious if other members of SimplyDiscus felt that Kumar was harshly judged. I know you want a harmonious site and that does not include discussion of decisions made by the owners/moderators of the site, but it's human nature to question authority when you feel that a decision has been made that is not in the best interest of the community. My intent was not to stir up controversy, but to ask the members if they were aware that Kumar had been removed as a sponsor, and that some of his threads had also been removed, and what the members thought about that. I understand now that this type of discussion is not desirable and I will stop asking these questions.

[candyl70]

Dave,
I don't think that the questions themselves are stirring up anything exactly,
but what i believe is that as members of the site and hobbiests that are not sponsors, etc. we just have to trust that Al and the others have made a decision and that we don't need to know the details. Kumar must have violated some of the sponsors rules, and as a consequence was removed as a sponsor.

I am sure there are other factors that helped Al make his decision, but again,
its not really our business. After all, its Al's website and he will conduct his business as he sees fit. We just have to trust his judgement. I don't think what other members think about this topic matters a whole lot because we don't have all the facts. Was it a shame? Maybe so, maybe Kumar should have taken that into consideration when he did whatever it was that he did to be taken off the sponsorship team.


Candy

[Ryan]

I will make this very simple.

SimplyDiscus is not focused on commercial breeders or importers. They are offered sponsorships here, but sponsorships come with conditions. When conditions are not met or ignored by a sponsor, they are warned. If they fix it, there's no problem. If they don't, you don't have to be a sponsor here anymore. This should not come as a surprise to any sponsor, because this all perfectly outlined to them before signing on here.

You said a majority of this played out publicly on the forum but you are incorrect. A majority of this has been playing out over the period of a couple weeks via IM. Bringing it to the public forum, I suppose, was what you could call a last straw. The reason being because it had nothing to do with the public, and it had no reason to become a public matter. In my opinion, dragging April into that post was only trying to make the board look bad. And by the way, April had nothing to do with any of it, so to single her out was premature and based on assumption anyway.

Look at the sponsor section -- there are 20 sponsors here (excluding Al) and there haven't been issues with anyone else. Sponsorship on any privately owned website is a privilege. We don't have to accept sponsorships from anyone. The sponsor in question was given a chance, and it didn't work out. Case closed. If you have any questions about it, you can IM Kumar, myself, or Al.

Ryan