Tom
TS Member
Benedique said:I'd just like to clear this up, as ex team members are remaining professional and polite over the whole thing. There have been many issues in the past and as somebody has said, this seems to be the straw that broke the camel's back. The following views are completely my own conclusions and I'm not representing any ex team member with anything that I say. These are views that I have formed myself from things that I have witnessed firsthand during my three years on TTF.
As has already been said the ex team put their heart and soul in to the forum, I even know that Craig (he's not alone but just as an example) has stayed up for 24 hours solid (and now gone to work for a 12 hour shift) just so he could ensure, along with others, that the teams leaving statement was finalised rather than leaving you all without an explanation.
I don't mean to drag the person into this but Chris-TT added somebody to the team overnight without telling anybody. That person was given access to everything on the forum including team topics that contained sensitive information and discussion. Usually the adddition of a team member is discussed fully and team topics are vetted before that member is given access. Over 30 people applied for a team position, many of whom have spent years contributing daily to discussion and many had spent hours on their applications. (Again no offence to the person involved) somebody was added to the team without any discussion, decision or otherwise from the team (the people who have built and maintained this site for years). It's my understanding, and again I'm not speaking on their behalf just giving my understanding of it, that the team offered to discuss the issue with Chris however they were told more or less to just deal with it.
If the team don't put their foot down, where is the line drawn? Just because somebody pays for a site and contributes little else to it, does it give them the right to undermine the decisions of a team and do whatever they like? I myself have seen posts by Chris on Twitter hinting at selling TowersTimes in the past, that's not to say that he would, but it's hardly the solid and safe community that team members have spent years creating.
Every news article that you read on here has been written by an ex team member, every link you click has been coded by an ex team member. They are the people who have spent hours and hours of their own time creating a community, I guess they have all decided that they want to protect their work and they don't want just anybody (not a dig at the person involved) to be added to the team without some kind of say, nor do they want the fear of the website being sold to somebody who could completely destroy their hours of hard work. In a nutshell the team seem to have taken the decision to be a 'team' and to govern their own hard work.
It seems an extreme example but how would you feel if a friend invited you to live in their house? You spend years decorating it/cleaning it every single day for your friend to then hint at selling it and also, move someone else in without consulting you. You probably don't mind living with them but it's not the point, imagine waking up to find a stranger wandering around your house with access to your bedroom and belongings. When you query It with your friend you're told to basically deal with it as you don't have an option. As far as your concerned, it's your home and it's your hard work that's gone in to making it what it is. Wouldn't you say enough is enough and move out in to a home that you own yourself, if you were given the option? No threat of eviction, no worries about hard work being destroyed, no waking up to find strangers wandering around?
The announcement thread was just deleted again so I'd like this on record here:
Thank you for that detailed explanation.
My original post in this topic stated how it seemed based on the information available.
People said I didn't know everything and that is certainly correct, but you have to consider how all this came across to many people (probably a majority in all honesty - think of the lurkers).
I apologise for nothing but given that all of the insults towards me, on here, in the chat and shout boxes were all started by others first. Some people really do need to take a step back and look at how over-emotional they are towards someone they have never met. I didn't have the whole story and yes, for those smart enough to realise, I was playing devil's advocate.
Thanks again