MINI Forum Wars
 

In days past, long before some of us here now were around the MINI scene, there was fracture in the MINI Cooper forum world. This forum that many of us call NAM was joined by Motoring Alliance (MA) when one of the NAM Admins at the time created his own site. It did get ugly and there was allot of issues here with posts being deleted, threads being closed and many that had migrated to Motoring Alliance being banned here. The Admins/Mods at the time that were all volunteers put blocks in place so no links to Motoring Alliance dot com could be seen.

NAM is owned by Internet Brands (IB), a multi-billion dollar company that owns over 130 different auto/marine/rv/motorcycle forums. IB purchased NAM in 2008 with Motoring Alliance being created in 2009. From older posts it appears that a "little guy vs the big bad corporation thing" was an underlying theme. I too would have thought the same thing and even after becoming a Moderator here little over a year ago, I continued to think something similar, that "IB called all the shots." Why would a big company allow a bunch of volunteers with no stake in the "business" run the thing? Simple, because they realized that services provided by volunteers that do so because they really care are hard to duplicate even when paying somebody. Yes, IB keeps the servers going but the Members run the place. This was very evident when IB asked for the second time that the Forum open up the Off Topic area to politics and religion. I started a poll type thread and it was evident that the members here did not want this change. So much for IB calling the shots.

I started this post noting that some of us were not around when the fracture occurred. I am one of those. I also became a Motoring Alliance member early last year looking for engine mod information. I drifted away when it was evident MA did not have the traffic that NAM has. Since MOTD I have gone back and taken another look. Posts are still no where near what we have here at NAM but there is some good MINI discussions going on over there. I got a good chuckle about a guy that had been run off the road by several "roos", he was an Aussie.

So back to the NAM/MA thing. Allot of time has gone by, many of those directly involved are no longer around. I met some of the MA members at MOTD. Just like many members here, they enjoy their cars and enjoy sharing their experiences with other MINI owners. I also heard some crappy comments and although I did know the person, did not know whether the person was a MA member, some of the words spoken were very similar to a recent post on that forum. Bad blood appears to still exist.

I am not talking about getting the groups "back together" but rather wondering whether it is in the members best interest that we co-exist on a better standing, a "MINI Alliance".

What are your thoughts on the matter? Do we remove the Motoring Alliance block removed? Are there NAM members that still harbor grudges from years past?

Back then, Nathan was the guy before IB. I recall a hand full of voices who could be pretty darned acerbic who began to chafe at some of the 'rules' put in place by IB. That was the beginning of Nathan deciding to create *** if I recall. There was a handful of individuals over there that had and expressed strong opinions over what they deemed to be appropriate input to that forum. When Gen 2 came along - and even more so - Gen3, those diehards couldn't let go. As they saw it the Classic and Gen 1 were the only true Minis/MINIs and that BMW destroyed their ideal by moving away from what Issigonis invisioned. I drop in on *** occasionally but make sure not to leave anything behind. I have always been amused at NAM's penchant for blocking reference to *** as I felt it had the appearance of silly jealousy. I see a lot more openness towards MINI initiates seeking help/information on NAM than on the other. There's a couple of guys over there that can be outright rude. If you know them, you'll hand it right back but those that don't are put off in the extreme. My suggestion is to let sleeping (or the appearance of sleeping) dogs lie. The *** filter seems a little silly, you never know when something of value could accidentally be shared back and forth.

See? Every where I keyed in 'Mike/Alpha', little stars show up. Just seems silly.

If I put in a link to their site it gets changed, www.********************* but if I type Motoring Alliance there is no issues.

I have gone back through the records here and cannot find anything where IB told anybody to put up certain rules, do certain things etc.

I vote I don't care. I have the same interest in MA as I do in the royal wedding. That site has very little traffic and even less than that for F cars or R60's. And then we also have that other side of the pond site that actually have a bunch of moronic posters who harassed me for a comment I made. Never went back.

I was around in those days and am a M...A guy. I met Whine not Walnuts at the Dragon, good guy. I am not going to rehash the past, it is gone. Fly'n Brick is right we do have a strong personality or two, you just have to give them what they give. That aside.

The forum has a new owner, Sully. He is a really great car guy. He is very interested making some positive changes. I have been helping with the sight and we have talked a lot about what needs to be changed. We have a bunch of great people like you do here. I drop by here but don't post much. I would like that to change. We don't want to draw anyone away but want all of you to feel welcome if you drop by. If you do come by and have a problem send Sully or I conversation(thats like your PM) and it will be addressed.

I want to thank Whine not Walnuts for starting a dialog with us. I don't care who owns NAM I do care about the greater Mini community. Our two forums will always have their own flavor and thats a good thing. I hope together we can build a stronger community for the cars we all love.

Wait what you didn't get up to watch the royal wedding?:lol:

Yes we are much smaller than you guys. We are trying to get more F content. Agin we don't want to draw anyone away from here, we are just interested in making our place friendlier.

Maybe poorly worded. There were some rancorous feelings expressed by a few diehards about the new regime that were totally unnecessary. As MCS02 puts it, there is no value in revisiting what is down stream but there is value of being aware so that history is not repeated.

I believe a man named Santayana said something very similar.

I would rather spend some time at Motoring Alliance than on some FB page. Actually had fun the other night bouncing from NAM to MA as with both forums there was good stream of posts coming in.

I check in on Mike/Alpha several times a day. Some good info over there, especially on 1st and 2nd Gen cars. I've been a member of both sites for about the same amount of time, but lean more to NAM because of more 3rd Gen info. Sully, the new owner of Mike/Alpha is going/trying to change that. I plan to assist him when I can by posting some 3rd Gen content on both sites. I met Sully, MCS02, Goldsmithy and others at MOTD and surprise, surprise! They are great guys. I look forward to the two sites improving relationships. IMO it would be to the benefit of all members, of both sites.

No FB for me. Nobody should use FB unless they are ok with the selling of your personal info to nefarious users.

OK who did what is all well and good...but the future is now upon us. I suggest that we make it onward and upward from here. BTW, great post OP

And by the way, the moderators here and myself are all volunteers. We have no stake in Internet Brands or NAM and receive no compensation for doing what we do here. We gain nothing from any type of alliance other than the hope that the NAM community benefits.

I have been a member of both sites and have about the same number of posts at each site. I think any blocking and censorship is just plain silly and I'd like to see it stopped.

I'm very new here and this post is the first I've heard of dueling forums. I would argue for removing the restrictions regarding naming or linking to the other forum. First, it seems a little silly. Second, in general I think openness and a lack of censorship are preferred to the alternative. Just my opinion.

^ this. What's past is past. Time to move on..

The advantage of forums is the access to years of information and limiting that by censoring other sources of Mini info doesn't make sense to me. Put me in the "remove the block" camp.

I agree the name link blocks should end

If anyone here is able to change my user I’d from Chili_Mini_PA to Dave.0 on NAM I would be very great full .

Try Dave.O with a capitol O not the zero.


Best I can do for now.


And great looking Gen1

That works for me, thanks. It’s not like most people with R53 don’t know me. :lol:

Well thank you WNW for all the volunteer work you do.

I find this site quite educational & entertaining .

Are we allowed to mention this forum https://www.*********************/fo...rough-r61.557/ now?