Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

It's interesting reading, but TBH I think were pretty close to a solution, so I'm not that much bothered about more mud slinging.

Personally, I want to get this put in the past and enjoy the rest of the forum.

So, I'm a bass player in the uk and never looked at that forum until today so I think it's fair to say this won't effect RIC one iota!

I did go on and read the thread though and I can only apologise for the plethora of ignorant British bass players that exist on there!

As another Uk based bassist, I have to agree with Dr Rick.

The really funny thing about that thread is the way they bang on about how influential their 26,000 members are, and how apparently nobody in the UK will ever buy a Rickenbacker again. They seem to have overlooked the fact that a whole 171 of them have actually voted for their big ban (and I dare say hardly any of them were ever going to buy a Rickenbacker). The truth is that less than 1% of their membership actually care enough to vote.

johngh wrote:It's interesting reading, but TBH I think were pretty close to a solution, so I'm not that much bothered about more mud slinging.

Personally, I want to get this put in the past and enjoy the rest of the forum.

Neither of you have read this have you.

It's unfortunate that they chose to omit some of the e-mails and, in particular, those from the previous incident that began this "dialog".

Rather than further waste this forum's space and annoy those that don't have any interest anyway, I've posted the COMPLETE set of e-mails here, with no commentary:

http://www.rickenbacker.com/basschat.txt

It took 11 exchanged emails to take care of the latest infringement, while the earlier ones clocked in at 8. With everyone else, it's over and done with two- one to point out the infringement and one to confirm that action has been taken.

Those first e-mails really show the truculence and delaying tactics which served to make me less polite or accommodating than I might have been otherwise.

Beyond that there's a couple of mysteries to me.

First is their guidelines which state:

The golden rule to being a community member on Basschat.co.uk is to BE RESPECTFUL AND CONSIDERATE to your fellow Basschatters. That also means in particular no bullying, no baiting of Administrators or Moderators, no antagonising and no insults or any other kind of obnoxious or anti-social behaviour.

Quite obviously this applies quite literally only to actual members of the board and their friends but insults and obscenities directed to others is quite acceptable.

Second is, to me, validation of the axiom "Two great peoples separated by a common language". I write or respond to emails with Americans and member of many other cultures and rarely have any negative response, in in fact in many cases, I get thanks. But very often dealing with folks from the U.K. I get back angry, rude and antagonistic replies. I reread what was sent and simply don't see what could possibly be the problem with what I said. I have some theories about this and many of my close English friends have concurred- but for our purposes here, let's just say that there are still vast cultural differences at play for better or worse.

johngh wrote:It's interesting reading, but TBH I think were pretty close to a solution, so I'm not that much bothered about more mud slinging.

Personally, I want to get this put in the past and enjoy the rest of the forum.

That's news to me, especially since I communicated as requested about 48 hours ago and have had no response.

The only changes I note are that the moderators locked the thread in question there and limited viewing of it to members only.

johnhall wrote:

johngh wrote:It's interesting reading, but TBH I think were pretty close to a solution, so I'm not that much bothered about more mud slinging.

Personally, I want to get this put in the past and enjoy the rest of the forum.

That's news to me, especially since I communicated as requested about 48 hours ago and have had no response.

The only changes I note are that the moderators locked the thread in question there and limited viewing of it to members only.

I saw your e mail, and thanks very much for responding, as your closing statement was "As such, I honestly have no idea what we could possibly discuss"

I honestly have no idea why I should waste any more of my time on it. It's becoming boring and tedious. I offered to communicate with you direct I'm the hope I may be able to put this to bed and we can move on, but you seem to want to drag it on.

As I own a 4003 myself, I personally have no malice against Rickenbacker whatsoever, but as I posted above, I'm not dragging it on. This will be my last post on here about the subject.

My offer still stands of getting involved with any further complaint's and making sure they are actioned ( you have my email address) But you need to "get" that we are not a company like ebay, Gumtree etc, but a forum run by enthusiasts and will respond in a reasonable amount going forward.

Having read the entirety of the thread on Basschat, I voted "no" to the ban as I believe it would make the forum unbalanced, when what seems to be required is to stop adverts of Rickenbacker copies.

The Basschat thread also left me feeling that John Hall was unfriendly and heavy-handed. Although an enthusiastic collector of expensive basses, my GAS for a midnight blue 4003 all but evaporated.

However, having registered on this forum and read this thread, my opinion on John has softened and I think I can see where he is coming from. Specifically, having read John's posts, it appears that what bothers him most is the effort and number of emails required.

I sincerely do not believe that the Basschat mods were delaying deliberately. With regard to the words "trademark" and "copyright", I'll count myself amongst those who know there's a difference but don't understand what it is and therefore misuse the terms. I guess this is a bit like non-bassits when confronted with Ps and Js, SingRays and Sterlings, 4001s and 4003s.

I believe the issue could be resolved with this little treaty:

1. Basschat moderators to provide John with a direct hotline phone or email (and a backup)

2. John to provide Basschat moderators with reference to current trademarks (already done I believe)

3. John to advise Basschat moderators what content he'd like them to routinely proactively remove in order to minimise the need for his involvement

4. Basschat moderators to monitor the forum and remove any such content as soon as they notice it

5. Basschat moderators to give John their commitment to action any of his requests about content within this agreement without the need for extended dialogue (in the case where he notices something they've missed and needs to resort to the hotline) and to confirm to John that it has been done

6. John to give Basschat moderators his assurance that legal action won't be threatened as long as they follow this treaty

I do hope this helps. I'd love for us all to be friends and to get back to playing and talking about our basses. All our basses. If it works, I'll get myself that midnight blue 4003 to celebrate.

Regds,
Gary.
(Northern Ireland).

johnhall wrote:
Second is, to me, validation of the axiom "Two great peoples separated by a common language". I write or respond to emails with Americans and member of many other cultures and rarely have any negative response, in in fact in many cases, I get thanks. But very often dealing with folks from the U.K. I get back angry, rude and antagonistic replies. I reread what was sent and simply don't see what could possibly be the problem with what I said. I have some theories about this and many of my close English friends have concurred- but for our purposes here, let's just say that there are still vast cultural differences at play for better or worse.

Mr Hall,
It saddens and grieves me to read that you have been given cause to form such a perception of my country and culture.
Sincere best wishes...

johnhall wrote:Second is, to me, validation of the axiom "Two great peoples separated by a common language". I write or respond to emails with Americans and member of many other cultures and rarely have any negative response, in in fact in many cases, I get thanks. But very often dealing with folks from the U.K. I get back angry, rude and antagonistic replies. I reread what was sent and simply don't see what could possibly be the problem with what I said. I have some theories about this and many of my close English friends have concurred- but for our purposes here, let's just say that there are still vast cultural differences at play for better or worse.

In light of this statement, I re-read the entire email exchange to which JH provided the link. I found it very interesting to note a) the number of instances of the words 'please' and 'thank you' and from whom they came, and b) in whose mails the tersest and most antagonistic language lay. Both a) and b) would tend to contradict very starkly the bold bit in the above quote.
But still, if people are happy to label UK bassists as ignorant and rude, please carry on.
Thank you.

Best Monday morning reading EVER!

30hertz wrote: I found it very interesting to note a) the number of instances of the words 'please' and 'thank you' and from whom they came <snip>.

I hate to contribute to this tempest in a teapot, but as an American who has had extensive personal and business dealings with our brothers and sisters "across the pond", may I note that an excess of "please's" and "thank you's" can be sarcastic -- sarcasm being a charming UK speciality.

daveman wrote:... sarcasm being a charming UK speciality.

Even as a Brit, I can't tell whether that's meant to be sarcastic

daveman wrote:

30hertz wrote: I found it very interesting to note a) the number of instances of the words 'please' and 'thank you' and from whom they came <snip>.

I hate to contribute to this tempest in a teapot, but as an American who has had extensive personal and business dealings with our brothers and sisters "across the pond", may I note that an excess of "please's" and "thank you's" can be sarcastic -- sarcasm being a charming UK speciality.

I wouldn't call one or two per email an 'excess', would you?

30hertz wrote:.I wouldn't call one or two per email an 'excess', would you?

[/quote]

Surely something a man of the cloth would forgive, Father Crilley?