Re: AACA Website

Posted by BH On 2009/7/21 8:04:44

WRT to the timing of events, I had actually received that issue of TPC here in Western PA several days before a Studebaker friend in NE OH had received his issue of TW from SDC that contained the same article, verbatim. However, it might be difficult to assess who was actually first with it since TPC is published quarterly while the TW magazine is monthly and the date on the cover doesn't always reflect the actual month of publication or distribution.

The AACA's involvement in that matter amounts to attempts by site admins to throttle the related discussion threads at their Forums - allegedly after contact from PAC's (then) webmaster or others from that club. (If they thought we were being too rough, they should have taken a look at what was being said ad the SDC Newsgroup, back then.) A later discussion about another less than truthful, yet self-serving, article in TPC did result in the deletion of posts. I think that's all that needs to be said about that.

However, don't make the mistake of thinking that the problem with censorship at the AACA Forums was limited to a few rogues in the Packard DF. I've seen plenty of other heated discussions (outside of rants in the former limited-access "Misc. Chat" forum) with site admins in other forums about posts being deleted - even among some longstanding members of that club in recent months. (Of course, many of those threads have been since locked and/or relocated out of the public's sight.) All that comes as little surprise to me because I always figured that once they had run off the so-called troublemakers, they would set their sites on others - ultimately turning on each other.

Yet, take away all the allegations and suppositions and the bottom line is that the AACA Forums are too restrictive. IMHO, a club with that kind of mindset ought to go private, except that their Forum exists, first and foremost, in hopes of attracting new members. I much prefer the environment of PackardInfo.

Meanwhile, I took a quick look at the new PAC Forum and was surprised to see sub-forums for things like "Parts Sources & Interchange" and "Packard Modifications", which represent a great departure from past policies.

Dave, again, I wish you the best of luck with your endeavour.