Raffle Controversy at RWI?

[doctorron]

Good to see you over here DoctorRon! I'll call you soon and we can do lunch!

Hey Indy, I hope all is well. I see Zoso is checking out these posts too.

[lanikai]

I am a member of all the different rep forums. I think they all have different "values". I like all of them.

Regarding Raffles: The point of a raffle is to make money for some "cause". As long as "some" of the money is used for that "cause" it is considered a "raffle". I know here on this forum, there is a fundraiser sales thread. To me, that is another way of raising money. It is the same thing...on the honor system. I can't remember if an actual "donation" amount was mentioned before the raffle, but that might be a good thing so there is no confusion on what the donation will be.

I know many times that people are not buying raffle tickets for the cause, but rather the "prize" they will receive. I am not saying that is 100% of the time, but mostly members feel that way. I know we all say that it is for the support of the cause...but come on...

I hope that RWI does come back, as I would not want to see any of the forums go away. These forums ownership and management are not "transparent" for many good reasons. That is why we all go by user names. The ownership of a forum is private. Unless money was taken out of our pockets directly we should not care about what the money is used for as long as the forum is kept up and running. We all know that running a forum is not cheap and so supporting members are what usually what makes the forums stay running.

I would be interested in knowing if the RWI forum being down is due to money issues or tech issues. If it is due to money, maybe another raffle could be done on one of the other forums to help them out. Maybe a public statement by RWI might answer this question and stop speculation...

for us here at RWG.. we have run many Giveaways .. this is as a member appreciation form of our raffle.. for regular raffles 100% of the monies are used for our server usage..if you look at the ticket prices of all our raffles you can figure out how much is donated to that end..

here.. it is usually the same members that contribute to the raffles.. and I believe they are doing it not only for the prize but as support to the community..

Yes we have upgrade donations for membership.. but that does not cut the whole pie for our monthly usage.. the Supporter donation has been lowered considerably in the last couple of years.. Admin used to have to ask for donations and many times paid out of pocket for the usage when we were short.. I've donated countless reps for raffle.. without remorse or any kind of favours..I like to think I walk my talk in supporting this community..

many members are Supporters or Platinum.. and their membershipe status is not downgraded when they don't donate the renewal..

they hardly ever loose the privilege of the added benefits of the board .. a lot of times it is an honour system.

what each board does with their funds is solely up to them.. all we can do here is keep to our standards.. that does not mean other standards are wrong.. it is just the way we choose to conduct the forum..

Again this thread was never intended to call anyone out on money issues or how other fora's apply their finances.. it is honestly intended for whomever is involved in the rumors to voice their facts.. it has nothing to do with competition between boards or dealers.. it is my belief to allow everyone the decency of being heard..and not letting assumptions come in the way of the truth..

[deniz21]

hello guys, i dont know very much what could be happend on RWI, so i dont mess and say anything about that. but i think its only fair that lani wants to clear that here in a fair and square disussion.

i mean lani, lani represents the truth so its only normal that he want to clear that out, cause something went wrong there...thats for sure..

and you RWI guys should be realy happy that lani had the balls to start that cause from you nobody did

see you all soon guys

denz who started his day with awsome news

[Jb boin]

hello guys, i dont know very much what could be happend on RWI, so i dont mess and say anything about that. but i think its only fair that lani wants to clear that here in a fair and square disussion.

i mean lani, lani represents the truth so its only normal that he want to clear that out, cause something went wrong there...thats for sure..

and you RWI guys should be realy happy that lani had the balls to start that cause from you nobody did

see you all soon guys

denz who started his day with awsome news

Is it satirical?

[9postguy]

I have difficulty seeing a thread in an internet forum as a fact-finding investigation. No one is under oath or subject to penalty. Posters have personal motivations. Emotions and rumors run rampant. This will not lead to truth, but rather many opinions and lots of hearsay ("X" told me he saw it or "X" told "Y" who told me). Nothing wrong with that, as long as we don't lose sight of it.

"Chase after truth like hell and you'll free yourself,

even though you never touch its coat-tails."

- Clarence Darrow

Edited January 27, 2010 by Jackster

[mw1015]

i don't think this thread will serve any further use than it already has. LoS has come by and said his bit. We'll get nothing more productive out of this.

perhaps its time for a closure?

[pedecter]

LOS did a great job while at RWI, and for several years he was an important part of the team. He's gone for now and many RWI-ers were of course disappointed he decided to leave, but who stays anywhere forever these days?

D4M and all the admins and mods work hard for the community and have to pay expenses. No one ripped anyone off....the raffles' winners got their item, and a small profit helps pay expenses for the Board. I'm proud to say that RWI would not speculate on rumors if another rep community had technical issues with a server migration like RWI is having. It's mean-spirited and not appropriate conduct. If you want updates from RWI on its status, there is a Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/replica_watch

The staff at RWI has real jobs and volunteer their time to the board, and that included LOS and everyone else. I'd do the same if I could, but frankly I cannot spare the time. If I could, I'd do it for RWI without hesitation. There is no conspiracy, and no stacks of money squirreled away and not one single staff member at RWI has said that there is. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but it is most disappointing that those that seem to express theirs the loudest have no facts or evidence, because there is no "there" there. I spent several hours tonight talking with the RWI leadership team and I plan to contribute more to RWI than ever, once it is back up later this week. Thanks for letting me post here as a guest.

[lanikai]

I think your confusing the issue with your claim of "mean spirited".. you know as well as anyone. that is not what this was intended for..as far as RWG.. LOS has been a member here as well as the other Admins on RWI are.. so with that said..

I think your statements would cause more animosity than the thread itself.. which has served a purpose.

I think we all wanted to hear it from LOS.. as before you registered here, for a number of years LOS has been a contributor here also.. LOS registered in 2006 on this forum.. as was D4 and others.

with that said nothing was discussed about RWI's "migration" issues.. this thread allowed LOS a long time member of this Board also to clarify what he needed to .. imo.. nothing more or less. it so happened that events that had taken place with some of RWG's "members" happened on RWI.. and since you are experiencing difficulties with your server and LOS does frequent RWG as does D4 and Trailboss often.. I posted this..

and all involved are members here as well..

AT one time all the Admins on RWI were here contributing.. posting and sharing , daily actually.. so it was as much our concern of their well being than it is yours..LOS.. D4.. Trailboss all.. have been long time members of RWG..and I'd like to say I respect them all.. .. as RWG'rs as well ..

I feel I have not "invaded" anyone's privacy nor business..if anything it has given LOS an opportunity to be heard..

Now if anyone does not like that .. I could simply turn it around and say .. what is discussed her is "Our" biz.. weather it's about cars women or watches..

but I would not do that.. it is an open forum .. inclusive if you just registered or have been here since 2006

[Mr.ZoSo]

Hey Indy, I hope all is well. I see Zoso is checking out these posts too.

Hey buddy! Yes I read a bit. I have nothing to add. If it needs to be talked about let it be done in our house. I understand the door is closed right now, but this is not the place IMO. That's my 2.

[KB]

Put simply Lani asked what happened, any member can do this.

Everyone asking us what right this thread has here (or to close it) are in fact calling for a level of censorship.

Not our thing sorry, unless it gets way out of hand the thread dies when people stop posting.

Ken

[TwoTone]

...the thread dies when people stop posting.

+1

[spboudart]

This thread is supposed to be what?

-Some say an opportunity for RWI admin (which has been contributing member here for years)to response to rumors!

So why is LoS and the other not been Pmed before starting this thread?

The guy 'Stumble' on it 3 hours after this thread started. His post is N

[mr mg]

Lani, I believe you opened this discussion up with integrity and it was responded to in the same spirit -kudos.

As you point out, it affects all fora, given the likeness and to an even greater extent, the shared membership. If nothing else, it's good to reiterate the openness and transparency of managing funds to keep communities such as this alive. I mentioned once before (but 'shouted' it) I signed up as a member based on the welcome I got from members here and particularly from yourself! I think it's great that it's open for information to be had by anyone, but once you are made to feel like a part of a community, then you begin to assume resonsibility for it. That's what you and some of the other great members on here do for newcomers. If any needed evidence of how supportive this community is, they would only have to look at how so many members (having followed your lead) have chipped in to build a watch for a long-term member, just because... *respect*

So cheers , and good on you for starting this thread!

mg

[KB]

@ spboudart the thread was not started so LOS could give his version, Lani simply asked what happened....why is that so hard to understand?

You may find other members of the RWI Admin team might post here and thats fine as long as it stays civil everyone is welcome.

Ken

[therooster]

RWG, you just won my complete and utter respect for letting this thread run. The fact that sensitive questions such as these are allowed to be asked and debated in a mature way speaks volumes for the quality of this forum and its members. And that is regardless of the answers to the questions or whether or not you agree with the OP. Bravo!

On a different note, RWI members should see these events as an opportunity for renewal and change. When the forum is back online, I know everyone on the team will work as hard as they can to make it even a better place than before. Let's look forward not backward.

[peepshow]

Yes, rooster, we at RWI will absolutely be striving to improve and move forward once we're back up, not look to the past.

However, I feel threads like this are a double-edged sword, honestly. While open discussion is always a good thing, the only people that have any *real* answers are the people actually involved - and the people not involved would have no sense of if they were being given all the facts or not (which I have absolutely no reason to doubt they are in this case). So, what we're left with is 99% of the posters in a thread, myself included, are merely fueling the rumors and speculation.

The danger in that is for the casual reader that comes along and only reads a handful of posts. He/she thinks "Wow, they steal money at RWI! No way am I going to register/participate/donate over there...". That's my fear.

I'll say it again: I am lucky enough to call both LOS and D4M friends, and I think they'd call me the same. I have absolutely ZERO reason to believe that either of them has EVER acted in a manner that wasn't 100% above board in any/every situation. Further, I have no reason to believe that the reason LOS left RWI had anything to do with the raffle.

Edited January 27, 2010 by peepshow

[therooster]

Peep, I agree. But I'm sick of rumours and censorship. I'd rather see people discuss things in the open and voice their concerns. That's why I appreciate the OP's intentions, and I respect this forum for letting this run. And it's great when the people involved come in and address these concerns, as LoS did. I share your concern about the casual reader who may misread things, but I think overall the benefits of grabbing these rumous by the horns outweigh the potential downsides.

I have absolutely ZERO reason to believe that either of them has EVER acted in a manner that wasn't 100% above board in any/every situation. Further, I have no reason to believe that the reason LOS left RWI had anything to do with the raffle.

That goes without saying. And yes, there is no reason to connect the raffles, LOS's departure, and RWI's downtime. These are all unrelated things.

[peepshow]

...cause something went wrong there...thats for sure..

and you RWI guys should be realy happy that lani had the balls to start that cause from you nobody did ...

It's sure that something went wrong where? With the raffle or between LOS and D4M? I'd agree with the latter, there's no doubt of that. However, I fail to see how it's "sure" that anything went wrong with the raffle.

Did you stop and think that it has absolutely nothing to do with having the "balls" to start a thread like this - and everything to do with the fact that no one from the RWI staff believes anything happened with the raffle and that the raffle has nothing to do with LOS leaving?

If LOS felt he got cheated in his proceeds from the raffle, I see no reason he wouldn't have come out and simply stated so. The same for D4M, if he felt that RWI didn't receive enough of the raffle money, I would certainly expect him to voice that concern. At the very least to the staff of RWI, if not to the general rep collecting public.

What I see is a bunch of tinfoil hatters putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 11.

I beg any of the multiple people that PM'd Lani with their concerns/facts/suppositions/etc about what "went wrong" at RWI to PM me with the same info. I'd really like to know what everyone else seems to "know". I've never been closer to a situation and still felt so out of the loop, if anything really happened.

I don't think anything has, truth to tell.

Edited January 27, 2010 by peepshow

[FxrAndy]

-to me it look like a good opprtunity for a dying forum to steal membership from a fast growing forum!

Hmmm 23976? Dying?

[dluddy]

This thread is supposed to be what?

-Some say an opportunity for RWI admin (which has been contributing member here for years)to response to rumors!

So why is LoS and the other not been Pmed before starting this thread?

The guy 'Stumble' on it 3 hours after this thread started. His post is N

[therooster]

I dont know very much what could be happend on RWI, so i dont mess and say anything about that

something went wrong there...thats for sure..

Ok, I'm confused... You either know nothing, or you have some convincing evidence that something went wrong. Which one is it?

and you RWI guys should be realy happy that lani had the balls to start that cause from you nobody did

First, that's actually not true and I don't need to point you towards those posts. Second, have you also noticed how no one from RWI has come here to complain the the forum was hijacked by one-eyed midgets? Now, does that mean that no one has the balls to talk about the midgets, or does it suggest that perhaps there were no midgets to start with?

[andygt]

What's all this I hear about midgets? I bet Hont had something to do with it...

[deniz21]

ok rooster you got me, maybe i cant explain exactly what i mean my english skills are not the best so, sorry for your confusing. but i write that because it came up in the thread that there might be something wrong, not that i would know that!

i heard that too about the one eye midget, but interpol searched and the only one that exist is in prison so...

do you know why i think that noone from the RWI

[pedecter]

So as I understand it... LOS put a beautiful gen Pam up for auction. A member won and received this beautiful watch. LOS worked very hard to organize and sell tickets for this auction, he make a humble profit, and donated what he thought was a fair and reasonable amount to RWI. LOS and D4Me disagreed about something which may or may not have had anything to do with the auction and feelings and friendships were damaged. They are both unhappy about the disagreement. The member who won the watch is very happy. The forum members are sad about the breakup and to top it all off the damn server went down. We the members are unhappy about that too. But if you step back and look at it, its not that big of a deal all the way around. All will work out fine.

+1, Doctor. Well stated.

[FxrAndy]

Hmmm 23976? Dying?

Sorry 23977, i cant keep up

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