A few years ago, I was a member of FDP, a guitar msg board. After a while, it became clear that the mods were incredibly strict with the posting guidelines. It was a normal daily occurance to see members being banned for ludicrous reasons and I was no exception. Resentment for these arbitrary bans came in the form of TFF, another msg board. For a while, it was paradise... until the administration became what it once despised and people like myself were being banned left, right, & center for reasons that boggle the mind. People were even thrown out for asking about my whereabouts!
It took a long time, but I eventually missed exchanging about music & guitars. In a chat with our own ToneMonkey, it was half-jokingly suggested to me that I should create my own msg board. I scoffed at the idea since I had no programming experience to speak of and quickly dismissed it as being impossible. In January 2006, I started investigating the idea of building a msg board from the ground up, not being entirely convinced that it would be feasible. My perseverence paid off after weeks of working on FPF anywhere from 7-15h/day on top of my regular working schedule.
So on February 15th, FPF was officially online! We had our share of hiccups, but overall, people's feedback from using FPF was overwhelmingly positive! It was a place to call our own. I had made some things clear from the start, namely that I would not be running FPF with an iron fist, but rather a velvet glove. My theory was that the other boards had it all wrong and that by being open & communicative with my subscribers, that they in turn would treat me, FPF, and FPFers with respect without the need for suspensions, bans, or perhaps even warnings. The few rules I put in place involved respecting other FPFers, the exclusion of certain hot-button topics such as religion, politics, and due to certain beliefs of mine, guns. Beyond those, everything else was fair-game. Unfortunately, some people are never satisfied.
Among the improvements I had made in contrast to other boards were Internet radio, arcade games, bigger profile pictures, a lush graphical design, the ability for members to backup threads they enjoyed into a PDF file they could download, 100 megs of storage space for files per member, and the list goes on...
Members started pushing the envelope to see what they could get away with. Some pleaded the "But I'm your friend, so I should have more leaway" chorus, which would have given others the perfect time to play the favoritism card. And when people weren't testing me, members were bitching & complaining about everything under the sun, including the default font color! For the next couple of years, running FPF became an increasingly difficult task of juggling between being a mod and being a peer. Maintenance & upgrades (mostly due to security concerns) were regular tasks, but my role became one of a policeman in a lot of situations.
Eventually, visiting FPF stopped being fun altogether. In the past year, a member proudly dragged my heritage, country, and language through the mud and never apologized for it, have had my life threatened twice, and have had to deal with a constant barrage of people posting questionnable content ranging from material posted to provoke me to downright sarcastic remarks about my person and/or the way things are run here.
I poured my sweat, time, & money into FPF and the only thing I was expecting in return was for people to act thankfully & respectfully. For the money I spent towards FPF, I could have bought at least 2 brand new US Strats! And none of you will ever know the headaches I had to deal with in regards to technical issues or the lengths at which I went to resolve them. I took a step back and saw no upside to keeping FPF open as I keep spending more money, time, & effort to give people a place where they can repeatedly disrespect & badmouth me behind my back and even in public forums. Reading these comments from people whom I called friends was a real eye-opener.
But it seems people enjoy a firmer, stricter way of being handled. On FDP & TFF, posts & entire threads are edited or deleted without reason, people are banned at whim, freedom of speech is almost nonexistant, fear is promoted to keep people in line, etc. On FDP, the administrator pressures members into contributing every 6 months under the guise that it costs a lot to run the graphically stripped-down website... while he brags about the Rolex watches he buys for himself. If you can't afford or don't care for sending him cash, you can't post in the off-topic section, period. On TFF, the mods are mere puppets for how the owner wants things to be run. There are no debates, discussions, or even reasons given for actions taken. And you need to pay to have pictures stored there, just like on FDP. It's a business : therefore, ads decorate the pages in order to collect money from sponsors.
I've never made a dime from FPF. I also decided against having ads or pressuring people to contribute.
In the end, the reason why FPF is closing is mostly due to some (not all) members' behavior. The enthusiasm I once had for running this place is all but gone and has been replaced with a growing feeling of irritation, frustration... and betrayal. With FPF's 3rd anniversary quickly approaching, I didn't see anything I'd wish to celebrate. And as is common practice to reflect on the past year & what the future may bring into the next when January 1st approaches, it was clear what I needed to do, as I've been putting myself last for far too long. After nearly 3 years of what I went through, I've had enough & it's time to pull the plug.
In the near future, I'll be experiencing a new career, city, province, friends, and who knows what else? A new chapter will be starting in my life and I'm anxious & excited to see it unfold. A time for a new beginning and hopefully... success! :)
As for the musical side of things, I'm pretty much guitared out. Dealing with FPF contributed to that. Since music is still my passion, I toyed with the idea of posting some YouTube instructional videos on techniques like vibrato, or how to play some Clapton licks, to get SRV's touch, etc. It would be a nice project to tackle and it'll probably be light & fun to try something new in that sense. Apart from that, my love for music has been rekindled with the discovery of the piano. I've been teaching myself (since June of last year) how to play piano and have been making progress by leaps & bounds, enough to learn Chopin pieces (which is what I'm currently studying) so I'll most likely continue in that direction. My hope is to play some even more advanced pieces in 5-7 years.
In conclusion, despite my somewhat negative tone, creating & managing FPF remains a very unique experience ; one that I will forever remember. Because of its existance, I encountered some great people and even met a precious few whom I hold dear to my heart. It's an adventure I don't regret having gone through. Like a house of cards, I built this place from the ground up and for that, I am proud of what I accomplished and the friendships that were forged.
For those who would be interested in staying in touch, feel free to e-mail me at fenderstrats@gmail.com
R.I.P., FPF...
Sincerely, Joe (a.k.a. Strat-Mangler)
