Faced with an onslaught of negative publicity, management at the Nürburgring turns to the courts to stop their critics and has the longest running Nürburgring fan forum shut down.
Specifics, which involve allegations of incompetence, corruption and collusion between local government and businessmen, are not easy to follow but suffice it to say that one side of the argument decided that if you just shut the other side up, the problem will go away.
With locals devided between the "if you can't beat them, join them" camp and those actively fighting "the man", it must be a very long winter in the Eiffel.
Please read the post on Mike Frison's blog and the videos on Savethering.org
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And how about relocating the forum in the US? Just UPS the servers across the Atlantic and change the IP of the domain name. Freedom of speech should protect it over here.
ReplyDeleteI was just going to say what Elie said.
ReplyDeleteMove the hosting to somewhere offshore.
Stick a thumb in their eye.
I think the problem is that the court order is directed at the individuals responsible for the whole STR thing so even a foreign hosted forum would need to prove to have any connection. These guys are doing it as fans and you can understand both their outrage and their reluctance in the face of such exposure.
ReplyDeleteDoes not bode well for our friend Ron who was waiting for an appeal on his banishment.
But STR has 48.000 fans - surely one of them can start his/her own forum! Or some non-German facebook user can start a group like STR. Let's see Richter order Facebook to close. =)
ReplyDeleteMaybe we've been trying the wrong approach.
ReplyDeleteThis conflict - between 'Ring users and enthusiasts on the one hand, and the 'Ring's new "management" on the other - is like all others: in the end, it boils down to power. Right now, the 'Ring management have the upper hand, having used their (dwindling) financial resources, political connections, and battalions of attorneys to stymie debate and quash opposition.
But their power is really limited. They are deep in debt and running out of money - and time. By raising costs and fees for use of the facilities, they're already driven away legions of enthusiasts and smaller businesses. They've imposed greater expenses on major tuners and manufacturers who use the 'Ring for testing. Their business model has already failed - all that is left is the shouting, and the executives and investors attempts to secure a bailout of some fashion so as to secure their own interests - and no one else's. But what if we deny them the chance?
Maybe to save the Nurburgring, we must kill it first.
It's time to organize a boycott of the Nurburgring, it's "management", and any businesses that continue to utilize the facility. Shut off all remaining streams of income. Starve the Arschlocher who've taken control of the place. Their debt-laden financial edifice is already tottering, I say we should give it a little push!
I don't really care about politics.
ReplyDeleteAll I know is that the ring was open this week end and that I had fun ;)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/julienmahiels
@julien...good point and...I hate you guys who live so close:)
ReplyDelete