[Bob Kuczewski]

I once left a forum, never to return, ...

That's why I won't change so much as a punctuation mark without getting explicit approval.

That kind of respect for what people have written needs to be an integral part of any decent forum. Those who violate that fundamental principle tend to have no principles at all.

[Bob Kuczewski]

From kitestrings.org today:

Re: USHGRS.org

by Steve Davy » 2018/11/27 05:05:32 UTC

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=36186
HG pioneer Joe Faust should not be banned from HG.org forum

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=36257
Asking for names of all HG.org banned persons.

Both topics, vanished.

My advice to anyone posting on hanggliding.org:

1. Make copies of your text before you post it.
2. Duplicate your posts to other forums (like the U.S. Hawks) as you go.

If you do the first, at least you'll have a copy. If you do the second, you'll have a copy and a time stamp.

[Bob Kuczewski]

I haven't read this topic in quite a while. I found it by searching for a place to post the previous quote. I highly recommend this topic for anyone who hasn't been around for the near decade of abusive practices on hanggliding.org.

While reading the topic, I found this quote:

When I started the Torrey Hawks, Jack volunteered to set up a forum for our club. Great. But when we came to a disagreement about the HGAA look what he did to our site at torreyhawksforum.org. Really, please click on that link and take a look.

He locked out all of our members and replaced the text in my own posts with his lies. Our club officers have asked for him to turn over the forum data (database of posts, registrations, personal messages, etc). He refused. He just lets it sit there year after years slandering good people and defaming the name of our club.

I just checked and the entire forum with hundreds of posts is now gone. Jack Axaopoulos just erased the history of the dozens of people - good people - who took their time to share their thoughts and ideas about hang gliding. Jack replaced all of the work of those good people with his own distorted attack on Scott Wise and myself. I try not to use the word "evil" lightly, but I have to say that only a twisted evil person would be so vindictive. Jack's ability to control the discourse in the sport of hang gliding has greatly contributed to its current state of decline.

Finally, I want to thank Warren (Free) for starting this topic back in 2010 and for sharing your even earlier experiences with Jack Axaopoulos. Any one complaint at any one point in time can be easily dismissed, but a pattern supported with years of evidence becomes undeniable.

[Rick Masters]

Re: USHGRS.org

Joe Faust built the U.S. Hang Glider Association before the U.S. Hang Gliding Association existed.
You can currently find his hang gliding ratings work through this new secret, Jack-proof link:
http://www.ushga.aero
Commit it to memory. It's easy!
Thanks, Joe!

[SamKellner]

YES

[Bob Kuczewski]

I once left a forum, never to return, when I posted that I liked a certain brand of "micro-brew" ale. At that time this forum had no protection against someone posting as someone else. Someone posting as me posted that I drank so much of this ale that I had become a bed-wetter! There were multiple posts to that effect. I wondered if this person was just malicious or perhaps owned a competing brewery. That forum has become much more secure since that time but I still won't return to it. My point is that any forum that is being used to change a person's posting (without permission), or impersonate a person, should not be visited by anyone. It has become worthless trash to be discarded.

Frank

My point is that any forum that is being used to change a person's posting (without permission), or impersonate a person, should not be visited by anyone. It has become worthless trash to be discarded.

My point is that any forum that is being used to change a person's posting (without permission), or impersonate a person, should not be visited by anyone. It has become worthless trash to be discarded.

My point is that any forum that is being used to change a person's posting (without permission), or impersonate a person, should not be visited by anyone. It has become worthless trash to be discarded.

A point that good ... is worth repeating.   

[Bob Kuczewski]

I recently went to hanggliding.org to look something up and found that all of my posts in a topic (and maybe the entire forum?) had been deleted. The same was true of Scott's posts. There were places where Scott had been quoted, but the original post was no longer there.

I read Gearge Orwell's "1984" back in high school (when 1984 seemed like a long way into the future), and I remember thinking how expensive it would have been to have the armies of people needed to go back and constantly rewrite history in all the books of the world. Now little 2-bit tyrants like Jack Axaopoulos can do it with a few keystrokes.

I believe that Frank's 2015 post (quoted above) reflected his true belief when he wrote it, and yet we find him regularly posting at a site where those exact things have happened. I never would have expected that. I guess George Orwell knew human nature better than I did.