Mark Squires' BB to close for good - UPDATED (WA sold to Michelin)

[Gray_G]

“board” room decision

[Jonathan_Loesberg]

Before Squires started banning everyone in sight (and there was a before), and thus before this board started, it was almost as wide ranging and informative. It also had the same share of contentious people who would hit rages too fast. But it had one other drawback this board did not. The presence of Parker meant, even before board bannings, that discussions fell into pro-Parker and anti-Parker noise much faster and much more completely. The kind of back and forth between Jeff Leve and Robert Alfert, for instance, would not have been able to maintain its good humor even if Jeff Leve and Alfert had.

[Thomas_Keim]

For those of us who were not part of that board, how did it compare (during its heyday) to this one?

Much more moderated to the point of being obnoxiously overdone. I once wrote a post on one winery’s actions being “bush league” and Squires deleted it because he thought I was referring to the current president at the time (who was not popular at the time). People’s posts were delected all the time, without any notice or explanations. It was the SS of wine talk -

At it’s heights, it was amazing - but in that respect, really no livelier that this board today. The Wine Talk section was the same “biggest penis” contests as here.

[Robert.A.Jr]

Wow, Todder gonna be a millionaire with all these new subscribers!

[Ed_Gonzales]

Sheer Stupidity; what an asset and then it was allowed to fizzle and die.

“Allowed” seems too passive to me. Parker and Squires killed it. Bob got tired of people taking pot-shots at him on his own board and reacting in kind to his vehement hot takes. His choice, of course, but it was a shame for the wine community. It was a lively place for a long time.

Tip of the cap to Todd for filling the void with something even better

stahp it, this douche has a big head already for creating the world’s largest and most active online wine community.

[Brent_C_l_a_y_t_o_n]

[Christian_Becker]

Here’s to the ultimate rise of the lazy, narrow agenda administrators who offer little in the way of content and substance!!!

I never had an opinion of him until I PM’d him to give him a heads up about an issue that a high visibility poster had. His response to me was sort of More like a F/U a$$hole I don’t care. I was sort of expecting sorry to hear the sad news.

So MS if you’re reading, allow me this editorial comment >

Karma. Had a similar experience with him. Pretty unreasonable dude.

[ToddFrench]

Wow, Todder gonna be a millionaire with all these new subscribers!

you bet, and I’m SO CLOSE already!

Not a single registration today, which means most of the legit posters have already moved over

[ToddFrench]

Here’s to the ultimate rise of the lazy, narrow agenda administrators who offer little in the way of content and substance!!!

I never had an opinion of him until I PM’d him to give him a heads up about an issue that a high visibility poster had. His response to me was sort of More like a F/U a$$hole I don’t care. I was sort of expecting sorry to hear the sad news.

So MS if you’re reading, allow me this editorial comment >

Karma. Had a similar experience with him. Pretty unreasonable dude.

He’s welcome to register and post here!!! I won’t boot him out like he did to me

[Gray_G]

hahaha

[Victor_Hong]

hahaha

The horned hat would distract from his awful shirts.

[Brad_Kane]

I have to say, before it started to be hosted on the Parker site, it was a pretty awesome board. Much more communal then, with a lot of participation from itb people.

[brigcampbell]

Sheer Stupidity; what an asset and then it was allowed to fizzle and die.

“Allowed” seems too passive to me. Parker and Squires killed it. Bob got tired of people taking pot-shots at him on his own board and reacting in kind to his vehement hot takes. His choice, of course, but it was a shame for the wine community. It was a lively place for a long time.

Tip of the cap to Todd for filling the void with something even better

The real shame was not vertically integrating Cellartracker, the message board, and the content of the publication. That would have been a trifecta.

But in the end, they were disinterested in public discussion and personal opinion.

Typical of an autocrat and predictable ending.

[Victor_Hong]

…

Typical of an autocrat and predictable ending.

Let’s see what the next year brings.

[Neal.Mollen]

Before Squires started banning everyone in sight (and there was a before), and thus before this board started, it was almost as wide ranging and informative. It also had the same share of contentious people who would hit rages too fast. But it had one other drawback this board did not. The presence of Parker meant, even before board bannings, that discussions fell into pro-Parker and anti-Parker noise much faster and much more completely. The kind of back and forth between Jeff Leve and Robert Alfert, for instance, would not have been able to maintain its good humor even if Jeff Leve and Alfert had.

I think this is correct. There was a terrible negative feedback loop. Many members thought it great fun to poke the bear, and the bear could not resist poking back. It went the other way too – Parker taking pot shots at those he viewed as disloyal, and the rabble unable to ignore it.

Like global warming, these issues were hard to detect for many years. They started to pick up steam incrementally but increased in intensity geometrically. And Parker/Squires decided that the proper way to deal with dissent was to exile the dissenters, which led to more dissent and on and on.

I learned a lot over there and made many friends (a great many of them here now, thankfully). It was maybe too much to ask for a board connected to the publication to avoid the feedback that brought it down, but it certainly did not help that the publication’s owner was simultaneously thin-skinned and prickly.

Brig, CT integration for ebob would have been fantastic for both

[brigcampbell]

Brig, CT integration for ebob would have been fantastic for both

It was discussed between the parties but again, I think one side didn’t really understand the new world order.

The deep integration, not just tasting notes, but content, education and the possibility for cross-selling/etc. Powerful stuff…

[Jeremy_C]

Thanks, guys. Brad touched on what I had previously gathered to be a possible advantage it had over this one; namely, that there was more ITB participation.

[Anton_D]

The HiFi forums all seem to be safe zones. I got shut down on pretty much all of them before I even got warmed up. I keep most of my opinions to myself over here but those guys are world class pussies.

I love how friendly our Hi Fi thread is, I really cherish it. Except for that Mollen guy.

[larry_schaffer]

Before Squires started banning everyone in sight (and there was a before), and thus before this board started, it was almost as wide ranging and informative. It also had the same share of contentious people who would hit rages too fast. But it had one other drawback this board did not. The presence of Parker meant, even before board bannings, that discussions fell into pro-Parker and anti-Parker noise much faster and much more completely. The kind of back and forth between Jeff Leve and Robert Alfert, for instance, would not have been able to maintain its good humor even if Jeff Leve and Alfert had.

I think this is correct. There was a terrible negative feedback loop. Many members thought it great fun to poke the bear, and the bear could not resist poking back. It went the other way too – Parker taking pot shots at those he viewed as disloyal, and the rabble unable to ignore it.

Like global warming, these issues were hard to detect for many years. They started to pick up steam incrementally but increased in intensity geometrically. And Parker/Squires decided that the proper way to deal with dissent was to exile the dissenters, which led to more dissent and on and on.

I learned a lot over there and made many friends (a great many of them here now, thankfully). It was maybe too much to ask for a board connected to the publication to avoid the feedback that brought it down, but it certainly did not help that the publication’s owner was simultaneously thin-skinned and prickly.

Brig, CT integration for ebob would have been fantastic for both

Great overview, my friend . . .

Cheers.

[Robert_M_yers]

What’s going to happen to MyWines?