I'm considering something...

[jacksmom]

Thanks, Blanca, I didn't have the patience to go through all that.

I can't tell you though, how many times I have seen someone write that - and yet, here you are - still watching this post. Come on, just everyone kiss and make up a little, lol. You guys lurking and messaging each other when someone mentions you on here...you obviously don't REALLY want to leave, or you wouldn't be reading this.

Plax, it is hard to make someone choose between their friends and their beliefs. Some chose the opposite way that you did. That doesn't make them bad people. They reasoned it wasn't bad enough to make a stink over - so they could keep both the friend and the belief. Forgive them. Especially if they can see fit to forgive you for making them feel as if they don't care about their birds.

Now, don't any of you dare come back at the other party with something smart. I am gonna mama bear this one down, lol. And I'm sorry, Tony, but seriously, this is not all about you, and your fight. It is about Precisely Parrots. When you ALL worked so hard on this forum, you kinda gave birth to it. And you are all being bad parents. :banghead:

Yes, yes, I am a Taurus.

[plax]

First of all, I wanted to respond to this thread as my PM was mentioned in it. And also to prove that people are not just lurking behind the scenes to hurt the forum!

Yes, I've been on and off PP several times now. I signed on to discover that the forum had been through a major change with the administration and moderators. I read both sides of the story and made my own conclusions. I have been on since to find out some info on my own account and threads that I have posted. And yes, I've read a few posts.

I was then told that in another post it was mentioned that I might do signatures still and that I was signed on all the time. I never signed off my laptop so it appeared I was signed in all the time.

So I PM'd Jacksmom to let her know I would do a signature for her if she really wanted one but only through email. As I had no intentions of posting on PP any longer, but I had not mentioned that in my first post. I was going to end my involvement there (figuring if she wanted a signature she would email me) but then Jacksmom PM'd me back telling me that she really didn't need one and asked if I would post on the forum that I was available to do signatures. I then PM'd her that I was planning to no longer post on the forum and why. She asked me to post and so I told her why I didn't want to participate any longer.

She is the only person I have PM'd. It is not my intention to chase people away from the forum and to send PM's to people. I only told her why I had planned on leaving because she asked me to post!

So I am here to set the record straight instead of speculation running ramped about the so called PM!

The best thing for this forum is to get over all this and move on and start trying to find new members. All this is just going to hurt the forum more and more. I really wish you could see that. Appreciate the members who have chosen to stick around and build from there. Because if you keep this up, you are going to lose the few members you have managed to hold on to. Just MHO. Enough said, I am done here.

Thank you for the explanation, Blanca. But I have to say that I find your general tone of "I'm done with this place" both bitter and condemning! And I should also say that you have always seemed to have an issue with my bird protection policy expectations here. In fact, you initially resigned from Precisely Parrots from your Super Moderator position in response to the following general message that I sent to all staff members back in January:

Hi [moderator member name],


I have a question for you that I am in the process of asking each of our moderators. As I hope you realize, there are few rules which we enforce in a hard-set, inflexible manner upon the members of our forum community. However, this matter is something that we really need to seek some assurance on.

Question:
Are you willing to uphold the policy of Precisely Parrots with regard to doing whatever is necessary to keep all member-submitted photographs, videos, and text which endorses physical interaction between pet birds and cats or dogs from appearing within posts, profiles, avatars, signatures, or elsewhere on our website?

To clarify a bit, by "doing whatever is necessary" I mean utilizing whichever methods may be most effective, while being the least offensive to the members involved. This could include editing/deleting the materials, or PM'ing members to kindly explain our policy and request that they remove the materials themselves, or simply reporting the location of the materials to myself or Wendy.

Please let me know as soon as you can.


Thanks much,

Tony

I don't find the above message even remotely enough of a reason to take offense and resign from our staff. The message was simply a necessary step to be sure that each of us were doing our very best to keep as many pet birds safe as possible. The birds' safety should have been the priority, not the attitude!

[plax]

And I'm sorry, Tony, but seriously, this is not all about you, and your fight. It is about Precisely Parrots. When you ALL worked so hard on this forum, you kinda gave birth to it. And you are all being bad parents. :banghead:

Yes, yes, I am a Taurus.

No, I am sorry Grace. The whole issue stemmed from and remains about protecting pet birds! If you don't believe that you're wrong. That's all it has ever been about! People have done everything possible to dvert the situation from that... but it remains the whole issue with me. It takes so little effort on the part of staff members to accord to our bird protection policy, and it can do so much good! Saving the life of just one bird is a helluva lot of GOOD! Please don't try and tell me it's not about the birds, because that's all it has ever been about. I can't help the fact that so many have clouded the issue. I am not a bad person and my cause has been genuine. And I certainly should have the right to defend myself from slanderous assertions.

Yes, I become emotional about this issue because making it into a human conflict when my only crime was doing my best to help birds is a very disturbing thing

[Blancaej]

You and I both know the real reason I resigned was because of a letter you wrote to someone on an entirely different forum and the tone you used in such letter. Plus, you signed it from the Precisely Parrot folks and I wanted no part of it! I had no problem upholding the policy here. But going after people on other forums and trying to publicly crucify them on the other hand, I had a problem with.

I also said "I am done here" not with "this place" - I think you are reading what you want to read in everyone's words. My words were to mean "I am done here" meaning my posting is done. But here I am again, trying to set the record straight!

[plax]

You and I both know the real reason I resigned was because of a letter you wrote to someone on an entirely different forum and the tone you used in such letter. Plus, you signed it from the Precisely Parrot folks and I wanted no part of it! I had no problem upholding the policy here. But going after people on other forums and trying to publicly crucify them on the other hand, I had a problem with.

I also said "I am done here" not with "this place" - I think you are reading what you want to read in everyone's words. My words were to mean "I am done here" meaning my posting is done. But here I am again, trying to set the record straight!

The letter you are referring to did not reference you personally, Blanca. It was signed "Precisely Parrots Management" if I recall correctly. There was no "folks" in the signature. And it was a letter of passion and concern for a terribly dangerous pictorial presentation of predator pet / prey pet intermingling occurring on the other forum site. My co-administrator and I discussed said letter extensively, looking over and weighing each draft until we felt it was acceptable to send. And it wasn't until we both agreed that the letter was ready to send that it was in fact sent. So it was not my decision alone. I have to say, though, that I regretted sending it soon thereafter, not because it didn't accurately represent my feelings, but because of all of the negativity it generated. But it's in the past and you didn't resign until I sent the PM quoted above. You replied to said PM stating your intentions to resign. So it seems that the PM somehow finalized your choice to leave our staff.

[jtbirds]

Well Well I come home from work to this big mess... and honestly i skimmed through this all. You are all being outrageous about this situation. Tony I am disappointed you will not let this topic die, I understand your views but by pounding away at it only makes it worse. Its like punching a wall with a broken fist all it does is break something more. The rest of you I am disappointed that adults cannot see a common centerpoint and agree to disagree on something without responding in a flame war. The bottum line here is this topic should have never been made or fought over. I will not agree with anyone in this and if i had enough power this whole conversation would be removed from this forum/ minds, but now we have fought over something truly not needed and the negative feelings are pushed further and further. Not only will that produce a negative environment but it will only make things worse. The best thing to do is start over and forgive and agree to disagree.

If all that happens is hate then nothing will ever be remembered as good, If what we do is loving then things begin to sprout. Think of this forum site as a seed it was watered and cared for it grew... It was a mighty oak tree... it was then struck by lightning.. All this tree did was left behind one acorn.. it is nestled to the ground and must be watered again for it to flourish.

food for thought everyone, I hope my reply was semi non biased as i didn't want to be biased towards ether party.

kind regards.

[jtbirds]

Tony I will add this for you:

When i went to create my own rescue I told the one I had worked with for years the idea. My time donated was in the thousands and thousands of hours( I equaled it to cash value at minimum wage and it grossed easily over 40k). One day the owner was fine the next they came and took birds of mine and wrecked me. I didn't break, I didn't slander or defend all I did was move on. Sure there was some negative feelings at my heart( mainly about hurting my birds). I'd add that this lady brought disease to my home and killed two of my most precious birds. This is much much worse then the situation you faced. Yet I didn't defend or lose.. They slandered me to the ground, the people loyal to me fought for me. I stood up and did what I believed in... This didn't mean defending my believes only progressing them slowly.

This day after all the slander, battles they think they won, advantages they think they have... In the end I am coming out the winner. I have all birds clubs in my state on my side, many rescues/ whole sellers on my side. organizations and businesses and doctors rooting me on. They are drifting behind and losing all of that. They dug me to the ground, spit on me and thought they nailed my coffin as the bird expert in this area. They were wrong they only made me even better at what i do and what i can bring to the table. I now walk to any bird event and receive respect i've never asked for or tried to defend someone trying to take it from me. I open a speech at a bird club and get addressed as a bird whisperer I simply shook my head and didn't take the label. Being modest and accepting the inhumane actions of others is purely what life has become.

but to this day, while I am typing this I still achieved more, my name is still good, my bridges are finely built and not burnt. I am who I am and who I always will be and my rescue is the same. No one can take this from me because I wasn't defeated and I didn't act out.

This forum is exactly what my story was, repeat my steps i've already taken. Get rid of the hate topics and anything defending yourself and move forward you can be the bigger person. The people here will follow you and the positive energy. believe me. This is all I have to say ether follow or do not.

[PlaxMacaws]

Thanks for taking the time to express your sincere feelings on the matter, Justin. There's plenty of merit within your philosophy, and I admire what you have accomplished and are continuing to accomplish! I understand that you care and that you're trying to be helpful - your words are appreciated and they are helpful! But please realize that I'm not you. That doesn't mean I can't adapt and modify to a degree, though. But I also have limitations and differing views on some things that are specific to me. I've always been a person who tends to express my genuine feelings when a matter is very important to me. And the bird protection matter IS very important to me. Some of my decisions may not appear wise in the eyes of some. But again, I am who I am. I'm impassioned by what I'm impassioned by. I hope some of that makes a bit of sense.

Thanks again for sharing your remarkable accomplishments. Your situation is indeed impressive!

[kendrafitz]

Tony, as you are very aware, I try to stay out of these things. Conflict is not something I deal with well.

I am going to say this, and only because I really like you. You have always been kind, helpful and a good friend to me.

People disagree about everything. Doesn't matter the topic, there will eventually be a disagreement. Sometimes people do and/or say things that are hurtful. It is really horrible to be on the receiving end, no matter how the disagreement started. I know your feelings must be very hurt and it is hard for you to understand why people you considered friends acted the way they did. But I believe it doesn't help to try to understand why, if you are not going to rebuild those friendships. It doesn't matter. The important thing is for you to know that you feel good about the way you handled what was thrown at you. That is where "being the bigger person" comes in.

In my personal life I had a person that I considered a friend do something I just couldn't forgive. (It had to do with my children). It was a huge mess. She lives in my development and I had introduced her to my circle. When she realized I was done, she went kooky. Talking about me, going to all the same events and yelling her conversations so I would hear, just being icky. It was horrible. I made the decision to stop going to the events and really cut down on our social circle. I still avoid her if at all possible, since she continues these antics and it has been over 3 years since this happened. Anyway, I made the choice to be the bigger person and not talk about it or her. There were women who talked about me and went out of their way to be negative. Funny, but about 6 months after the fallout, I had some women come to me and apologize for their behavior. Others told me how they were really impressed that I didn't allow her behavior to goad me into acting on her level. Long story short, all the maliciousness did nothing in the long run. It was hell to live through and I hope to never deal with that type of situation again. But most people saw the person for who she really was on their own, given time.

My point is that keeping your chin up, trying to stay focused on the positive things and not letting people's opinions get you down will really do wonders. I would not worry too much about what others think. Anyone that knows you knows you have the best of intentions. You have your opinions and others have their own. That's what makes life interesting. Being able to learn from each other. We should all be able to get along and enjoy each other for what we are. I am a girl who believes you get more flies with honey than vinegar. You may not agree but we can still be friends, and learn from each other.

I agree with everyone that you have some great members rallying for PP. It may be a small group for now, but it is a group of people who care about our parrots, PP and you. So please don't give up on the forum. We may not all agree on how to get a message across, but we all want to continue enjoying each other's stories. That is important. With time, you may see the forum grow way beyond your expectations. It just takes a few, and you've got a great few!

[jacksmom]

I am sorry, Tony, I was not clear enough. I mean it is not about the bird's safety ANYMORE. That ship has long since sailed. Picture is gone, right?

Cool, now this has been said in several different ways, bringing great points to the table - but I think you have your answer, yeah? Drop it like it's hot, or stolen, or something.