We had a company meeting this week and secided to clean house. CCaptain and ombugge have been banished from this forum for 6 months. We let them both stay way too long because, hidden in each’s rants are decades of hard one experience.
C.captain is banned for being nasty to Sheila who has literally dedicated her life to helping mariners get veteran status. He was warned.
Ombugge for pulling dozens of posts off topic.
If there is any doubt remaining then here’s c.captain’s reply via email (which he asked us to post):
John…I don’t mind to take the gloves off this time because I am utterly sick to death of the weak kneed appeasement way you run what had the ability to be the biggest force for uniting US mariners in history but you let it all slip through your fingers because you seem to live in mortal fear of making anyone angry at you. You are no leader of men. You are nothing but another politician and I have no use for slugs like them or you!
Now do you have the courage to go on the forum an tell everyone what you decided to do? you know there will be angry members. I figure you won’t have the guts and it will need to leak out like it did before.
signing off
Mike
His second email:
You have treated me like some enemy for years and would rather toss me out as a voice in the forum to appease shrill dingbat woman. Yes, that is what I believe Sheila Sova to be. Obtuse, unable to see reality…only her zealous cause
I have never once been embraced by you or given once ounce of appreciation for what I bring to the discussion. I know you dislike my manner of speaking in it but it resonates there with a great many yet once again I am summarily booted and for what? The few nuggets short of a happy meal post? I see that one was deleted so figure that must have been it. Pretty tame imo. Did you read the posts which followed which were topical? But it doesn’t mater which post…it is the fact that you relish booting me out! If I am so disliked by you then fine…I quit
So at this point I consider myself through with gCaptain. I will wean myself off of reading it because I will not let this keep being done to me. Further, as I have stated, I do not like what the forum has become and it is no longer a place I enjoy being. Too many good members are already gone and it seems to be infested by the likes of Ombugge who you seem to like having posting voluminously as opposed to myself. I reiterate that the forum had once the ability to be a force to unite the American mariner and be a voice for their interests. you could have turned that into an association with a voice in Washington. If you really cared about the US Merchant Marine and Maritime Industry you would have embraced becoming that leader of men but you just don’t have that in you. You are too weak to lead and because of that I have come to resent your having your authority over me with your site. I ask again if you have the courage to tell the community what you did and why. There will be an outcry and you will take heat. Can you stomach any of that?
Mike, you are correct, gCaptain is a platform capable of doing everything you said it has the potential to do. You are right, all it needs is a leader willing to use it. but… I never said I was a “leader of men”. Unlike you I didn’t attend KP, I attended Schuyler which doesn’t build leaders, it builds doers. And I left usna because I never once wanted to be a “leader of men”, I wanted to be home for my father who was on his death bed and I wanted to build sh!t. I was a Naval Architect major, not poly sci, I wanted to build shit, BIG sh!t like ships.
Yes, the merchant marine needs a leader but I am not that person. I have told you this repeatedly. Apple had it’s steve jobs and it’s wozniak… I am the wozniak. Berkshire Hathaway has a buffet and a munger. I am the munger.
Even if I wanted to be the leader… there is not the time. Nobody can do both. Behind every leader in history is a doer. Someone has to build while the other leads. This is why I have said repeatedly that Schuyler and KP grads gotta stop fighting and work together. One isn’t “better than” the other. We just have a different set of priorities and both are needed today. We need leaders AND builders.
If you want to help the us merchant marine:
stop calling out people who are on your side (like sheila and I),
stop asking people to be who they are not (you say, sheila and I are both nuts. Maybe, but she is effective and I wish we had 10 of her fighting for merchant marine veteran rights. And what sane person would take our jobs where we not inly have to fight all the external forces but constantly fight off attacks from our own side?).
take these 6months along with your considerable intellect and experience into recruiting a few solid leaders who can use this platform I built for the greater good.
First have to stop defecating on your friends. Nobody has done more to support and defend you over the last few years than Mikey and I have. Nobody. Nobody else has spent years defending your case, nobody else has answered hundreds of emails calling for your banishment. And this is how you treat us??
Go find me a leader and we can talk but until then I’m getting back to building things, specifically a new US flag shipping company, and I just don’t have time for running on this F’n hamster wheel. Find us a “leader of men”, let him build consensus on the forum (the right way!) and then we can talk.
I have been around gCaptain forum for quite some time and my drop off in participation over the years can be contributed to both the downturn in the oil field and lack of decorum. While I still read a lot, I rarely log in and post. Both these members have a combined pool of knowledge that is astounding to say the least, but the lack of focus and professionalism is rendering it moot. This is a moment for ALL forum members to reflect upon, myself included, to both fill the void for six months as well as refine our communications with the world. Yes, the world. John has created a site that is read far and wide. From past posts from John I do believe he has referenced several times that as a marketing tool the forum should be shut down and everything moved to a more mainstream social media platform such as facebook and twitter, etc. I sincerely hope that doesn’t happen. But hope doesn’t make the pudding. We have to make it worthwhile. Worthwhile for John. Worthwhile for readers. Worthwhile for members. Worthwhile for mariners. Worthwhile for the media. There has been SO MANY references to the fact the “no one knows what we do”, “no one knows about the American shipping industry”. Yet, we have the opportunity to inform and educate via this platform. Infighting, BS, politics, etc. are an immediate turn-off! We are failing at the most important task we as a community, if we are to have a future, need to execute FLAWLESSLY. Our message is garbled and profane and I dare say a smudge on the gCaptain brand. Where do we go from here?
I believe it is appropriate for me to say that last night I reserved the urls americanprofessionalmariners.org and theamericanmariner.org. I intend now to start my own forum which will be what gcaptain is not. It will only be about the concerns of the US citizen mariner. I will only speak to that constituency and their concerns. In time maybe it will become that national voice for men like me and maybe I will become that leader as there simply is no one else out there to be that man including yourself. Maybe I will fail as I have with many othert avenues I have followed in my life however I do not quit and Ulysses S. Grant failed throughout his life until the Civil War came alone. Maybe your banning me will be that opportunity to become a leader like him. Obviously you could help me but that means taking away members from your forum so I do not expect you to. Just know that whatever my forum becomes it will hit hard and not be a happy place. In fact, the more unhappy it is the better it will be because what we have now is about as bad as we could possibly have/and many voices all echoing the dissatisfaction with our industry and government might be heard somewhere by someone. All I can do it try to do that.
I am only sorry that you have always kept me at such an arms length from you including this new company you want to create. I could be of great benefit advising you but again, you can’t open yourself up to listening to me so good luck with your venture.
My response:
Mike,
I wish you luck. I do. I hope your new forum does everything you hope it does.
But it won’t. What you don’t realize is this is too big a task for you or I to do on our own. It’s not about the platform but the crew who leverages it. We need a crew all on the same ship heading in the same direvtion, not another platform.
Adminsitering a forum is a sh!t ton of work. That’s what you don’t understand. You can’t build a forum AND lead people AND be a d$%# (which IS needed), AND go out and shake hands (doing things online is not enough)
You make an excellent chief mate, a motivator. a person who is a d!ck when needed.
I’m a good ship buiulder and Mikey a great chief engineer keeping the plant running.
What we need is a captain (to lead the men) and and office manager (to attend conferences and actually meet people in person).
One person trying to be all those things just isn’t going to work.
I see gcaptain will be going with the, Freedom of speech only when speech aligns with forum majority narrative, policy. Much like the corporate media in the US.
As a member who should have been banned a few times after posting drunk, and been witness to some of c.captains over the hill moments I have only respect for John and the others keeping this forum up. g.Captain has kept forum members long after other forums would have given a permanent ban.
Free speech, in regards to our 1st amendment protections, does not apply to private enterprise. This forum is not a government program or affiliation so it may dictate what is allowed. Your analogy of the corporate media is correct. They are an entity with an agenda. They enjoy freedom of the press but don’t think for one minute they are for anything except themselves or their message. It’s the same with any entity. I remind everyone: Caveat Emptor! And if it is FREE… super, double, Caveat Emptor!
Both c.captain and ombugge had issues with tact. I personally enjoyed their input and it was a small chore to sift thru the bullshit.
I can’t recall ever a time i was offended by c.captain, but ombugge has a few times.
For me, all small prices to pay for the mostly worthwile contributions they gave.
From an administrators standpoint like John’s, I can totally understand why you did what you did. You do give us a very long leash, I can vouch for that and great appreciate it.
Ombugge, while many of his posts are off topic, generally provides discussion and debate that otherwise we wouldn’t have as a predominantly American shipfearer forum. The same can be said for c captain by providing his nationalistic and hard-lined opinion on most topics presented in the forum. The problem today is once debate and or discussion is presented by one group the other group generally just wants to silence it and avoid the debate and or discussion. While I don’t agree with banning either of them or anyone else for that matter, a description and explanation provided can be appreciated. It’s more than can be said for platforms such as Twitter.
Ombugge, with all his experience, had resorted to pure anti American propaganda. Literally everything he started putting out was tainted by that rhetoric.
C.captain had been alright since the last ban, but a little over the top still… his heart is in the right place, though. I disagree with the bans, on both sides, less people here, less reason for me to come back as well. But it is your forum.
That’s the problem and why they have been allowed to remain for so long. Both are highly knowledgeable, both have unique perspectives that diversify the conversation. Really all they need to do is stay on topic (ombugge) and stop harassing other members (c.captain) and they would be welcome here. The problem is, despite repeat warnings, they can’t.
True… but how many people have left because of these two? We are not counting but we have received dozens of complaints and usually the people logging complaints about them don’t stick around long.
I’m 100% with this. I read this forum a lot but have not commented on here much lately. For me, ccaptain brought absolutely nothing to the table, I will not miss him, his negativity, nor did I ever get much from his post. I almost laughed when I read what he emailed John:
Not me. I think he will get a dose of reality when he tries his new forum, but best of luck to him.
Ombugge, on the hand, did contribute a different point of view and was very knowledgeable BUT did tend to high-jack and derail good strands. The Jones act thread was one I enjoyed reading until he started being every other posting. I will welcome him back if changes his tune a bit.
I like this forum alot and I seriously doubt much will change content wise…well maybe less fights.