Regarding the posts recently deleted from the DPI thread:
As I stated in the now closed Stasi/Gestapo thread, my comment on the DPI review thread that was deleted was meant to be taken half seriously and half in jest, as Josh previously affirmatively and expressly stated that anyone with Bill Robertson-esque modifications on their car would be blacklisted from doing business with DPI.
It starts at the linked to post and continues throughout the thread:
http://dmctoday.com/showthread.php?6...ll=1#post11287
Many of Bill's modifications could be called red-necky or butchery by those who don't really know or respect what he has done to his car, as his mods have been so attacked as such on this forum many times in the past. Even the #2 man Mike had previously publicly stated that the car wisdom found amongst Today members (specifically referring to both Bill R and Steve Rice) was akin to "duct tape and lawn mower parts."
As Josh revealed in the thread, his reluctance to sell to AdmiralSenn is over concerns about the reputation of his products being used in modifications/projects that he personally doesn't approve of, which AdmiralSenn openly and freely admitted were of the kind that Bill's mods have been likened to on this forum - an admitted basket case cobbled together in frankenstein fashion on a budget. And IMHO, there's nothing wrong with such, as that's what the car hobby is truly all about.
And while Josh has every right as a business person to refuse service to those that he deems are unworthy for whatever reason (so long as such reason doesn't violate federal protected classes laws), I can't help but to see what he ultimately did as being akin to the kind of blacklisting that he was talking about in the thread over on Today.
Accordingly, my comment which was deleted from that thread, which attempted to convey one possibility as to why Josh wasn't getting back to AdmiralSenn, which I've always maintained was half serious and half in jest, turned out to be extremely accurate. And had I not attempted to clarify the situation such as I did, the community never would have known this, as my comment alluding to it had been deleted by an admin for no reason given.
And while Chad's comment did admittedly contain some hearsay, he should have been allowed the opportunity to either substantiate such with evidence or voluntarily withdraw his comment. Regardless, the non-hearsay elements of his comment should have been permitted to remain in tact.
I also found it quite interesting that the comments at issue were deleted within a matter of minutes - the admin responsible had the time to delete them so quickly, but didn't have the time to offer an explanation of their action over 12 hours after-the-fact? Having been viewing the 'who's online' section during that interlude, I can say for certain that DPI Josh was PM'ing someone as soon as those comments hit the thread. Magically, admins began logging on, and then within minutes of the posts going live, they were deleted. But not a single admin had the time to offer an explanation, despite having publicly explained why they closed threads (of completely innocent OPs, BTW) wherein they experienced problems with Prof Hinkley - SERIOUSLY?!?! That doesn't look very good, IMHO.
The comments definitely shouldn't have been deleted, absent some sort of collusion with the vendor, as that's the only logical conclusion that remained, which is why I asserted such as I did.
The community at large has freely derided and openly attacked blacklisting practices since their known existence - and for good reason, as it's bad business IMHO, not to mention how such practices eventually led to the downfall of what formerly was the largest source of DeLorean parts and service in the world.
DeLorean1 / Ed Bernstein blacklisted VINs when he perceived their current owners to be troublemakers, whereas Josh is now just blacklisting the current owners that he perceives as being troublemakers. Otherwise, there's no discernible difference here. Ed also adamantly and openly held himself/business out as being second to none and the best when it came to DeLoreans, while constantly and consistently trash talking his competition, and I'll let Josh's own assertions speak for DPI in such regard, but needless to say, it's an eerily similar pattern that one can observe.
Good day to all,
--Josh S.
#1798