Wednesday, October 15, 2008

TheHighRoad.ORG Versus TheHighRoad.US

One of my favorite websites, a firearms forum known as The High Road may soon go the way of the Buffalo. It appears that the two site administrators are claiming ownership of the site, and this has caused some difference of opinion about how the site should be run between them. One of them, Oleg Volk has come out guns blazing, so to speak, and has apparently filed an affidavit in Federal District Court claiming ownership of the rights to the site TheHighRoad.org, and at the same time has created a new site TheHighRoad.US.

It is usually a sad event for many people when something like this takes place because it is usually to the detriment of the site user. Chances are this affair will linger in the courts for a while, and while doing so wounds will be opened up among those who support either Oleg Volk, or those who support Derek Zeahnah the other site administrator. If the complaint indeed spells out the facts as they are, then my support goes to Oleg; however there are usually at least two sides to any dispute and I for one would like to hear from Derek on the other side.

I am hopeful that the community of members of The High Road will not be torn asunder leaving each site with some users loyal to Oleg and Derek because that will mean that one of the best firearms forums/communities on the Internet will have effectually been destroyed. Hopefully both Oleg and Derek will be able to work out their differences in a mutually agreeable manner, and The High Road will continue on as we have known it.


Edited to add:

As for me, regardless of who winds up being the actual owner of The High Road site registration, and of the actual website itself I figure I will continue viewing and writing at The High Road if it keeps itself up to that name. That means that there would have had to have been no underhandedness by the owner of the site. If it winds up that either of the web administrators was being dishonest, I am pretty sure I will not visit the site owned by that person, or both if they both were dishonest. By the way, I am not saying, or implying, either is being dishonest, this all could be a misunderstanding on one or both of their parts. Let the courts decide that now that it is within the realm of the courts. I guess though what I am trying to express is that I like the site the way it was - on the high road so to speak. I also liked the job that both of these guys were doing to keep it running. So if it is just a misunderstanding with no foul play, well then I suppose if it comes to them each going their own way with different websites I'll have to stick with both of them. If one gets the HighRoad.org and the other the HighRoad.us, I'll have them both bookmarked and links to both will appear on the right side of my blog. If however one is being underhanded and it comes out, and I cannot know that until the gun smoke has cleared, then I'll stick with the good guy, the guy who chose to take the high road. That is sort of why I joined The High Road firearms' forums in the first place, because it promised to be just that - the high road.

All the best,
Glenn B

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oleg and his crew have been deleting off topic threads for years. What makes yours any different?

It clearly doesn't follow the TOS.

Why didn't you just "take it to APS"; as other off-topic posters have been advised, what, maybe, 3,000 times in the last year?

Mountain out of a trollhill.

Glenn B said...

Actually my comment was on topic in the General Gun related section since the forums themselves are gun related. Secondly, Oleg did not remove it, but Derek or his admins did as Oleg is now at another site altogether. Maybe you missed that in your zeal to refer to me as a troll. You imply I am a troll at THR, whom are you kidding?I asked for an explanation for the break up of the site, if you think that was trolling, as opposed to a rational inquiry by a concerned member of The High Road, well what can I say - you did not even leave your name here, yet came here to slur me! What does that make you?

Anonymous said...

"Actually my comment was on topic in the General Gun related section since the forums themselves are gun related."

Airing of dirty laundry on the forums has NEVER been allowed, under the Oleg regime, or anyone else.

You know this.

Under Oleg, if you were lucky, you'd be told to "take it to PM", as the thread was locked. Unlucky, you would be banned.

If you persisted (as you did) following explicit request not to air the dirty laundry on the forum pages, you knew the consequences, so quit whining.

Interesting, Oleg banned scores of members over the years. No appeal, no reconsideration, no way!

Only when his own ox got gored, and he decided to make a public feud over it, were his own forum rules applied to him. What a surprise!

Funny how Oleg's adherents seem to forget that part?

Glenn B said...

I have forgotten nothing. My cposts on the High Road have been and remain High Road, and are open, intelligent, and informative. Oleg is handling this manner the same way as far as I can see from what I have learned since I became aware of it yesterday. Derek is keeping all hush hush. There is no dirty laundry being aired here, nor in my thread at THR that was removed. it was a relevant thread about a current topic thatw as related to guns and a gun forum. The truth of the matter is that derek refuses to address this to the THR membership. He could easily send out a mass emailing to all members to explain his side of it, but the absolute truth of the matter is that he has not. Why is it that he hides behind guys like you, who yourself is hiding behind the label annonymous. The only reason I can see is that he has something to hide. Don't give me the BS that it is more high road to not discuss it, the High Road was and remains a DISCUSSION forum. Anything about guns, including talk about other forums, was always permitted in the general gun discussions so long as it was civil, that is until now.

You can keep hiding your identity just as Derek hides his side of the story; but please stop trying to tell me twisted facts instead of the truth.

By the way, I am not supporting Oleg as you seem to think. I still have a link to The High Road.org on my link list. I am still more than open to hearing Derek's side of the story. When is he going to tell it, and where? I am still open to trying to bring the community togewther to help out on this. The thing is though, only one of the site administrators involved is willing to discuss his side of the issue with the rest of the THR community from what I can tell. That is apparently not Derek. So I support leg, in essence, only as much as giving him more credence because he is not deleting posts about this, he is not hushing up the issue, he is in fact keeping it out in the open for all of the THR community to see, and he is not posting replies on my blog annonymously.

Why should there be a problem with asking for Derek's side of the story. Why is there an apaprent problem with him giving it? Again the only logical reason I can fathom that the truth coming out should be a problem for anyone is if that person who is not allowing it to come out benefits from the truth not being seen. Otherwise why not tell it to all involved?

All the best,
Glenn B

Anonymous said...

I hope Oleg gets his precious forums ripped away from him. Justice served indeed!

Glenn B said...

I am simply amazed at how the negative commentors keep their identities hidden by posting annonymous comments here. Is it that you are using the .US site run by Oleg, or that you fear reprisals should he win the law suit at gets back the .org site?

I'll keep allowing such comments here if only to illustrate the underhandedness that I beleive is at the root of the problem at both sites. Personally I don't really care one way or the other who wins if the High Road remains true to its name which neither seems to be doing right now. Wow, look at that - a negative cooment made by me about each site and it was not made annonymously.

Anonymous said...

I love to see these internet forum retards lose what's so precious to them.

They're soooo powerful, little lords in their internet fiefs, and they cry like babies when they have to face the fact that in the real world they are nobodies.

:D

Anonymous said...

Lol, thanks for leaving the anon's comments up, what a retard but good for a few laughs.

Glenn B said...

I can no loner say who was the retard, maybe it was me. I supported Oleg to the point that I asked to have my priveleges to the other (the one tht was no longer Oleg's abck at that time) High Road abolished. Now that Oleg and Derek or whomever are back together under one High Road, I have been permanently banned from it because I asked to have my registration removed from Derks version back then. All that posturing by both of them was ridiculous but you would think that oleg would have given some consideration to me as one of his loyal followers. I tried emailing the site Admin quite some time back but they never even had the courtesy to reply to my emails.

Oh well, there are other forums, but so much for loyalty to Oleg. It got me nothing in return from him from what I can tell.

All the best,
GB