Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Does The HighRoad.ORG Have Something To Hide?

The post I mentioned in my last blog, about the problems between Oleg Volk and Derek Zeanah has been removed from TheHighRoad.org.

I also posted the following thread, and it too was either moved or removed:

The High Road - A Schizoprhenic Mess (later changed to Our Community In Trouble)

Since I am about to talk about a gun forum, would hope that the moderators do not shut this down. An earlier thread started by someone else was shut down because it was in the wrong forum when it could just have easily been switched to an appropriate forum by the moderator. This one, placed here, could not be more appropriate since it deals with The High Road forums which are definitely gun related. That other thread was at:

http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=400102 (The thread has since been removed, I guess someone wants to hide the truth of the goings on here at this site, and the new mirror site.)

The High Road is currently involved in a legal battle, or should I say are the site administrators Derek Zeanah and Oleg Volk. Oleg has gone as far as filing a complaint in Federal District Court if I understand correctly, and he has started a new High Road at TheHighRoad.US.The new site can be seen here:
http://www.thehighroad.us According to the complaint the name TheHighRoad.org belongs to Oleg, as does this site. You can see the complaint here:http://www.geovario.com/legal/Complaint1.pdf

I have heard at least part of Oleg's side of the story. To be fair, before making a decision as to which site if either I would like to frequent, I would hope that Derek would give us his side of the story. What say you Derek?

We the users of TheHighRoad.org are a community of firearms enthusiasts who came together because of this site run by both of you. Why not clue us in to your side of the story in the hopes that we can help you guys find a solution to the problem, and so that we can remain a single community instead of separate smaller memberships at different sites.

All the best,
Glenn B

Here is the message I received from one of the site administrators at TheHighRoad.org regarding them moving (or was it removing since I cannot find it and they did not say to where it was moved):

Mr. Bartley,

Derek has deliberately not posted about this because he does not want to wage any sort of public fight, because he thinks such fights are not "The High Road" and because he thinks they are bad for the board. Which they are.

Your post has been moved.

John

Public fights bad for the board - what is bad for the board? My thread was not a fight public or otherwise. My post was an inquiry to find out Derek's side of the story, and a try at helping them find an amenable solution to their problems. It seems though that Derek Zeanah and his minions would rather shroud this whole mess in secrecy, and keep the site membership ignorant of the fact that there has been a parting of ways between him and Oleg Volk.

I must say, now that I have seen how Mr. Zeanah apparently wants to treat the membership of The High Road, all I can say is that it appears some credence has been given to Oleg Volk's side of the story if only because Oleg brought it out into the light of day, and it seems Derek would keep it locked in a dark basement. If not then why is it that Derek Zeanah and his administrators and moderators are moving or deleting threads in which THR members are telling the rest of the membership about this affair. That they don't think a public fight is High Road sounds like pure balderdash to me when it seems by their actions that their plan is obvious - they evidently want to cover all of this up in an attempt to keep the membership ignorant of the fact that there is a problem.

I look forward to using Mr. Volk's forum as opposed to that of Mr. Zeanah since it appears my posts on the subject will be deleted from the site of Mr. Zeanah, and it appears as if Mr. Zeanah prefers secrecy to being open. I would have preferred, as I noted in my earlier blog, to use both sites until this mess was decided by the courts, or by mutual agreement between Derek and Oleg, but it appears as if Derek or his administrator(s) would like to keep me and others like me in the dark. I am not a mushroom, I do not like being kept in the dark and being fed bullshit.

All the best,
Glenn B

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