Stop Unfair Treatment by Scott Peterson of Saabnet

Wouldn't be a whole lot easier just to boycott Saabnet?

Yes. That's what I'm doing from now on. Saabnet doesn't have anything which can't be found elsewhere and generally in a better-managed environment.

Craig.

I haven't been banned by him, but I don't contribute suggestions there because I've read messages here, from trusted, valuable members of the group, about how the articles they wrote dissapeared when Scott suddenly had a problem with them. So, I'm not seeing the sponsor's ads because of Scott's behavior, which is effectively the same thing from their perspective.

To be clear: I won't go through the effort of writing a howto: article, only to risk it going away at the whim of anyone - as has happened to contributors here.

I'm not sure that'll get anwhere, but, knock yourself out. Man's gotta have a project, I suppose.

I have no idea who his sponsors are, but I bet my tire guy isn't one of 'em.

Well now, here your tone crosses from "hey, this is a problem" to sounding a bit over the top - if this is the tone in the message to the sponsors, they're likely to write you off as someone with a personal grudge, rather than someone giving them useful business intelligence. Gotta watch that, or the effectiveness of the letter drops to the bottom of the trash can.

I wouldn't know who those sponsors are, and before you get all excited about boycots, do yourself a favor and learn how effective they aren't. Don't get me wrong - I'm certainly not defending the guy, but don't make it come across as a rant, is what I'm saying.

Charles Schwartz,

Here here,

I will help you in any way I can. His practices are disturbing and arrogant at best. Any efforts to communicate with people effectively are "censored" based on a set of personal rules opposed to common sense, which is very annoying.

SaabGuy

Thanks, Saab Guy.

To those of you who are too young to remember just how effective boycotts can steill be, all I can say is Sinclair Broadcasting. There are thousands of people who threatened Sinclair with a boycott last year and they backed down from a planned airing of a biased documentary.

Saabnet basically has the following current sponsors:

At least two of these sponsors know me and value my business. I will let them know that I have been restricted from posting messages by Scott because I criticized GM for not developing hybrid technology and for using an old wet sleeve design in the new V6 used in the 9-3 Combi. I also critcized the

9-7 as not being correctly aimed at the Saab buyer who wants an efficient performance car.Yes, that is why I got banned. And my unrelated comments were deleted.

If they can get through to Scott to create a fairer system, I will continue to use them. If not, I will find other suppliers. It is my money and my choice. If you want to continue to give your money to companies which support Saabnet, you can do so.

If I am thinking of the right place, I unsubscribed a while ago. I used to contribute my little knowledge on c900s.

Regards Charles

personal opinion, but I think this is a waste of time.

If you have a problem with Scott, just don't visit his site. The best thing to do is join another group that values your opinion. There are many other options other than Saabnet. Scott does not have a monopoly on anything. He has a widely used portal and has helped a lot of people and has made a business of it. Good for him. If you disagree, just go elsewhere. If it is truly not good, its members will go elsewhere and decrease in number.

$0.02,

Keith

Charles wrote:

"KeithG" skrev i en meddelelse news: snipped-for-privacy@wideopenwest.com...

What do you think "we" should do then: I used to frequent Saabnet, but got banned at one time, because he banned my ISP. My ISP is the largets in Denmark (70+ %) of the population. So about 2 million Danes couldn't access Saabnet from here - because ONE individual didn't comply with Scott "The Snots" rules.

Cheers!

Henrik,

Yea, that guy is a moron.

SaabGuy

My parts guy is a Saabnet sponsor, and even he has been banned from posting on the site! Scott is a PITA but he sends a LOT of business to Saabnet advertisers. It's cheaper than paying to get up the ranks on google. BTW, I think Scott has a lot of money even without Saabnet's ($100k/yr or so?) revenue.

That makes me sick that Scott makes this kind of money

SaabGuy

I don't see what the big deal is...just go elsewhere. By posting about them you're only giving them a free advertisement.

Why not just visit saabcentral.com? Plenty of much better organized forums. I haven't found any reason to complain about those user forums. No censorship (afaik). Anyone have any complaints about them?

imho, while saabnet's censorship may be a problem, I think the larger problem for saabnet, is that it just looks and feels like a half-assed, ill-conceived site. From the comments assembled here, its owner/operator doesn't appear to be much wiser than his website conveys.

- tex

Just remember that the rest of us who offer services like forums, howto pages, etc. for free are doing it because we're enthusiastic about helping other Saab owners/enthusiasts since we're Saab owners/enthusiasts ourselves! I'm sure the people behind Saabscene.co.uk and saablink.net would agree with me (and I know some of you read this newsgroup!).

Saabnet can become more and more commercial and that's Scott's perogative to go that way. Meanwhile the free 'open-source' Saab owner/enthusiast community can continue to grow regardless of Saabnet's antics.

Regards,

Craig.

Those of you who said I was making too big a deal about this were right. I have reconsidered and I will let this go.

Scott's site is like his store. It is not a public forum. He can tell whomever he wants to shut up or leave. That is reality about the his website.

And I won't be visiting his site anymore either.

Well, far as I can tell, Saabnet's GUI hasn't changed in many, many years. So, for the time it was made, it was acceptable from a display perspective. The "search" function has always been nearly useless, the message threading is strange, and to be honest, the only thing I've used it for in years is refering people to the high-mileage saabs list.

It "solves" a problem that is better solved by usenet, or maybe by other discussion boards. I don't see what the problem is, just avoid the guy. Tell his sponsors why if you want, I suppose.

owner/operator

"stop moaning about the unfair treatment by Scott Peterson of Saabnet" His site - his rules. If this isn't just a personal vendetta, why don't you all stop whining about Saabnet and build your own "better" alternative site? You could even give Saabguy some space to host "his" videos...

Um, I'm not, Bob.

Um, I'm not, Bob.

I could, but (a) I didn't care for his attitude, (b) he's in my killfile, and (c) I'm not sure I want to be the person getting a cease & desist letter for hosting copyrighted materials. Not worth the risk.

As usenet is an alternative to Saabnet, and seeing as how nobody owns it, it would seem as good a place as any to post a complaint about a site that claims to be a presumably unbiased source of information for Saab owners, but then censors content aggressively because of sponsorships. Just as Scott has the right to do this, he must accept that others have a right to expose his behavior on usenet.

Although I actually use and like Saabnet, I don't have a problem with your approach, Charles. If you are upset with the service there, by all means you should boycott, and even write those letters to the sponsors if you wish. You are the consumer, and if you are unhappy, you should use every means at your disposal to bring about change.

That's why we all get crappy service the world over.. Not enough customers doing this. Most just whimp out when they get mistreated.

! Sorry Dave - Didn't mean it to look like I was having a go at you. I'll be more careful in future.. (Wednesday night is a "wine night" for us)....