Response to a Forum Comment from HemiMan

I won’t go into a great deal of detail as to what has occurred, but a former RV Dreams forum participant left a comment on yesterday’s blog. As things occurred on the forums, I believe he deserves some answers to some of the statements he made in his comment, but he also deserves some criticism as well. So, let me first post his comment from the blog into this blog post.

“HemiMan

You might think you know what happened at RV-Dreams.com but you only know what you were told. My posts were modified without my permission and I was mocked and accused of spamming within days of my joining the forum. All I tried to do was ask questions and contribute. My mistake was assuming I would be welcomesd in what is apperantly a closed club.
Also, dont think that you wont be held responsible for your part in seducing others into an early retirement RV travelling lifestyle which is unsustainable. Howard and his wife are slowly going broke with their lifestyle and their attempts to see others do the same is nothing short of a "misery loves company" ploy. A look at their tenuous financial position and their begging for donations shows me to be correct. You dont mind being part of a forum that attempts to convince others to put themselves in a jeapordizing financial position that will ultimately lead to their downfall? I only deleted my posts on that forum because I didnt want them to profit off of my posts and didnt think it was fair to contribute to the madness and deception of others. Clearly that doesnt bother your conscience.”

First of all, HemiMan, you haven’t a clue as to what went on at the RV Dreams forum. In the one post where individual posts were removed, it was done by Howard to remove some comments and your replies to them because they didn’t relate to your original post. That one was the one under the category heading of “RVing Solo.” If you didn’t check back, you should know that Howard had even provided you about 4 or 5 links to sites that were related to your original question.

Now, with all due respect meant, much of your problems with the RV Dreams forum participants are as a result of your own actions. Please allow me to try to explain that.

When people register for the forums at RV Dreams, they normally supply a name and location in their personal profile. Many also supply a quick description of themselves and their dreams. When you registered you did not provide a name or location of any kind (including a possible “false” name.) You also didn’t provide any description of yourself.

As one of the moderators on the RV Dreams forums, it is my responsibility to look at and read every comment that is posted. When greeting new members, I generally look at their profile to see what they have supplied as a name, which is normally something other than their username. In your case, no other name was in the profile, which immediately made me suspicious.

While following your comments on the forum threads, I soon discovered that you were providing substantive and knowledgeable comments and answers, so my suspicions were forgotten. I also can understand that you might prefer that your name not be on an open forum, thus opening yourself up for attempts to defraud you.

However, because you left your profile blank, when the individual saw your “personal” message in the RV’ing Solo category regarding you asking for single ladies to consider traveling with you, they probably looked first at your profile. Seeing nothing in your profile along with the “personal” message is probably what prompted them to ask if it was spam. As a normal rule, spam messages are lacking of information in the profile and the messages sometimes seem irrelevant to most other posts on the forums.

Thus, leaving your profile blank might have just been an open invitation to cause someone to think you were spamming. If you remember the thread, I was next to comment and spoke of the fact that it was not considered spam and that you had made good and substantive posts before in other forum categories.

Another issue is that you provided information in your forum signature that you had a 2009 Mobile Suites 36RSSB3 and a Dodge 1500 4X4 truck. At first, I considered that you had probably mistyped the size of the truck and that you probably meant a Dodge 3500 truck.

When someone merely questioned whether the information in your signature was correct, you seemed to get thin-skinned enough to start complaining about the “weight police” and that people had gotten off-topic on your “personal” thread.

That is when Howard stepped in and removed the unrelated posts, including your answers to them, and then he added some links where you might be able to find a traveling partner. Apparently, that is when you really got aggravated, enough so to leave a message in “Community Chat” deriding Howard and Linda and then hoping that you could meet them face to face so you could tell them personally.

Now, in your comment to my blog posting about the Watts pressure regulator, you included this statement: “Also, dont think that you wont be held responsible for your part in seducing others into an early retirement RV travelling lifestyle which is unsustainable.” I should advise you that in some circles comments about wanting to get “face to face” and the above underlined statement might lead people to believe that you were taking a threatening stance towards others.

I should also add that the largest majority of the participants at RV Dreams are fully aware that not everyone can do the full-time RV lifestyle, at least until they retire. So, we are not responsible for folks being misled. In fact, if you were to spend time looking at Howard and Linda’s financial pages, they pretty well spell out what it costs them for that lifestyle.

Lastly, as the criticism mentioned much earlier, there are a lot of RV Dreams forum participants that know how heavy the Mobile Suites fifth wheels are, and they know that even a “beefed-up” ½ ton pickup is not a safe vehicle for towing. Even if your ½ ton was beefed up close to a ¾ ton truck, it would still be an unsafe vehicle.

A number of those forum participants, including myself, are former professional drivers of trucks of all kinds. In most cases, all of them would be more likely to “suggest” that someone with an inadequate truck get one that was adequate. As an example of inadequate, one RV’er weighs RV rigs at rallies and has posted a list of DRV Suites fifth wheel rigs that he has weighed. A comment at the end of his document stated that 100% of the single rear wheeled trucks were overweight and that 60% of the dual rear wheeled trucks were as well.

So, not intending to be a “weight policeman,” I am merely suggesting that you consider a larger truck for safety purposes. Then you won’t be forced to keep the front of your coach light and drive at speeds in the 40’s. Unfortunately, when you described how you towed your Mobile Suites, I knew that you knew that you were overweight for your truck.

Sadly, when you deleted your own remarks, you deleted some very substantive posts, but you also prevented anyone from checking back to see exactly what it was you said in the questionable comments as well.

Thus, those reading these comments will have to rely on my memory of what occurred.  I also hope that you don’t decide that you should spend time commenting on everyone’s blogs as you have done on mine.

Good luck to you, Sir. Safe travels.