More thanks

[belladella]

Thank you for all of your PMs and emails of support. I was truly saddened to read the details of hurt and betrayal so many of you expressed. I was disturbed by the pain you felt about having your joyous experience at Nationals turned completely upside down. The damage has been done, but we can only hope that through our cooperative efforts it can be reversed.

Yes, there is definitely a rift here in MKF, and some of us of will try to resolve it and others will just walk away. Whatever you decide to do, please stay in touch with your friends here.

I just might show up at Portland and St. Louis and I'll be glad to see you again.

By the way, thanks for the new nickname - Belladella the bulldog - that's a far cry from the Silver Fox.

[Jarrett]

You better be in St. Louis! 8)

[jlta]

Jarrett, I second that!!!

[patsue]

Oh Bella--I truly hope you do show up in Portland--I have so enjoyed your posts here.

[Shiprock]

Hey BellaDella!

I only met you once at Worlds DC, New York fan (something like that) and I believe Kwanette. Thanks for taking the picture of me with Peter T. (ice dancer). I'll always remember meeting you guys, even tho it was very brief. It was so very exciting to actually be at a World Championship and when I met you guys or rather when I introduce myself, I was on a high to just actually be at a Worlds and to actually make it there with all the security and the US/Irag conflict/war starting. So, meeting you guys and the whole experience of Worlds and DC was quite an experience and might meet you guys at Portland and St. Louis (will be my first US Competition).

[Terri]

We're going to have an awesome time in Portland so you'd better plan on showing up!

[Beach Springer]

Whether bulldog or silver fox, you're still one classy lady! You Rach!!!

[katsk8]

I second that Beach Springer!

[Teacher1]

You better be there with new nails and a color coordinating scarf! I happen to like the den mother nickname myself!!

[kwanette]

Diva Dell...

[vive_la_reine]

You never know when our paths might cross again, but when they do, I will be very happy to see you. Hugs to you, Dell!

[kwanluv]

Wise words from Dell :)

I'll be in St. Louis...cheering on all the skaters...can't wait to meet so many of you. :)

[nymkfan51]

Hugs and more hugs to you Dell ...

And Kwanluv ... can't wait to meet you too! :)

[Ashley]

I just want to say that I hope both sides can see through the shanannagons going on here and can come together again.

I plan on being in St Louie, and I hope to meet you all as well :)

[lavender]

I hope someday I meet you dell and a few others.

[Sharon]

Me too...I'm hoping to be at Nats 2006 at least, and I would love to meet you Dell and several others too (kwanette, that means you need to take another train trip with Norma :) )!

[kwanette]

God willing, nymkfan51 and I will be in St. Louis. We may not take the train, but Hokie (Norma) may be driving Miss Daisy...(me).And you thought Thelma and Louise on the road were a pair...

[centerstagequeen]

Dear Dell, taf, kwanette, gracies, kwanluv and many others who felt hurted:

I just want to say sometimes @#%$ happens. We don't like it but I guess that's life. At moment like this, let's give ourselves a big, warm hug and think about all those beautiful things we have.

You know you are loved, respected and trusted by many members here. Because all your efforts, MKF is such a wonderful, special place for MKFers. I sincerely hope that we will continue enjoy Michelle's skating and the unique family-like friendship we created in this froum. :)

I love you as much as I love Michelle. So proud to be MKFers!:LP

[kwanluv]

centerstagequeen you RACH :)
We all love this place and we will get through it.

Worlds BABY!

[graciesfriend]

Hugs to all my MKF friends on this thread (and even those who aren't:lol ) All I can say is, if I have 1/10 of the fun I had in kwanlanta in kwortland and St. Louis (haven't figured out how to "kwan" St. Louis yet) I'll have a blast! Keep the faith!

[ItsGr82BASk8er]

I'm putting this in here because another thread, where part of this message might have been relevant, has been locked.

I think it is very telling that a number of threads have been deleted, undeleted, locked, etc where the opinion does not jibe with that of those in this thread.

Something is very wrong at MKF. It reminds me of the dagobyte days. Oddly (and thankfully), the true owner(s?) of the board are not a part of it - they are gone.

And the minute they leave, or become involved in their regular lives, strangeness takes over.

When stuff like this happens, we all need a cup of hot cocoa and a hug, right? The others are off their rockers. They are just trolls, or jealous, or hateful, etc. We should all just continue as before. After all, we are all in agreement, right?

I think we all need to look in the mirror and ask "what if what is being said by the other side is even a little bit true."

I've never seen such lack of moderation from the moderators. And I have never seen such defensiveness to, prior to belladella's reopening of an issue specifically CLOSED by moderators, non-specific, gently put opinions that some at Nats may have been behaving a bit wildly by skating culture standards. I haven't seen anything this strange at MKF ever. Period. It is worse than dagobyte days, and worse than the days when someone was threatening Heather with nonsense.

What is going on here?
Peace,
Mike

[beachgirl205]

Mike, "telling" doesn't even begin to discribe it. How about "down right ridiculous"? Btw, what are the dogobyte days?

[Sharon]

Uh, I see 4 pages (80 posts per page for me) on the thread Kim started and the one Dell started was closed rather quickly, so I don't quite understand your post about everthing having to jibe to the opinion on this thread Mike, honestly.

[bwheeler]

that much of what is going on reminds me of the dagobyte affair. I also agree, Mike, that the whole thing seems strange.

Of course, since so much has been locked, edited, deleted, put back, etc. it is difficult for a neutral person to even begin to understand the charges and counter-charges.

So much is indefinite and so much has to be read between the lines that I could not even attempt a summary of what has occurred. And this is bad because it may lead to bad consequences for the Forum, the well-being of which is my main concern.

I am not happy with how this has been handled by the moderators. Hopefully, Heather will solve her own problems and be able to resolve this in a peaceful and fair manner.
I do have full faith in Heather and Jenny's fairness and calmness in dealing with such matters.

Beachgirl205, the dagobyte affair was the previous most disruptive event in the Forum's history and resulted in the banning of a number of posters. I have full documentation on it but will not describe what happened because now is not the time for that...

[centerstagequeen]

I think your post is not directly point to anyone but I have something to say:

I (and I think many posters here are too) never doubt that there are possibilities that some MKFers or non-MkFers behave out of line in competetions. Bad behavior is not cool at all and hopefully, we all have the ability to think about our own behavior and behave the way we want to be treated.

For me, personally, if I saw anything I think is really inappropriate or dangerous in any situation, whether they are my family, my friends or strangers, I will always first try to talk to them directly, politely and see how they respond.

Now I visit this froum everyday and like many MKFers a lot (including you) by reading their posts even if I never get the chance to meet them.

There are many things you guys talked about in your posts that I may never have the wisdom to understand whether it's about technical, skill, personal opinions or whatever.

The only thing I know is, I love Michelle and I love MKF. There were/will be many competetions that I didn't /will not be able to attend. Even if I attend, I can't be everywhere to observe everything.

Even if I did get the chance to see everything it doesn't mean whatever I saw will always be the truth. I may saw fan X yell to fan Y and thought that fan X was mean. But who knows? Maybe fan Y have hearing problem and he will not hear anything unless we yell to him.

Do you understand what I'm trying to say?

Why should I worry about if what those posters said about others are true or not since they never specificly point out who did what by when? Even if what they said is true so what? What can we do? Never let them post? Make "MKFers behavior rule book" or what? Maybe I'm just too stupid to come up with any constructive suggestions for this froum regarding this problem.

What I know is, I cannot control others' behavior nor am I in any position to judge them, either. That's why I will talk to people directly so that we will have chance to communicate and understand each other without risking any misunderstanding. I will talk to them directly so I can take my chance to make a difference if what I thought should be done are really that better than what others did.

I want you to know that I'm not angry. If I sound aggressive in my post then I apologize. I guess I'm just frustrated during these days. I came here 'cause I want to read something about Michelle, about skating. I came here because I want to know how other members are doing and if today they have any news to share. I came here because I love you guys and I feel so warm so comfortable to be here. Here, people will completely understand my passion about Michelle and her skating.

If we go to Sasha's board (sorry for board dragging), after competetion we will see her fans celebrate her win and claim she is the best ever even if she lost the game. Michelle is American's 8 time Nationals champion and we came here to read fans talked about how bad her program is and now, we even attack each other.

Sure her program is not perfect. Sure none of us are perfect. But why? Why can't we share more joy and being as crazy happy as we want in our posts from time to time to talk about her amazing performances in more threads? There are many skating boards out there. Many people are not crazy about Michelle's skating. Can we leave more chance for them to do the criticism and we either stay here continue doing our victory dancing or jump to their boards to defend Michelle just like how some fans came here to defend their girl?

I know I'm getting ridiculous. But once in a while, let me whine a little bit, please.....:(


I hope everyone who felt hurt to give themselves a big warm hug. EVERYONE WHO FELT HURT HERE. Everyone who posts here are all MKFers. Let's be more gentle and more considerate to each other, O.K? I don't take anyone's side 'cause I have my own thoughts and I will never ever understand what's going on in other people's eyes. The only thing I can do is learning how to really respect others because I want to be treated with respect, too.

Peace.:LP

[Beth2000]

Well, if I am going to St. Louis Dell, you had better believe that you will be there :)

Dell, I always and still do think that you are one classy lady :) I hope to continue to read your posts :)

[ItsGr82BASk8er]

Centerstage, I thought your posting style was great. You are a good communicator.

This is my only point in this thread. I find it disturbing that a number of people in this forum made some vague commments about fan behavior at events, and now we have threads being closed or deleted, and posts being deleted. It seems rather elitist.

In one of these threads, I saw one of my personal favorite posters specically addressed. Do I know this woman personally? No. But I have known her as a poster for years, and have a lot of respect for who she appears to be.

Did THIS woman go over the edge? No. She actually remained IN THE THREAD, took the comments, and I assume evaluated them on her own as to their relevance. If she can do this (and she was very specifically addressed), why can't everyone?

And I don't think the people making the vague comments are all bad either. Seriously. All I took from their posts (prior to things getting ugle, when a thread was closed and then a poster on THIS side of the argument DISRESPECTED the moderator's choice to close the thread and opened a blatantly HOSTILE one) was a heads up: "hey, this is how things might appear to outsiders. Just think about it and do what you will with the info."

Maybe I misread all those posts. Maybe things were editted by moderators? But that was my reasonable reading. Then things started getting so wierd with threads being altered and deleted that I actually had to go to another forum to figure out what the heck has been going on here with the moderated opinion.

I too think this is an awesome forum. I've been coming here for years. I think Heather is probably one of the best forum leaders I have seen on the net. She is consistently level-headed, fair, tolerant (yes, of my comments too at times). And she does all this expecting nothing in return from any of us, or from Kwan. What a remarkable quality. Yes, she has had multiple interactions with Kwan, but I can't think of asingle one where I thought "wow - she is getting a bit demanding for a fan." And that is remarkable, since I am a bit sensitive to privacy issues. It is also remarkable when one considers what she has done to benefit Kwan in an almost direct manner.

But this place has been getting strange of late. In a moderator sort of way in regard to this specific issue, and in regard to how a difference of opinion on fan behavior has been completely dismissed, treated as troll-like, etc. THAT AIN'T THE MKF I HAVE KNOWN FOR YEARS.

Peace,
Mike

[centerstagequeen]

Mike,

I really appreciate your kind words and post. Thank you.

Let's hope MKF will go back on track very soon. Let's continue enjoy skating. And I also hope one day I will get the chance to meet you.:RB

[VeryColdWater]

I think part of the problems stem from the sudden drop in skating events. I think the fans are bored and so instead of discussing skating they are attacking each other. It's human nature. I wish we could turn some of this animosity on the governing bodies of the sport and ask them to truly address what plagues the sport. Instead we plague each other.

Sometimes we have to remember that not every situation deserves an opinion. Once again that goes against basic human nature, tit for tat and all that.

[Jenny]

I'm sorry that I wasn't more clear in my other post on this subject. I should have said "please refrain from starting any new topics about the situation or discussing the situation in any existing topics until we post again." That's not to say that your opinions here aren't valid, but we'd appreciate a halt on these discussions until we have time to evaluate everything. Thanks.

[Sharon]

I'm so sorry...BIG apologies Jenny. I didn't notice the sticky until after I had posted.

[ItsGr82BASk8er]

jen,

done. Sorry . I read your sticky, but then noticed that this was the one thread left open, and assumed (wrongfully) that this was the one viewpoint that would be allowed until you and heather bumped heads, etc.

seriously, my apologies. I read it incorrectly.

Mike

[oxman]

Dell...luv and huggs to ya girl! Yo RACH. I luv all members of this here board, and lookin' foward to a meetin wit yo. St. Louis, home of my man Nelly. I be dere wit ya all. I leavin' my colors at the door and representin' Michelle and the members of this here board.
Luv to ya'll. Don't yo be sweatin' doggs. Oxman here and things gonna get bested.
We out wit luv and spect.