Originally Posted by
Freeebird
For the record, I was never banned. The forum had become an, "us against them", kind of deal, and Doug was getting flack from both sides. With that, I told him I would bow out, at least publicly.
The Sparky1 thing wasn't a comeback and was a username I basically, "inherited". Carl Guzman gave me our friend, Leon's password, just to mess with Leon who was a mutual friend. From there, I made ole Sparky a rich, black man in questionable health, in search of a Hatteras. That brought out the best and the worst of the HOF and turned out to be a great social experiment. Most were trying to help ole' Sparky while others tried their best to sell him something he really didn't need. Those who were sincere were let in on my little game, those who weren't sincere were left to guess. It was an elaborate scheme to flush out a certain broker (who has always hated the ole 'bird), and it worked like a charm! LOL Doug later told me he knew it was me the whole time, given I made no attempt to hide my IP address. As with my previous antics, it was not mean spirited, and I (along with others who were in on it) had a lot of fun with that one. If you wanna have some fun, go back and read Sparky's posts. I have done that more than once and always get a good laugh!
After I outed myself as Sparky1, I decided to come back as myself, but with an extra "e". Doug and I talked about me just coming back as Freebird, but he was concerned that it might open old wounds for those who thought I was nothing but a PITA. I'll readily admit that I got a little carried away with a few of my posts in the early days, but this whole Internet forum thing was brand new for me, and some of y'all were just TOO fun not to mess with!
All that aside, this really is a good group of people who have always gone above and beyond to help out one of their own. The offline support I received when I took the old Bird boat back to Tennessee on one wing was overwhelming. Too bad the new guy didn't come on here to simply introduce himself and reap the benefit from the collective wisdom of this place vs poking everyone in the eye. His loss. It will be interesting to see how this saga plays out as selling a 38 year old Hatteras 58MY especially that one, is a lot different than selling used cars. He should be able to accomplish his goal in turning a profit on that boat as long as the repairs are done right, but my guess is, it will take some creative financing on his part.