How Do We Know?

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Considering this topic is getting out of control rather quickly now, it is getting personal and has therefore been locked. Please do not start another.

 

I have never understood, personally, why people who can read and understand what is written, still go on at length about what was written already, in a manner that all should be able to understand, as far as I am aware anyway.

Let me repeat it here, in different words.

 

Montblanc representatives asked us in a very friendly manner to hide the topics discussing their soon to be released new pens, including the images to which they hold the copyright.

 

It was simply too much work to try and check out everything, so these topics, 4 of them to be exact, were hidden, and because we did not want people wondering why this happened, we posted a message here in the form of a new topic.

My mistake for not immediately locking it, but hey, last I looked I still was a member of the human race. It was meant as an announcement, not as a new discussion topic.

 

The reason for the request to hide these topics was simple. Montblanc has planned and orchestrated official announcements starting April 5, and they would prefer it to be their initiative.

It is a common courtesy thing, as someone rightfully remarked, to allow Montblanc to do that.

 

Anything else, said in other places on the internet, is pure conjecture, speculation, innuendo, gossip, the apparent need to get more attention, unfounded accusations, insinuations or even worse.

Please note that it is our policy to refuse to bow to any threats or bullying anywhere else on the 'net, to defend ourselves or our motives - we are not accountable or answerable to anybody out there, but to ourselves. If we really do something wrong, we will publicly apologize, like with the RSS-feed forum almost a year ago. Well intended, but clearly not right.

 

In this case it is different, however.

We do moderate FPN relatively heavily compared to other places, because we want to keep this a pleasant, friendly, and respectful place, as much as we can. This includes behaviour towards legal entities, aka, companies. Call it censorship if you like, or lack of free speech. Fine, but this is a place where you agree with the rules when joining up, and that is in the rules. We have people from many cultures, countries, ages, backgrounds, etc. joining us, and that is why there are those rules. We don't like trolling, insults, personal attacks, or offensive behaviour, as we feel fit. We want to make everybody feel welcome here.

 

Anyway, to get back to Montblanc: they are or were a company with a certain approach, which may not (have) fit too well with the digital age. That is changing however, with the arrival, IMO, of some new directors last year. For the first time ever we have been in discussion about the way forward, and we will meet with Montblanc representatives later this month. For starters we have been promised we will receive the official press materials from here onwards, and the release dates. Details we will discuss in the mentioned meeting, plus several other subjects I am not at liberty to discuss yet.

 

We will report back on this meeting as soon as we can.

 

If you have any specific constructive questions or contributions, feel free to contact me backchannel, by PM or email.

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim

Chief FPN Admin