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Maximum - Jackson closed by domain owner.

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Personally, I am glad that the site has finally closed. Greg made the right decision. Maximum Jackson, in its conception, was an amazing community for Michael Jackson fans. Though it was one of the smaller ones, people were made to feel a part of a family, and opinions felt welcomed by the staff. However, in its last year--more specifically, its last few months--it became a dry, empty place full of sarcasm, condescension and tyranny. It did not end the way it began, and I am glad that Greg finally decided that Maximum Jackson--the place and the name--had run its course.

I am a former poster on the site, and I am also a banned member. After being a faithful poster for 3 years, having the 3rd highest post rate and immaculate reputations, the team (rather, someone on the team) decided that I was there only to "cause trouble". At the time of my banning, I had not been posting much due to personal engagements as well as the lack of desire to even access the site. In the last year and a half, the atmosphere completely changed. In what seemed like a way to mold and filter the minds of the members, the team started adding asinine posting requirements in terms of content that made one fear a ban or some kind of infraction in the event that a team member simply did not like the way that member posted or what that member posted. They may not admit that this was the case, but a great deal of members did, whether they were silent or not.

With the closure of the sight, I hope certain former founders realize that using a forum as a scene for the alter-ego to make its stage debut, or to fulfill missed life opportunities, is neither pleasant nor appreciated. The manner of attacking--not opposing, but attacking--members' posts was in no way for the sake of argument many times, and the condescension for reasons of age, education or economic status were unbearable and the people who participated in such actions have finally been stopped. Once, they were good people but they seemed to get too power hungry.

At the end of the day, MaxJax was a great place and has great memories. I found some lifelong friends there--amazing posters, amazing staff and an overall amazing environment. But the place we once called "the Jax" is no more and has been for quite some time. Now, that was made physically clear by the site's closure. It was done in time while the good memories are still fresh.
 
ivy said:
magical michael wrote



Killer queen response



Pompous Git response



there were other members saying that as well. To me that's disappointing coming from any MJ fan - not limited to forum admins.

Anyway I said what I wanted to say.

Source : go to google and search for "How is Max Jax treating Michael" and read the first 10 posts from cache.
Click to expand...

I am not a compliment kind of person, but this post is the best illustration of who PG was and by whom Max-Jax was run. So thanks for this useful post Ivy.

There is one thing I don't understand though, how could some MJ fans even think of thanking PG for his arrogant and disrespectful posts? And now seeing some defending him, I am sorry, but it's just beyond my comprehension as a MJ fan.
 
I know we're not meant to go into specifics here in this thread, but seeing as others have opened up I thought I would too.

I was originally a Moderator on MaxJax towards the end of 2008 and throughout most of 2009. I will say there was a way the forum was run that was very oppressive towards us...in that, being a Moderator you basically had to follow the opinions of the rest of the team and if you stepped out of line, you'd most likely get thrown off for "personal reasons". This happened so often that you started to believe that what you were doing was good; "cleaning up" threads that weren't offensive, getting rid of people that had differing opinions, basically acting like a jerk to your own friends on the forum because you were so afraid of getting thrown off yourself. There was a lot of hypocrisy going on and there were internal things happening that made me quite upset.

Imagine this; you go into a thread as a Moderator and express your own, personal feelings on something. Another Moderator scolds you for expressing these viewpoints because as a Mod, you're meant to be "neutral" and thus not allowed to have your own voice. Further more, this thread may have nothing to do with Michael at all, it's a thread for discussion over general, society-related things. This Moderator in particular has the opposing view point from you. Because of such, they decide to slander your name all over the forum and even go as far to call you the devil. However their actions are never formally dealt with even though they should rightly be thrown off the team - because they've been a Moderator and a "good member" longer than you have.

Case in point, I stepped down from being a Moderator because of things like this. I became a regular member again and felt freedom that I hadn't in over a year being a part of the team.

In regards to my banning? There was a thread on the Japan Earthquake and somebody went in there and said something to the effect of, "Oh those poor people...my heart goes out to them :(" to which some other member replied with something like, "This is a thread for facts ONLY, posts as such as not welcome". I came in, scolded that person (this was when I was a regular member again) and said that everybody is allowed to express their feelings over a tragedy. Somebody reported my post and I got a temp ban. Confused, I challenged it and approached PG on friendly terms asking what was up. He said that I was disrespectful and that I should not approach a Founder in that tone. I knew in fact what was going on behind the scenes, told him as such and then the Moderator I previously mentioned decided to ban me - without ANY input of the rest of the team - for life.

Why? Because that was their sweet revenge. Don't you just love it.

So yup, that's basically one of the many reasons why MaxJax was not all it was cut out to be. I won't miss it one bit.
 
Just for my part: I wasn't aware of such postings from PG and KQ.
 
Korgnex said:
Thanks ivy, in that case I'm on your side. Even though you could personally see it that way, as a founder of a Michael Jackson forum, this is simply disgusting!



I'm only aware of the bans that were justified (e.g. Kapital and Niall were banned because they couldn't stop insulting me). I don't know about this "censorship". You would have to fill me in.
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All those who were banned permanently for no solid reason were automatically censored and couldn't voice their opinion any more. Read all the people witnessing on this thread, including some MJJC staff like Lucilla.
 
kindofdisco said:
I know we're not meant to go into specifics here in this thread, but seeing as others have opened up I thought I would too.

I was originally a Moderator on MaxJax towards the end of 2008 and throughout most of 2009. I will say there was a way the forum was run that was very oppressive towards us...in that, being a Moderator you basically had to follow the opinions of the rest of the team and if you stepped out of line, you'd most likely get thrown off for "personal reasons". This happened so often that you started to believe that what you were doing was good; "cleaning up" threads that weren't offensive, getting rid of people that had differing opinions, basically acting like a jerk to your own friends on the forum because you were so afraid of getting thrown off yourself. There was a lot of hypocrisy going on and there were internal things happening that made me quite upset.

Imagine this; you go into a thread as a Moderator and express your own, personal feelings on something. Another Moderator scolds you for expressing these viewpoints because as a Mod, you're meant to be "neutral" and thus not allowed to have your own voice. Further more, this thread may have nothing to do with Michael at all, it's a thread for discussion over general, society-related things. This Moderator in particular has the opposing view point from you. Because of such, they decide to slander your name all over the forum and even go as far to call you the devil. However their actions are never formally dealt with even though they should rightly be thrown off the team - because they've been a Moderator and a "good member" longer than you have.

Case in point, I stepped down from being a Moderator because of things like this. I became a regular member again and felt freedom that I hadn't in over a year being a part of the team.

In regards to my banning? There was a thread on the Japan Earthquake and somebody went in there and said something to the effect of, "Oh those poor people...my heart goes out to them :(" to which some other member replied with something like, "This is a thread for facts ONLY, posts as such as not welcome". I came in, scolded that person (this was when I was a regular member again) and said that everybody is allowed to express their feelings over a tragedy. Somebody reported my post and I got a temp ban. Confused, I challenged it and approached PG on friendly terms asking what was up. He said that I was disrespectful and that I should not approach a Founder in that tone. I knew in fact what was going on behind the scenes, told him as such and then the Moderator I previously mentioned decided to ban me - without ANY input of the rest of the team - for life.

Why? Because that was their sweet revenge. Don't you just love it.

So yup, that's basically one of the many reasons why MaxJax was not all it was cut out to be. I won't miss it one bit.
Click to expand...

Unbelievable....
 
kindofdisco said:
I know we're not meant to go into specifics here in this thread, but seeing as others have opened up I thought I would too.

I was originally a Moderator on MaxJax towards the end of 2008 and throughout most of 2009. I will say there was a way the forum was run that was very oppressive towards us...in that, being a Moderator you basically had to follow the opinions of the rest of the team and if you stepped out of line, you'd most likely get thrown off for "personal reasons". This happened so often that you started to believe that what you were doing was good; "cleaning up" threads that weren't offensive, getting rid of people that had differing opinions, basically acting like a jerk to your own friends on the forum because you were so afraid of getting thrown off yourself. There was a lot of hypocrisy going on and there were internal things happening that made me quite upset.

Imagine this; you go into a thread as a Moderator and express your own, personal feelings on something. Another Moderator scolds you for expressing these viewpoints because as a Mod, you're meant to be "neutral" and thus not allowed to have your own voice. Further more, this thread may have nothing to do with Michael at all, it's a thread for discussion over general, society-related things. This Moderator in particular has the opposing view point from you. Because of such, they decide to slander your name all over the forum and even go as far to call you the devil. However their actions are never formally dealt with even though they should rightly be thrown off the team - because they've been a Moderator and a "good member" longer than you have.

Case in point, I stepped down from being a Moderator because of things like this. I became a regular member again and felt freedom that I hadn't in over a year being a part of the team.

In regards to my banning? There was a thread on the Japan Earthquake and somebody went in there and said something to the effect of, "Oh those poor people...my heart goes out to them :(" to which some other member replied with something like, "This is a thread for facts ONLY, posts as such as not welcome". I came in, scolded that person (this was when I was a regular member again) and said that everybody is allowed to express their feelings over a tragedy. Somebody reported my post and I got a temp ban. Confused, I challenged it and approached PG on friendly terms asking what was up. He said that I was disrespectful and that I should not approach a Founder in that tone. I knew in fact what was going on behind the scenes, told him as such and then the Moderator I previously mentioned decided to ban me - without ANY input of the rest of the team - for life.

Why? Because that was their sweet revenge. Don't you just love it.

So yup, that's basically one of the many reasons why MaxJax was not all it was cut out to be. I won't miss it one bit.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a sect...
 
Oh gawd. Not this bickering again. There was enough of that at Max Jax. Now that has gone, don't bring it to other MJ boards.

I'm surprised, that Gary (Pompous) hasn't commented on this thread, about how he feels.
 
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tyff says whoa said:
Personally, I am glad that the site has finally closed. Greg made the right decision. Maximum Jackson, in its conception, was an amazing community for Michael Jackson fans. Though it was one of the smaller ones, people were made to feel a part of a family, and opinions felt welcomed by the staff. However, in its last year--more specifically, its last few months--it became a dry, empty place full of sarcasm, condescension and tyranny. It did not end the way it began, and I am glad that Greg finally decided that Maximum Jackson--the place and the name--had run its course.

I am a former poster on the site, and I am also a banned member. After being a faithful poster for 3 years, having the 3rd highest post rate and immaculate reputations, the team (rather, someone on the team) decided that I was there only to "cause trouble". At the time of my banning, I had not been posting much due to personal engagements as well as the lack of desire to even access the site. In the last year and a half, the atmosphere completely changed. In what seemed like a way to mold and filter the minds of the members, the team started adding asinine posting requirements in terms of content that made one fear a ban or some kind of infraction in the event that a team member simply did not like the way that member posted or what that member posted. They may not admit that this was the case, but a great deal of members did, whether they were silent or not.

With the closure of the sight, I hope certain former founders realize that using a forum as a scene for the alter-ego to make its stage debut, or to fulfill missed life opportunities, is neither pleasant nor appreciated. The manner of attacking--not opposing, but attacking--members' posts was in no way for the sake of argument many times, and the condescension for reasons of age, education or economic status were unbearable and the people who participated in such actions have finally been stopped. Once, they were good people but they seemed to get too power hungry.

At the end of the day, MaxJax was a great place and has great memories. I found some lifelong friends there--amazing posters, amazing staff and an overall amazing environment. But the place we once called "the Jax" is no more and has been for quite some time. Now, that was made physically clear by the site's closure. It was done in time while the good memories are still fresh.
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Brilliant post. I remember when i logged in and i saw that you, Blackcat, if i am not mistaken and scottytod were banned and i was like what the hell happened here. It was like a mass clean up but i was afraid to ask why were you guys banned because someone made it clear that this kind of questions were not allowed. I would like to ask you thought what do you mean in the bold part,if you care to answer that is :D
 
teli-mj said:
Brilliant post. I remember when i logged in and i saw that you, Blackcat, if i am not mistaken and scottytod were banned and i was like what the hell happened here. It was like a mass clean up but i was afraid to ask why were you guys banned because someone made it clear that this kind of questions were not allowed. I would like to ask you thought what do you mean in the bold part,if you care to answer that is :D
Click to expand...
What I meant is that they made a posting rule that you could not use certain words to express your opinion, that you by all means had to post your respect for someone else's opinion even if you disagreed. Stuff like that. And if you seemed too harsh, they would give you an infraction but they were very harsh toward others themselves.

I don't mean to hate or badmouth. It's just what the experience was. As I posted, at one point it was a great place with great people and a great team. It just didn't end that way. A lot changed. In their efforts to keep the forum "family friendly," it became a restricted zone.
 
It's sad what happened to the forum. I think we should all learn from it. Moderators have to moderate, not manipulate. We can rebuild it, it was a phenomenal place before some people went on their megalomaniac egotrips.
 
True. We should discuss this without too much anger, regardless of how much of it is there, because that's how Max Jax met its demise.
 
Gaz said:
Guys,

I have permitted this thread as I feel the information needs to be told peoples stories need to be heard,

It has been informative and a topic to learn from,

I will also ask again to please not turn this debate into an argument that is not what this is about its about people sharing what they went through at the hands of those in charge,

I for one an absolutely disgusted by the readings of a said few leaders, which Ivy has kindly reposted, we all have our personal opinions but you can not ever lead a forum based on those opinions and beliefs, that in itself is a dictatorship.

Something you will never experience here.
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Thank you for your support Gaz. This has been driving me mad since I was banned and unable to defend neither MJ, nor my opinions against constant arrogant posts.
 
It is a shame the site's gone but when you start losing your founding principles as well as sight of how internals should affect something externally, that's when it all goes to hell in a handbasket.

As for the rest of you - I'm amazed how many people I know from the site. If Maxjax goes back up, hopefully it can be run like a place where certain entities don't overtake things and run them into the ground. As fans we should be celebrating and discussing without fear or expectation of reprimand or snobriety.

Blackat, Tony R, arklove, arXter, Tyff, Niall, MJelboo, Mini, Bumper....all great people and it's a shame most were gone. Then again, you know who here bought it down...and those could be founders or regular posters.
 
if.it.aint.broke.break.it said:
It is a shame the site's gone but when you start losing your founding principles as well as sight of how internals should affect something externally, that's when it all goes to hell in a handbasket.

As for the rest of you - I'm amazed how many people I know from the site. If Maxjax goes back up, hopefully it can be run like a place where certain entities don't overtake things and run them into the ground. As fans we should be celebrating and discussing without fear or expectation of reprimand or snobriety.

Blackat, Tony R, arklove, arXter, Tyff, Niall, MJelboo, Mini, Bumper....all great people and it's a shame most were gone. Then again, you know who here bought it down...and those could be founders or regular posters.
Click to expand...

Hello!!

Couple of things to say, I also believe that freedom of speech is necessary for any board and my problem isn't with the opinions of the mods but the two qualities that are must haves for running any board/business/organisation are LEADING BY EXAMPLE and LACK OF HYPOCRISY. This is what went wrong with MaxJax. You didn't know from one day to the next what was deemed acceptable or not, depending on the moods of the certain mods (or modmoods).

Also, please don't tar everyone with the same brush. For my part, Marni was absolutely lovely and fair, as was Chell.

For the first 2 years MaxJax was the perfect board, some people with real musical knowledge, people with musical diverse appreciation and a liberal mentality which meant that if you didn't particularly like an MJ product/album/tour or the way he may have conducted himself, you could say so without fear of being called a non fan or (to use the worst word in the modern vocabulary) a hater.

By the way, Jam is the best & most underrated MJ video of all time, just saying.
 
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To be honest this doesn't come as a shock to me, what else to do you expect when you ban you're top 8 members and then the remaining 5-6 including myself leave the board because there's no one to have a decent discussion with anymore. I felt the board in the last few months was a joke, founders like Gary (PG) were still using their power of authority & belittling other members opinions but the new ones who had just joined, the same cycle all over again. I just feel all the musical knowledge that we sharedwas wasted... shout out to every member who was banned...

little Steve
Tony R
arXter
Tyff says whoa
scotty todd
Angel2
blakcat (Rhea)
peaceloveMJ
Niall

& myself at one point...Dr.Heat, SmoothCriminal...
 
Yeah...I was " Magical_Michael " at Max.
I have to say I would visit that board and sometimes I was shouting out when reading some stuff. My husband would come to the room and say " why are you yelling again ? "
If we join a MJ fan board , we do it for a reason , right ? Because we love him , his music , everything that Michael Jackson stands for. One of the threads that had the most posts on Max was " MJ moments that makes you cringe ". Go figure..
And again , there was a story about being " objective ". That was an excuse for everything.
 
The Healer said:
Yeah...I was " Magical_Michael " at Max.
I have to say I would visit that board and sometimes I was shouting out when reading some stuff. My husband would come to the room and say " why are you yelling again ? "
If we join a MJ fan board , we do it for a reason , right ? Because we love him , his music , everything that Michael Jackson stands for. One of the threads that had the most posts on Max was " MJ moments that makes you cringe ". Go figure..
And again , there was a story about being " objective ". That was an excuse for everything.
Click to expand...

You see, with all due respect I disagree with that. I think MJ is the best entertainer/singer ever, but I also enjoy discussing things like why I don't like the HIStory tour.
 
Tony R said:
You see, with all due respect I disagree with that. I think MJ is the best entertainer/singer ever, but I also enjoy discussing things like why I don't like the HIStory tour.
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OT: I went to Dangerous Tour and to History Tour, they were different, but they both were absolutely fabulous.
 
^^^^
No problem with that. I said.....we don"t love the same things , it would be boring if we did. I talked about disrespect.
To Michael and some members.
I hardly ever listen to early Jackson 5 , but I am not badmouthing Michael as a person , as a father..coulour of his skin...his sexual preferences...etc. We can talk about music anytime. About everything. I am not gonna say now " What ?????? You don"t like History Tour ??? Are you crazy ? "
 
Tony R said:
Hello!!

Couple of things to say, I also believe that freedom of speech is necessary for any board and my problem isn't with the opinions of the mods but the two qualities that are must haves for running any board/business/organisation are LEADING BY EXAMPLE and LACK OF HYPOCRISY. This is what went wrong with MaxJax. You didn't know from one day to the next what was deemed acceptable or not, depending on the moods of the certain mods (or modmoods).

Also, please don't tar everyone with the same brush. For my part, Marni was absolutely lovely and fair, as was Chell.

For the first 2 years MaxJax was the perfect board, some people with real musical knowledge, people with musical diverse appreciation and a liberal mentality which meant that if you didn't particularly like an MJ product/album/tour or the way he may have conducted himself, you could say so without fear of being called a non fan or (to use the worst word in the modern vocabulary) a hater.

By the way, Jam is the best & most underrated MJ video of all time, just saying.
Click to expand...

Hahahaha, moodmods!!! The music threads, especially. There was a Duran Duran thread up that I miss.

I wasn't saying mainly the founders - there were regular posters more so (why I bolded that). Those people know who they are and it wasn't anyone mentioned above. You, Tony, you were one of the great posters there if I remember right, and with Little Steven too.
 
I think it's good that one message is coming across equally: how awesome Max Jax once was. A truly inspiring place with intelligent contributions, respect for ideas and beliefs, vibrant discussion and a great help during difficult times. We should not let a small group of people ruin our memory of it. I hope all Max Jaxers, including those banned, can find a new place to call home. :)
 
Tony R said:
Hello!!Couple of things to say, I also believe that freedom of speech is necessary for any board and my problem isn't with the opinions of the mods but the two qualities that are must haves for running any board/business/organisation are LEADING BY EXAMPLE and LACK OF HYPOCRISY. This is what went wrong with MaxJax. You didn't know from one day to the next what was deemed acceptable or not, depending on the moods of the certain mods (or modmoods).Also, please don't tar everyone with the same brush. For my part, Marni was absolutely lovely and fair, as was Chell.For the first 2 years MaxJax was the perfect board, some people with real musical knowledge, people with musical diverse appreciation and a liberal mentality which meant that if you didn't particularly like an MJ product/album/tour or the way he may have conducted himself, you could say so without fear of being called a non fan or (to use the worst word in the modern vocabulary) a hater.By the way, Jam is the best & most underrated MJ video of all time, just saying.
Click to expand...
Hi Tony R,Glad to see you back. You raised a good point. I also feel the term "hater" is being used too liberally. Btw, your reviews of Dangerous is still one of the most best and spot-on I have ever read.
 
ivy said:
My 2 cents here

I don't know Smooth-c / Greg at all. My whole interaction has been with Pompous Git and some moderators (krystikel) whom I dearly like.

"I've been banned from max-jax" has been a common complaint that has been mentioned a lot , as MJJC we always said we don't allow discussion of other websites moderation decisions and that was it. I can't tell if the banning(s) were warranted or not as there's always two sides to the story - the banned member and the moderation team. All I know that was a common complaint.

I also wouldn't like to comment about any moderators style and likability because I'm sure if we polled all MJJC members there would be members that don't like me or my moderation style.

2 things had attracted my attention recently

--- postings have really slowed down. All of the fan sites have slowed down after Michael's death but on max-jax very recently the slow down was too apparent such as trial threads or heated topics on other forums wouldn't generate much interest.

--- in a thread the admins was calling Michael an addict.

Here I'll do an explanation. In regards to objectivity and being realistic no one can deny that Michael had issues with drugs over some periods but calling him flat out an addict seemed quite disappointing to me. During our Q&A with Dr. Shafer and my private conversations he always said he can't come to an addict conclusion because he didn't know Michael's medical history, his problems, why he was given a certain drug and his pain threshold etc. Unlike Dr. Shafer we all know Michael's Pepsi burn, emotional toll of two accusation, 1999 Bridge fall, his decades long problems with insomnia and that he was getting botox injections in his groin & scalp. So overall I felt like we know the context of his drug use and could see that it wasn't due to a chase of high or fun. I felt if we as Michael Jackson fans cannot put it in context and reduce it to "an addict", how can we expect the media be any better. That was my disappointment.
Click to expand...

And again:
THE best post in this thread & one of the best posts i've read in a long time!

Both - in the context of this thread & in the greater context regarding the term "addict" in connection Michael.

Thank You Ivy as always!
 
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