Re: NAMM 2005 photo gallery and full report
Scott_F said:
FDP..... run by a money-grubbing Nazi, but it's got a bit of good Fender related information.
The FDP is the non-official, official Fender forum where one can go to find insightful answers from a bunch of very helpful people who also happen to own/like Fender products.
However, as Scott has so eloquently pointed out, the guy that runs that board also ruins it. His Big Brother tactics and "question my actions and you will be immediately banned" logic border on schizophrenia. Many a productive thread has been subject to the Delete-O-Bomb, or DOB. If any word in a thread is even slightly interpreted by the moderators as a slight against the FDP or the moderators, the thread will be deleted and you will be banned. I'm all for moderators, but I don't understand or see the need for Big Brother tactics.
As for the money-grubbing, there seem to be periodic fundraisers to pay for bandwidth, equipment, upgrades, etc. And while donating is not required, if you don't you definitely get the second-class citizen treatment. And from taking one look at the antiquated design, layout and features of the board, it makes you wonder why a couple of Commodore-64's couldn't handle the workload. Makes you wonder where all the donations go. He makes no secret of the fact that the FDP is a business that is intended to make a profit and I'm okay with that too (although I don't think they should be entitled to use the Fender name or logo then.) But you really need to offer your customers something in return. And the only thing of value it offers is the thoughts/opinions of the people they consistently piss off.
The thing that really gets me though is that IMO it's tarnishing Fender's name on the web. As Fender has no official online forum, after searching through the Fender site the only mention of any sort of online support/forum is a link to the FDP. Fender claims maintaining their own forum would be a disaster and a PR nightmare. But by their generous donations to the FDP and frequent replies from Fender employees to the site, it really has become the only place on the 'net to get an "official word" from Fender.
