Reply With QuoteAll these years and you finally set on your opinion. That might be a first for you. In my opinion they just forgot they're roots. Just look at the nane, "Hot Boat". Kind of says it all. Look at the covers and say I just got to buy that. Always a beautiful boat with a beautiful model too. Mostly something that many could afford and build in the garage with a bit of help from the tech area's. All could pick and choose and stay with-in a budget. Always gave the customer something to yearn for. An I've got'ta get that for my boat thing. A far cry to seeing a million dollar Eliminator on the cover that I'll never own. As somebody stated in another post, yes they economy has effected the industry as a whole. If Hot Boat had stuck to there roots, they probably wouldn't have been effected. Everybody has a dream and dreams never die. Rant over, blame it on da Gig.Gotta agree w/ya WD. Blame it on da gig. No. Wait. That's not what I was gonna say. What I was gonna say was; have to agree w/ya WD. I and alot of others most likely, lost interest in the mag when it became what it became. While many own the what I like to call "Floatin' Bling, Look At Me", I became discouraged when they quit coverin' the "old school" boats and centered their content around the big dollar, "I'll never be able to afford one" boats. Don't get me wrong. I like the Eliminators, Nordics, DCBs, Laveys, and so on and so on; but I'm not one who likes to read about them much less pay to see 'em. I like to read the articles and look at the pix of the real "boats" built by "old school boaters". The guys who build 'em from the ground up. Never was impressed w/some guy who would go down to a dealer, throw X-amount of dollars at them and say "build it". And then have the audacity to say that they built their boat. And there was alot of that goin' on. Sorry, old school guy here and that's just the way I am. That is why I let my HB sub expire. Now, if I could afford one of those types of boats; I'm sure I'd take a different tack on things.
My original post was in actuality addressin' the demise and subsequent exilin' of posters and closure of the website. Alot of people got trapped in the mess that came about because of what I see as a few who just could not or would not garner a clue of the conequences to be borne by their disregard of the Admin of HB's attempts to keep the site civil and enjoyable. The drama got rediculous (you're always gonna have drama when you have more than one person involved) and the site began to have the feel of "swingers'" site rather than a "boating" site. Hey, don't get me wrong. To each their own. But this site was a public site which HB desparately tried to keep "on track". Everbody is so eager to blame HB for what happened, but IMO, and it is just my opinion; if the offenders had payed more heed to the repeated attempts at gettin' peops to be more civil and considerate by HB, there would not have been as much trouble. Began to look and sound like jr. high with the the BS and tryin' to get the last word in. I truly believe that HB did not want to shut the website down but had to out of necessity. It was not the board and the people were not here for the same thing that we were when we started postin' "heavy" back in 2001. That is why I quit postin' long before the "Fall of the HB Empire". I only came back after I heard that the drama was at a minimum and to "read" some of the old timers.
$hit! Now ya went and got me started and I messed up my "last days of HB" karma. Oh well; $hit happens.
