Technical > Home Improvement > Holmes Fan Forum closed !?!

Holmes Fan Forum closed !?!

I am as surprised as you are. Not sure what happened.

His 15 minutes of fame were up? Never was a Holmes fan.

reply to LazMan
Not a big of his (he started out alright, but his ego has become insane...) - but the forums were decent - lots of good advice; and some decent people as mod's and regular posters.

My personal take is that he didn't have direct control of the content, and he couldn't accept that...

reply to LazMan

reply to LazMan
It actually started as an "unoffical" forum, and was taken over by the Holmes group in maybe '09...

There wasn't ever much flaming on it, actually... Some advice was better then others, for sure, but generally, it never got heated...

If they were going to shut it down, that was fine, it's their ball; they can take it and go home, if they wanted - but to just pull the plug, with no notice, seems pretty disrespectful to the users and fans.

Anyways...

Maybe it's a liability thing. If it's official as you say. What happens when someone goes there and gets bad advice from some random know-it-all DIY'er and takes it, and it goes bad?
Next thing you know they're all over the internet screaming "I followed advice from the Mike Holmes website and it burned down my house!" That may not be why. Maybe it was cost cutting or something. If I were him and putting my name on something, you bet your ass I'd want control over it though. If control was the issue.

reply to LazMan
According to his FB:

quote:

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Hi everyone. I wanted to comment on closing the Official Mike Holmes Forum. It was a difficult decision but we are going to use the knowledge we gained from the forum to develop more tips and articles to help you through your home renovations. Every home is different - and the best thing to do is call a pro in your local area. Thanks everyone for your support & understanding.

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reply to LazMan
I was the first & longest serving moderator of the Holmes Fan Forum (9years)

I was as surprised & shocked as everyone else. We received no warning or notice. Not the moderator, not the members.

We (mods) were all shocked, to put it mildly, about this cold blooded action. If for no other reason than common courtesy, there should have been some kind of announcement.

It somehow tarnished their famous slogan "Make It Right" & does not improve the image of the Holmes brand.

To clarify some of the comments here about the ownership:

The original forum was started by Holmes. It went down for about 6 month several years later & in 2005 the Fan Forum was started by a member as admin. & I became mod again.

When the Holmes website came back they decided to carry the Fan Forum because by then it grown to over 10 000 members & it made no sense to compete with 2 different forums.

The rights to the Fan Forum were bought by the Holmes Group about 3 years ago & continued on both sites until last week.

I think LazMan was a Fan Forum member.

There was never much of a battle ground between anti or pro holmes & there was never any interference from the Holmes Group since one of his daughters was administrator and very good at the way she handled it.

I always had the feeling that the Holmes Group never paid much attention to the Fan Forum which is the reason why everbody was so shocked at this sudden action.

Jundee

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Jundee80

reply to Jundee80
I knew the Linkmeister would know how to get here...

I was a long-time member there - there was actually a thread about longest serving active members, and while I didn't make the top ten, I didn't miss it by much...

I wasn't aware the forum existed in an offical capacity before the unofficial board - I joined Sanheim's unofficial one in about Sept of '05...

Jundee, if you catch wind of another forum or group where the active members from the HoH board start to gather, it would be appreciated if you could pass it on!

reply to LazMan
I'll do my best.

Jundee
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Jundee80

Quote"Mike Holmes
November 1
Hi everyone. I wanted to comment on closing the Official Mike Holmes Forum. It was a difficult decision but we are going to use the knowledge we gained from the forum to develop more tips and articles to help you through your home renovations. Every home is different - and the best thing to do is call a pro in your local area. Thanks everyone for your support & understanding.
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Rainie Leroux Not good enough. No notice, no reason. Mike, I think you may want to make this one right. I have been on the forum since it opened and you did not even e-mail anyone with any sort of notice. Very bad PR and I have lost faith in you and what you stand for.
Yesterday at 9:55am

Bob DeZeeuw I, for one, am very disappointed with this decision, the complete absence of forewarning and the lack of rationale provided as to why the decision was made. It is leaving many of us guessing. The form was a fantastic resource for those who where trying to live the "Make It Right" mantra in their own homes. Thanks to all of the active posters and volunteer moderators for their continued efforts. First time that the Mike holmes "business" has disappointed me as a fan and vocal supporter of the message.
15 hours ago"Unquote

I've been informed that the above message by Mike was not from him. Presumably it was posted by someone in the office who may also be the one who decided to close the forum.

Jundee
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Jundee80

reply to Jon
Mike had no direct control & never interfered with the forum.
In fact, when people addressed a question directly to him they were always told that Mike did not frequent the forum.

As far as "flame wars" were concerned, there were very few over the years. Most of them were based on false assumptions or misinformation & ususally delat with very quickly by moderators.

Jundee
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Jundee80

reply to LazMan
I was a member of the forum for many years and over this time I learned a lot reading and participating in threads. The moderators did a great job running the forum and there were many expert members that offered excellent advice. The forum was a great resource for people who wanted to learn about renovating their homes.

I always thought part of Mike Holmes mandate was to educate homeowners. Closing the forum does nothing to further this mandate and removal of all the great knowledge contained there is a travesty. Furthermore, Mike has always talked about treating people fairly and respectively. Closing the forum they way it was done was disrespectful to the members and moderators.

reply to LazMan
Personally, I've never visited the site. Judging from the comments here about the flame wars, I will go ahead and say that if the site was moderated by anyone other than industry professionals they were asking for trouble.
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Stop The Mindless Killings Stop Over Fishing

reply to Jundee80

reply to Jundee80