sjm said:
JAM, it is rare that I disagree with you, but this time it seems to me you don't remember his early posts.
Mark was welcomed by most, but he made a major error when he made it clear he intended to share his knowledge and expereinces with the forum and, with only minimal exception, doing an about face, never opening up, and making what surely stand out as some of the worst posts ever seen on this forum, posts having no direction and, ultimately, almost no meaningful content. He also insulted the intelligence of forum members with his "Am I the Real Mark Tadd?" thread.
SJM, I applaud you for telling it just like it was. I have to wonder how other posters that continue the ongoing hero worship along with continual defense of his forum actions, mainly inactions, can say what they say when all of it is sitting in the member list archives word for word. If you follow it in chronological order thread by thread, it's all there layed out in print. And Mark started ALL of the threads about himself.
Here are a couple examples of not answering questions, WHICH HE POSED TO BEGIN WITH IN THREADS THAT HE STARTED.
Thread #1: WHY I GAMBLE POKER NOT POOL
That ended up turning into 4 pages of a poker forum and arguing back and forth about whether there was skill in poker as well as woofing challenges to each other showing whose dick was bigger at the card table. On the very last page of that thread of nothingness which resembled the title, Smorgassbored posted this:
"I thought that Mark was going to post his long awaited explanation on why poker and not pool. (I wait with bait on my breath)
Thread #2: THE LAST TIME I GAMBLES POOL WAS
Here again he started a thread about the same issue and baited everyone with a story about his last match and then said the following at the end of his first post: "After I won I announced to all that I will never gamble at pool again. I will give reasons later."
Guess what??? Two more pages of horseshit and going completely off track.
Thread #3: I'M IN PHOENIX AZ
This was his last thread and post. And if you can say anyone was responsible for chasing him off, I guess you can place the blame on me. Did I call him names?? NO!! Did I humiliate him?? NO!! Did I say that he couldn't play?? NO!! Was I respectful?? YES Was I trying to keep him on track??
YES!!
After all of those weeks of threads and posts, it was almost starting to get laughable. JimmyM and others posed some things to him and I did as well. The only way you're going to see how it played out is to go on some of the threads that I mentioned in this post and see it for yourself. I really don't know what you're remembering or interpreting when it's all right there.
At a couple of times in the Phoenix thread, I was trying to lead him into just staying focused and keep things on topic. At that point he said: "OK Drive I will respond to this and other questions that were asked on this thread tomorrow, have to go now."
Tomorrow never comes and it didn't with him either. Maybe he has ADD, maybe he's a little eccentric, or maybe he's just out of whack and focus in life, but as many have said a lot of this was brought on by himself, especially since he started ALL of the threads and lured everyone in. None of this means that he can't play. He also had a bad time on CCB, maybe worse than AZ, so all in all it seems like forums aren't really his element. Just being at the pool table or card table is and what he does best. I guess that's where he should be, as long as he's happy and it's profitable enough to get you through life.