Checking in here. I have actually posted here previously under another name in years past, but I have not spent much time here lately. Now that free HP is no more, it appears most of the non-Max contingent has chosen HuskerBoard, so it is HuskerBoard for me.
I think it is too simplistic to simply say you are either with David Max or against him. While I support the HP site and avoid the Max site, I do not necessarily condone the actions of those who have done wrong in this case. I don't think anybody really does. I think I speak for myself and a number and others when I say that we simply took advantage of the split and decided to use a site that we previously enjoyed, content wise, but could now use the message board. It must be said that there was a large group of posters on the pay site that I never much cared to be around.... it just so happens that the majority of them were Max loyalists, so they left. I have nothing against David Max personally at all... I don't know him. I hear good things about him, and if the facts of this whole saga are indeed true, then it sounds like the verdict is fair, just, and correct.
I chose not to participate at the original Pedia, and the breakaway site, because I did not, and do not, feel the $20 is good value for money. There are a number of reasons for this, the least of which is that I do not live in Nebraska and have no use for the special tailgate privileges offered, nor any of the other discounts. I usually attend one game a year, sometimes in Lincoln, sometimes an away game.
But the main reason, as alluded to before, is that there is simply a large group of hard core posters and members within that community that rub me the wrong way, and have for a number of years. A lot of these guys are basically the same guys that all tailgate together.... I really have no desire to meet most of them socially. I guess I simply do not fit in with the culture of that community. I feel the football content became a distant afterthought to a number of other things, including politics, personal agendas and vendettas, and plain, old-fashioned phallus measuring contests. I also feel that the moderation was inconsistent. It seems like if you knew David Max personally, you could get away with more abhorrent behavior on the forums. These are all just observations and opinions I have developed, and I'm sure almost anyone from that site will vehemently disagree with me, and would probably go out of their way to try to discredit all of these things. And that's part of the culture.... if you look at some of the threads on HP now, they are full of HM loyalists who have made it their first act of duty to patronize, belittle, and discredit any person who does not wish to subscribe to the pay site.
This isn't David's fault, and again, nobody here begrudges his victory in this, which he thoroughly deserves. He just keeps some company that many of us would rather not be around.