Journal Dutchy Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

[Koan]

If we could have more than one journal attached

Post as many journals as you like!

 

[GreggZ]

Plus all those beautiful shots of the tank through the years and of course removing the big dumb log .

LOL that big dumb log was famous for a while! I still have it sitting in my basement on a shelf and it still gives me a grin when I happen to glance at it. Was the signature aspect of my tank for a while.

 

[Kwyet]

Post as many journals as you like!

Thanks! I mean it would be easier if they could be linked in a signature or something instead of just having one “Journal” at the top. Maybe I’m missing something…

 

[ElleDee]

@GreggZ, reposting the entire journal is probably too much of a pain, but you might consider doing a "best of" and reposting the most useful and enduring bits. I recently got into reading The Krib, which is literally just an archive of exchanges from the 90s. It's old, but great stuff. I'm not even sure what the original platform was, but I'm glad the information has been preserved.

 

[Burr740]

Thanks! I mean it would be easier if they could be linked in a signature or something instead of just having one “Journal” at the top. Maybe I’m missing something…

Isnt the only option on tpt to create a sig with multiple links to the different ones? You can do the same thing here. I'm sure youre talking about the "journal" link under avatars only being for one, but you can always do the sig thing too

*adding I assume sigs are a thing here, never checked actually

 

[Kwyet]

Isnt the only option on tpt to create a sig with multiple links to the different ones? You can do the same thing here. I'm sure youre talking about the "journal" link under avatars only being for one, but you can always do the sig thing too

*adding I assume sigs are a thing here, never checked actually

Can you? When I first got here I thought I read that only one could be linked, but I’ll investigate again. Thanks!

Edit: There is a Signature option available! I’ll definitely try it out. Thanks again!

 

[Happi]

It seems like the discussion about the banned user and the reason for their ban keeps resurfacing across multiple forums. I’m not sure why there’s a constant need to justify it repeatedly.

To clarify, no one has ever been banned from PlantedTank simply for discussing 0 KH. I’ve openly talked and even encouraged about it on multiple occasions, even creating a voting poll in one of my threads back in 2012: KH and Plants. At that time, even Mr. Barr, a well-known figure in the community, did not use 0 KH. I personally ran it for several years, and other members who experimented with 0 KH also contributed to the discussion and voted in the poll.

PlantedTank.net enforces permanent bans for serious violations, not for discussing topics like 0 KH.

At this point, it’s clear that the issue has been resolved, whether it was related to 0 KH or other matters. Continuing to revisit it doesn’t help us move forward and only distracts from the positive, constructive discussions that benefit the community. Let’s make an effort to put this behind us and focus on the topics that contribute to the growth of this community.

No further discussion needed from my end.

 

[Koan]

PlantedTank.net enforces permanent bans for serious violations, not for discussing topics like 0 KH

This is a preposterous statement.

I was personally banned, quite recently, explicitly for sending a private message to one (1) new user, recommending that he also have a look at Dennis Wong's 2-hour Aquarist site in answer to several of his questions.

My account had been open though more recently inactive, for over 15 years at that point. Fortunately, we have a lot more fun here!

 

[Happi]

Hi Greggz,

I’ve been following the ongoing conversation about your ban from PlantedTank.net, and I want to clarify a few points, especially regarding the claim that you were banned for discussing 0 KH. While I understand that your experience and perspective are important, I want to emphasize a few things to clear up some misunderstandings.

First and foremost, I stand by the fact that PlantedTank does not ban people for talking about 0 KH. I’ve personally participated in multiple discussions on this topic and even created a voting poll on it back in 2012. If it were truly the case that people were banned just for discussing this topic, I, along with several other long-standing members, would have faced similar actions, but that hasn't been the case. PlantedTank bans are enforced for serious violations, not for the content of discussions like water parameters.

I understand that you feel strongly about your account of the events that led to your ban, and I do not intend to invalidate your experience. However, I believe the focus on the ban for 0 KH is misleading. The facts seem to suggest that the issue was not just about the content of your posts but also related to broader circumstances. That said, I cannot claim to know all the details of the situation, but the timeline and the nature of the discussion don’t align with the idea that discussing 0 KH alone led to a permanent ban.

What I’m really trying to understand—and what I’d like to raise to you and anyone else involved—is: Why is this topic still being discussed across multiple forums? I’ve seen this conversation come up repeatedly, and I wonder what the primary motive is for revisiting the ban situation so frequently. Are you seeking validation or support, or is there something else at play here? When people feel the need to continuously justify or explain their actions, it’s typically for one of two reasons:

1. They believe they are right and are looking for validation from others.
2. They may feel uncertain about their stance and are trying to convince others that they are right.

So, I’m curious to know why this issue keeps resurfacing and what the ultimate goal is by discussing it again and again. If the ban was really related to 0 KH, I would think that should have been clarified long ago. But continuously bringing it up could give the wrong impression about the forum and its policies. While it’s understandable that you may want to clear the air, constantly revisiting the topic can create unnecessary distractions and even harm the community’s reputation, even if it’s not intentional.

Ultimately, I think everyone involved should look at the bigger picture. The more we focus on past issues, the less we’re contributing to the constructive and positive discussions that benefit the entire community. There’s value in moving forward and focusing on topics that help others grow in the hobby, rather than rehashing the same old debates.

I’m not suggesting you’re wrong in how you feel about what happened, but I do think the ongoing discussion is becoming counterproductive. Let’s focus on what makes the hobby great—learning from each other, sharing experiences, and continuing to build a welcoming community.

"I believe there are always two sides to every situation, and I make a conscious effort to consider both perspectives before coming to any conclusions. It’s important to me that I take into account all viewpoints to better understand the bigger picture."

I hope this helps clarify my perspective, and I look forward to seeing more positive and productive conversations moving forward.

Best,
Happi

 

[Burr740]

Take that shit somewhere else @Happi , since when did you become a tpt schill? Is Somewhat borrowing your account here or something? You a mod now? Guess theyll be deleting my whole journal now too, lol. Explain that one. Most of what you said is total bs. What a wall of text lol, good lord!l

But just to be clear, he wasnt banned for merely "talking about 0 KH". Not sure how you derived that. He was banned for directly contradicting a mod in a thread where that happened to be the subject. I hope that "clarifies your perspective" lol

 

[Unexpected]

I was also banned for a zero KH comment. Bottom line, Simplyshocked had an agenda. He/it was right all the time and any questioning resulted in a perma ban. I call BS also.

 

[GreggZ]

But just to be clear, he wasnt banned for merely "talking about 0 KH". Not sure how you derived that. He was banned for directly contradicting a mod in a thread where that just happened to be the subject. I hope that "clarifies your perspective" lol

You got it exactly right my friend. It wasn't just for talking about zero dKH, it was for disagreeing with the Mod and the ensuing events that followed.

@Happi I don't know what you mean when you say this has been brought up continuously across several platforms? Maybe I missed something? Where is it being discussed? I mean it does come up from time to time but that is not unusual it was a big event at the time. And I can't think of a time where I brought it up unsolicited in recent memory. And personally I could care less about it at this point. My only real regret is they took down my journal which so many had contributed to.

Now to clear the air.

The mod and I had been having some PM discussions on zero dKk tanks, and he indicated it wasn't a good thing to discuss as his feeling was that zero dKH tank can suffer from pH crashes. He said that beginners might read this and run into trouble and the topic should be avoided.

Then someone posted a question about zero pH tanks, and referenced an article from the 2hraquarist. My tank is pictured in the article. So the guy was specifically referencing that article where I am mentioned and asked what people thought about it. He said others had told him he needs to keep dKH the same as dGH in order to avoid pH crashes and was looking for opinions. So I contradicted what the mod posted and posted this on the thread.

No reason for dKH and dGH to match.
And yes 2 hr aquarist is correct pH swings are mostly myth. I have discussed this with him in great detail. In a well managed tank it is of little concern. If one has an issue it's almost always tied to very, very poor maintenance.
I run my tank at zero dKH heavily planted with a bunch of Rainbowfish, and so do many other well known people in the hobby. Keep in mind much of the world has very, very low dKH source water and they have been keeping aquariums for generations.
If you feel a need to add some, I would add just a bit, maybe 2 dKH. But there is really no need to.

A few hours later I received a PM from the moderator Somewhatshocked. This is what he sent to me. Keep in mind my only post in this thread is the one copied in above.

Greggz, Your actions in this message (Remineralizing RO water and Kh) are not appropriate: We cannot allow users to be abusive, overly aggressive, threatening, or to "troll". This is in violation of our guidelines.

This led to a pretty heated argument between us. I suggested that I post about our discussion in my journal so that the community could contribute and have an open and honest discussion about it. Seemed reasonable at the time.

That's when he suspended me.

Next I posted our discussion in a Facebook group. I wanted to get ahead of this when people saw I was suspended so they would know what happened and set the record straight. That is when all hell broke loose. It was about two days and hundreds of posts with an outpouring of support. Kind of caught me off guard as I didn't realize how many people had been following my journal. There was lot's of bashing of the mod from people who had similar experiences with him. There were also people posting dozens of threads on TPT asking him to "Free Greggz"!

Once that erupted I was permanently banned. When I was banned some very prominent people in the hobby posted on TPT defending me. Those posts were deleted and some of them were also banned.

So in the end was I banned for posting about zero dKH tanks? Well it definitely had something to do with it, but what really brought it on was what happened after he sent me the nasty gram and the fact I would not back down and brought it out publicly.

This is 100% what happened, and many were following along in real time and can confirm this.

Now the real question is why @Happi feels the need to bring this up out of nowhere? It was mentioned here in this thread briefly, but that was because someone was looking for my old TPT journal not because I felt the need to bring it up. Has it been brought up elsewhere? I have no idea and could care less.

In the end the good thing is the incident led directly to the creation of this forum.

And @Happi you are welcome here but I am a little baffled by what you are trying to accomplish?

 

[Burr740]

Now the real question is why @Happi feels the need to bring this up out of nowhere? I

Im not convinced Happi wrote that tbh, but I can find out. Really bizarre that he would care that much about it

 

[GreggZ]

Im not convinced Happi wrote that tbh, but I can find out. Really bizarre that he would care that much about it

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Kind of came from out of the blue.

But he did register here a while back and posted a couple of times. Odd that is for sure.

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

I don't want to contribute to "hobby/forum" drama too much, but I feel like somewhatshocked is a prime example of classic "moderator syndrome". Nearly every post comes off as "holier than thou". I just read a post from him saying that not doing water changes on your aquarium is considered animal abuse in some states, and he will remove any comment even mentioning zero water changes, because it's so abusive. Look, I believe that the weekly 50% WC should be considered a 'requirement', but seriously? Does anyone find this behavior acceptable? It's chronically-online moderator syndrome.

Within my first few posts trying to help beginners, I was given warnings and had comments removed for things that didn't break the rules, but things that he obviously disagreed with. It's a shame one of the largest forums is basically controlled by someone who can't be "ousted". At least it's where beginners often congregate, leaving forums like ScapeCrunch to talk that real talk.

The Planted Tank Forum Reviews - 1.2 Stars guess it's a common occurrence!

 

[GreggZ]

I don't want to contribute to "hobby/forum" drama too much, but I feel like somewhatshocked is a prime example of classic "moderator syndrome". Nearly every post comes off as "holier than thou". I just read a post from him saying that not doing water changes on your aquarium is considered animal abuse in some states, and he will remove any comment even mentioning zero water changes, because it's so abusive. Look, I believe that the weekly 50% WC should be considered a 'requirement', but seriously? Does anyone find this behavior acceptable? It's chronically-online moderator syndrome.

Within my first few posts trying to help beginners, I was given warnings and had comments removed for things that didn't break the rules, but things that he obviously disagreed with. It's a shame one of the largest forums is basically controlled by someone who can't be "ousted". At least it's where beginners often congregate, leaving forums like ScapeCrunch to talk that real talk.

The Planted Tank Forum Reviews - 1.2 Stars guess it's a common occurrence!

Your story is very similar to dozens and dozens that I know of. He thinks the moderator is the king and does not take kindly to to his thoughts being questioned. That's not the way we work here and I hope folks recognize and appreciate that.

I picture him sitting at the computer wearing something like this while reigning over his subjects!

 

[Kwyet]

I don’t know if the rules there were put in place because of what happened, but the last time I looked they actually said that moderators couldn’t be argued with and that Vertical Scope owns the content on the site, so they can do what they want with it. I agree that deleting journals is a draconian and outrageous action. I also recognize that tempers must have been quite high at the time and the moderator there is a paid employee, so who knows how that influenced events?

I’m not at all comfortable with all of the personal bashing of someone that isn’t here, and would also like to get back to discussion of aquarium-related matters. I would still welcome reading the deleted journal whenever it’s able to be posted, and I do appreciate that we can discuss differing viewpoints freely here.

 

[GreggZ]

I’m not at all comfortable with all of the personal bashing of someone that isn’t here, and would also like to get back to discussion of aquarium-related matters.

If you think it's bad here you should have seen it on the facebook groups when it happened. It was a melee of epic proportions.

And just so you know my post above was mostly tongue in cheek and meant to be humorous. That being said they say best humor does have a kernel of truth in it!

Still not sure why @Happi felt the need to dredge it up, but I agree let's get back to discussion of aquariums. It's ancient history now.

 

[OmidNiav]

I...have...a...confession....to.....make: I made an account here on ScapeCrunch and trolled Gregg a bit. That username is up for sale for the highest bid. The username: somewhatshocked

 

[Koan]

That username is up for sale for the highest bid. The username:

Priceless.

We now return you to your Dutchy Deeds journal discussion, already in progress!


Moderator closes the hijack.