I have been in contact with the ex-admin team of Lob, GregV and Gooner.

Recent weeks have been a PR disaster for the Admin team. Essentially 3 years' hard work and dedication is being thrown out of the window - for the lack of a clear statement of the situation from the admins points of view. At this stage they feel any personal statement will only elicit more flack from members, which they are fed up to the back teeth with and caused them to leave EF, hence they will not be making any personal statements.

They tell me they will not be coming back. However I have been able to ascertain the following from them:

Lob:
states that rumours that the admins were trying to steal the forum from Mark/Lynn/Robert are completely without foundation. Robert, Mark's brother, has been in the loop for the whole time and still is the Golden Golden Keyholder.
Also he said that “EF will live on, EF is stable and the organisation around EF will change slightly - maybe for the better, who knows? The EF6 who Gooner and I banned - which suited the majority (and the victims) but in the end has made for a hardened core who are "against" us.


“So it's better for EF that new blood comes in and is respected.

“None of us want to see EF die. This is the main point.”

GregV:
feels the admin team have burned out, and thinks it's better for the community if they just fade away. There's already enough disruption and damage so far. Greg thinks EF will get past it and hopefully survive.

Since Mark's death all of the costs (mainly server) have been covered by Greg or Robert (Mark’s brother). This will end with a different dedicated server (as already announced), which should be ready for EF next week. This will be funded from donations already made and should be financial viable for 2 years without further funds.


Gooner:
Again he, or is it she, mentioned burn out but added “The last 3 years on EF have been rewarding, but just as groups of members come and go, so must those who over-see the day to day running of the forum. Sadly, after several unfortunate incidents both on and off the forum, I don't feel it is the right thing for me to continue as a moderator for EF.”


My comment:
Clearly much more has gone on than is mentioned here. There are questions about Mark’s vision, his management style and the near chaos his untimely death lead to and the hapless position Lynn (who you will recall he was to marry in September 2008) was left in. But discussing these now is pointless and hopefully they will now never be aired publicly.

The former admins have new challenges to move on to and do not regret the last 3 years, when EF demanded their attention hourly, 7 days a week as it grew from a baby to a somewhat unruly and truculent teenager.

I too will be relinquishing my mod duties as soon as soon as possible, though I will be about in the future, EF will be taking less of time too.

I don’t want this statement to generate yet more hot air and have posted it on a forum that I moderate so that I can lock it necessary. Unless you have a really worthwhile reponse, please just read this and be happy because:

The good news is the EF will continue. It will not be the same place it was when Mark was here, but it will be here.

Sorry to those who gave a sensible answer, as usual there's always a dickhead who can't keep his big mouth shut - so all response posts go and the thread is locked.

It's the end of an era. Let's all move on to he next...