In Memory of Jim McClain

[Jon]

Very interesting and I’ve been giving that some thought. (O-Boy the thinking mind over-doing it ) So ! Is it possible he fell victim to his own rules ? Rules equals fine line between control and controlled. It’s actually what we just went through with the Pandemic, but let me not go there. Back on Jim, his intentions where good by creating rules, - no personal attacks- no religious or political topics. Etc etc. I actually never went and read the rules list sorry Jim, he probable put lots of time into it. Anyhow, do I think he had a power tripping personality ? No ! But let’s face it, us humans wake up with different moods each day. This variable makes our thinking change daily. I often noticed political and religious comments that he allowed. Maybe that day he was feeling open and accepting to ideas ? Then other times, like the topic ‘ In Memory of a TFP members Dog ‘ for some reason, and I’ll touch on that latter, Jim felt incredibly strong that we TFP members should not have turned that topic into our own personal tribute to our own lost pets. That we should have just given our condolences........I must admit, Jim got that one wrong and most of us agreed. Now I’ll attempt to give him our understanding. For some reason this issue hit him hard, he dug his heels in, and I’m guessing did not listen to members reasoning, Why ?.....If I had to guess, maybe it was a combination of things. Growing tired physically, with the bull **** of having copd. Also tired of ‘ The Management process of his forum. keeping conversations flowing, Moving topics, creating new ones, and managing staff members and there concerns. But the big one maybe could have been a combination of him loosing a pet and the forum problem of members Hijacking posts. We all did this and most times the topic would get redirected and maybe lost. Maybe his ‘ Power Trip ‘ and over reaction came from pent up stress ? Clouding the reality, that we where actually on topic. I wish I would have emailed him privately to discuss this.......It was a sad day for Jim and TFP ..... Life and rules caught up on a public forum. In closing, Jim came to bat every day with Zest and confidence that he could hit a home run every time, but life throws curve balls ( low and down and high and up ) and those darn pitches are difficult to hit out of the park. RIP Jimbo !

Thinking out loud
I wonder why TFP seemed to attract more " flooring " related people from all over the world and how to attract them to join here? I know we have meet several from our travels overseas London, Boston, just about meet a couple from Canada but things didnt line up and other places
What happened to all the regular posters there and where did they go? Could mention several names never to be heard from again
I do know that most layers I know have a life with flooring only a means to get money to pay the bills, once heading home thats it
I do know that some company reps here do not want to be involved with flooring sites as everybody knows each other so are very limited to what they can say, Others can guess who they are of which Jim could never understand as NZ is too small, 5.2 million total pop, lots of people know of each other in the flooring game through places like trade shows etc
I do know that the National Wood Flooring has a lot more information than any Flooring site in NZ for the same membership fees
I do know I pulled out of NZ Flooring for the same reasons as above, had to be a paying member to get any information which wasnt there anyway. Places like TFP and here one could join for free to get more information

 

[Floorist]

Years ago I belonged to a UK forum. Found out some interesting stuff. A stair tool is called a bolster over there. They put flat metal in all doorways. They said customers think they are getting cheated if you make door seams. They also kicked everything, no power stretchers.

 

[Jon]

Years ago I belonged to a UK forum. Found out some interesting stuff. A stair tool is called a bolster over there. They put flat metal in all doorways. They said customers think they are getting cheated if you make door seams. They also kicked everything, no power stretchers.

Yes a few of our English friendly carpet layers arrived here doing the same thing and wondered why people complained, even people who lived at England wondered why they never got the bars in their doorway joins instead of a heat bond seam as they felt ripped off. The layers also had trouble with the different flooring products here
As a PS I am meant to be selling my tools tomorrow to a guy I think I have met at Surfaces one year, who knows of me, know the name but cant picture him, maybe through my 15 odd years of being President of the Flooring Assoc here at Auckland?

 

[Floorist]

Yes a few of our English friendly carpet layers arrived here doing the same thing and wondered why people complained, even people who lived at England wondered why they never got the bars in their doorway joins instead of a heat bond seam as they felt ripped off. The layers also had trouble with the different flooring products here
As a PS I am meant to be selling my tools tomorrow to a guy I think I have met at Surfaces one year, who knows of me, know the name but cant picture him, maybe through my 15 odd years of being President of the Flooring Assoc here at Auckland?

Have not tried to sell my tools, not much market here. Installers are scarce.

 

[Jon]

Have not tried to sell my tools, not much market here. Installers are scarce.

Same here as a layer I would not be replacing anything I have already, maybe a new guy starting out on his own but he wont have any money. The guy I am seeing has wage staff, who break and loose tools, and brings layers over from Aussie. I have lots of things like concrete nails, tools I have never used for years etc worth nothing, Just want to see my wagon empty there are other things like a big welder, electric vinyl router etc etc

Now if this was TFP Jim would move these last couple of posts to a new topic

 

[DarisMulkin]

Pay it forward like I did, find a young fella/gal that is going to stay in the trade and give the tools to them. Don't even know the kids name I gave mine to but he is a helper to a friend of mine. Now I got a little repair to do for a friend and had to borrow a Koolglide.
As far as England and Canada, their CRI says they can kick in an approxomately 15x15 room. At covention one time when we had reps in the hot seat so to speak I brought that up why they got different standard for the same carpet. Moderater turned away from me and moved on to the next person. Never got an answer.

 

[Floorist]

Pay it forward like I did, find a young fella/gal that is going to stay in the trade and give the tools to them. Don't even know the kids name I gave mine to but he is a helper to a friend of mine. Now I got a little repair to do for a friend and had to borrow a Koolglide.
As far as England and Canada, their CRI says they can kick in an approxomately 15x15 room. At covention one time when we had reps in the hot seat so to speak I brought that up why they got different standard for the same carpet. Moderater turned away from me and moved on to the next person. Never got an answer.

They kick in rooms bigger than that or at least they did when I was on that forum.

 

[highup]

I had always figured Jim had Roger Gerber in mind to take over the site when he passed. But Roger had retired and moved to NY[?] I think to be with his kids and grandchildren and din't have the time and possibly knowledge on how to do it, but those were my thoughts and beliefs. So the site died with Jim. The one thing I did like about the site there was no BS, politics, and religion allowed. Those 3 subjects can create a lot of problems.

Only if you take them too seriously.
Nobody's going to offend me with their political point of view. It's just their point of view. Mine is my point of view.
If yours is different than mine, I may poke you with a fork but I'm not going to stab you with it and twist it back and forth.
I was very surprised that Jim didn't have someone to take it over. He was so organized and proud of what he'd built..... you wouldn't think he'd let it just vanish.

 

[highup]

Very interesting and I’ve been giving that some thought. (O-Boy the thinking mind over-doing it ) So ! Is it possible he fell victim to his own rules ? Rules equals fine line between control and controlled. It’s actually what we just went through with the Pandemic, but let me not go there. Back on Jim, his intentions where good by creating rules, - no personal attacks- no religious or political topics. Etc etc. I actually never went and read the rules list sorry Jim, he probable put lots of time into it. Anyhow, do I think he had a power tripping personality ? No ! But let’s face it, us humans wake up with different moods each day. This variable makes our thinking change daily. I often noticed political and religious comments that he allowed. Maybe that day he was feeling open and accepting to ideas ? Then other times, like the topic ‘ In Memory of a TFP members Dog ‘ for some reason, and I’ll touch on that latter, Jim felt incredibly strong that we TFP members should not have turned that topic into our own personal tribute to our own lost pets. That we should have just given our condolences........I must admit, Jim got that one wrong and most of us agreed. Now I’ll attempt to give him our understanding. For some reason this issue hit him hard, he dug his heels in, and I’m guessing did not listen to members reasoning, Why ?.....If I had to guess, maybe it was a combination of things. Growing tired physically, with the bull **** of having copd. Also tired of ‘ The Management process of his forum. keeping conversations flowing, Moving topics, creating new ones, and managing staff members and there concerns. But the big one maybe could have been a combination of him loosing a pet and the forum problem of members Hijacking posts. We all did this and most times the topic would get redirected and maybe lost. Maybe his ‘ Power Trip ‘ and over reaction came from pent up stress ? Clouding the reality, that we where actually on topic. I wish I would have emailed him privately to discuss this.......It was a sad day for Jim and TFP ..... Life and rules caught up on a public forum. In closing, Jim came to bat every day with Zest and confidence that he could hit a home run every time, but life throws curve balls ( low and down and high and up ) and those darn pitches are difficult to hit out of the park. RIP Jimbo !

Maybe it isn't curveballs ..... it's the size of them and whose was bigger ...or who thinks theirs are bigger.

 

[C.J.]

Didn’t Roger have a stroke or something terrible like that?

 

[Floorist]

Only if you take them too seriously.
Nobody's going to offend me with their political point of view. It's just their point of view. Mine is my point of view.
If yours is different than mine, I may poke you with a fork but I'm not going to stab you with it and twist it back and forth.
I was very surprised that Jim didn't have someone to take it over. He was so organized and proud of what he'd built..... you wouldn't think he'd let it just vanish.

The people here wanted to buy his forum after he passed, but could find no way to do it.

 

[highup]

The people here wanted to buy his forum after he passed, but could find no way to do it.

You would think the beholders of the internet would retain the information on a website that had closed up for some period of time before just tossing it in the shredder. I'm guessing maybe there is no legal way to obtain a website unless there was an owner that was wanted to sell it or get rid of it. I suppose a bit late for a crystal ball or a seance to contact Jim and have him 'sign' something...... rattling some dishes or making the lights blink off and on.

 

[havasu]

What was the exact name of the forum? Maybe I could send it to Keith, and he could do some digging?

 

[Floorist]

What was the exact name of the forum? Maybe I could send it to Keith, and he could do some digging?

thefloorpro, Angie looked for it

 

[Incognito]

Didn’t Roger have a stroke or something terrible like that?

Yes.

 

[MSLI]

I was convalescing from Nov 2020 to May of 2021 in a home without (believe it or not ) internet access. I would occasionally make it back home and check in on TFP but did not participate too much. I remember feeling sad to hear about Roger’s stroke and being taken back that we the members of TFP , me included, didn’t step up to the plate and adequately respond with well wishes to him and his family Something I still regret till today. If you’re out there Elmer ! My sincere apologies and I hope some progress has been made for you and your family to continue this journey with meaning and happiness.

 

[Incognito]

You would think the beholders of the internet would retain the information on a website that had closed up for some period of time before just tossing it in the shredder. I'm guessing maybe there is no legal way to obtain a website unless there was an owner that was wanted to sell it or get rid of it. I suppose a bit late for a crystal ball or a seance to contact Jim and have him 'sign' something...... rattling some dishes or making the lights blink off and on.

********************************
https://web.archive.org/web/20161210190310/http://www.thefloorpro.com/

 

[C.J.]

********************************
https://web.archive.org/web/20161210190310/http://www.thefloorpro.com/

I’ve seen that but don’t think the forum part of the website has survived.

Edit: I stand corrected. You gotta click on the community forums link on the page when it pops up. The forum link in the header doesn’t take you anywhere.

 

[highup]

It's still good to see a few remnants are there.