A personal appeal to Greg Brooks.

Three days of biting my tongue - and I am still really sad to read 'those' previous threads.

I have always believed (and said) that one of the things 'QZ' did really well was to pool our resourses, and push the Queen envelope forwards.

Some of the more serious discussions in here, have been among the most informative in the Queen WORLD, and I have always thought that this was the place I came to 'learn'.

Infact, this site has been MORE informative and accurate than the 'official' sources. This is because we CAN speak our minds - without censorship, or breaching Draconian vows of Masonic proportions - and sometimes - even disagree with 'those powers that be' and their stupid 'Freddie birthday compilations'.

It is a pity that such entrenched views have been drawn up on both sides.

I personally believe, for what it's worth, that by joining forces, both the official and 'unofficial' apostles - could between them, create the most magnificent and accurate Queen Bible - ever.

However, as this will always be a one-way street, I guess that divisions are no more than to be expected.

Therefore, to address the balance Greg, I offer you a personal challenge. No tricks, no cons, and nothing up my sleeve.

In good faith, why don't you begin a new thread? A serious question and answer session - wherein you answer some REAL questions - honestly and seriously, as I believe you really can and do have some serious contributions to make to the Queen community. (That was meant as a sincere compliment by the way).

This is not meant as a personal pissing contest - more of a juvenille 'you show me yours - and I'll show you mine'.

Surely, you can not seriously expect the good faith, respect and support from such a tight-knit internet community like QZ, without flashing a little bit before-hand, do you?

Take the boxing gloves off and exchange them for a glass of wine, and an hour of serious discussion.

Who knows, even you may be surprised by the depth of talent which lurks between these anonymous pages.

Im not Greg Brooks, but I like that. :)

It wouldn't work, not in any way that would be useful to Greg's purpose. Too many idiots would jump on board, either hurling abuse back and forth, or getting distracted by things like "I can't believe Bo RHap was never a #1 in Venzuela, have they no taste?", "yeah, I really love it", "ooh, that bit in the middle is, like, sooooooo amazing" etc etc.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Penetration_Guru wrote: [/QUOTENAME]It wouldn't work, not in any way that would be useful to Greg's purpose. Too many idiots would jump on board, either hurling abuse back and forth, or getting distracted by things like "I can't believe Bo RHap was never a #1 in Venzuela, have they no taste?", "yeah, I really love it", "ooh, that bit in the middle is, like, sooooooo amazing" etc etc.

[/QUOTE]

true... lets make it invitational :P

PG: Just a thought...

if Greg was to actually pick up the gauntlet, (and to make the challenge easier), we could screen the questions before hand, so that the troll element and the 'was Freddie circumcised' brigade were themselves excised from the debate.

I still believe in my (above) original opinions, but I accept that like all communities, QZ too has a sleazy underbelly.

I am sure that in return for Greg's own respect and civility, that we as a community could collectively 'mind our manners', and treat him with a more positive and open frame of mind, and again, as I also suggested above, who knows what even he may learn from the more 'enlightened' among us.

I do hope Greg replies.

I do not expect the beginnings of a 'beautiful relationship', but even the British and German armies could find the time for a Xmas day truce - so perhaps some things are possible after all.

But I don't think I will be holding my breath...

http://www.queenzone.com/queenzone/forumnew/forum_topic_view.aspx?Q_FORUM_ID=1&Q_FORUM_NAME=Queen+Serious+Discussion&TOPIC_SUBJECT=Who+will+help+out+Greg+Brooks+%3f%3f%3f+(New+Queen+CD%3f)&Q=789980&page=4

Queen Archivist
Posted: 5/27/2006 10:48:06 PM
:Ian R... i forgot to say...

John S Stuart
Posted: 5/27/2006 10:56:13 PM

Dam: Missed you by 8 minutes. You MUST have seen this thread too.
How about answering my reply Greg?

I am not surprised that GB has not responded to this topic. Mud wrestling at Queenzone is too much fun to bother replying to this topic.

Anyway, I think Elvis was planning on leaving the building anyway, but John's proposal gave GB more incentive to leave.

I, too, am not surprised he has not responded. What could possibly be more stimulating: the very mud-slinging that he's discouraging us of, or an actual Q&A discussion with thoughtful, intelligent responses?

I know what I would do if I had more than half a brain, but I guess those with lesser gray matter prefer to sling childish insults. It was a good try, Mr Stuart.

GB have left the building i guess.
I`ve never met this (in)famous GB, but he sure sounds like a strange guy. One sec he act like a little baby, the other sec he actually behave like an adult. I`ve read every post, and it gave me a laugh some time. He sure like to crack people up, and people react ofcourse. It`s childish, but still...why bother.
I think the suggestion John S.Stuart came up with was straight and fair. Hope GB read this final post, so perhaps some of the "damage" will be repaired??

He read my question about "You're the only one". No answer, no reply, nothing... But now I know that I'm not a real fan of Queen because I wasn't even born when Mr Brooks already have friends in Queen world and because I have never paid a couple of thousands of euros for to come to UK or Holland to ask him one question privately on conventions. I'm curious about what Brian would think about it - about these new standards of being Queen fans... And especially Queen's PR agent!

When serious question asked - serious QZers will always come and discuss. It has nothing to do with idiot threads in General forum.

I think they all live in a complete different dimension or some sort of time warp. Judged on a frequency of new material release, time must be running much slower over there. They fail to notice that we are all mortals and can't wait indefinately for a new Queen material (by Queen material I mean everything created prior to 1991). Brian almost got a PhD in astrophysics, perhaps he things it is okay to publish one live album every century. Solar system still has 5,000,000,000 years before it explodes, so they should meet the deadline.

...and one more thing, I am listening to Chicago 7-12-1978 bootleg right now, Brighton Solo is brilliant on this one. Probably best ever. How about this for the next Queen album???

Keen-eyed posters on QZ will notice I don't post on here a great deal, and it's rare that you'll find my jumping into discussions about "My favourite song" or "Where's John?" threads. I don't even read a lot of the threads on here. I scan the thread titles now and then, see if one catches my eye and maybe will skim through it. If I think I have something to add, I'll post. Occassionally, I get driven nuts but what I preceive as idiocy or a lack of respect toward Queen and I jump in, say my piece and move on. When I start a thread, it's ussually an attempt to engage other posters in lively, informative discussion about either Queen history or Queen releases.

Otherwise, I stay out of it for the most part. I don't socialize on here and can't really say I know any of you (except two of you whom I met before I began posting). For me, this isn't where I need to chat. And I wouldn't have the time even if I wanted to. The point I'm trying to make is that the social element of these threads is detrimental to distilling information and learning what we can from our collective research. It's like a room full of scientists talking about why Einstien didn't wear socks instead of actually trying to unlock the secrets of the universe. It's not my site, but I've always felt the Serious Discussion page should be focused on the exchanging of knowledge and the working out of problems related to Queen and their solo works' recordings and touring. Seriously, what else matters? Roger's green hair gets relagated (rightly so) to the Fun Discussion pages, leaving Serious to track down the mysteries of what exactly Queen recorded during their debut album sessions (Hangman anyone?).

Greg is the official Queen archivist, but I'm sure he'll be the first to admit he is not all-wise and all-knowing. He does research, we do research. The internet is full of information both accurate and inaccurate. Queen Productions have erred in the course of their history, a lot of such mistakes will probably never be corrected or the source discovered. But that's life. No one thinks to follow the band around and chronicle their life as it happens, in order to keep the record straight. Years later we find ourselves sifting through old magazine articles and chart info to see what happened when.

It bothers me that there are people out there who think it's a badge of honour to be able to flaunt "I know more than 'Official' sources!" in the face of the people they could instead be helping.

So what if you don't think a release like Stone Cold Classics was nessecary. Get over it. There's work to do and if you have something worthwhile to contribute, do so.

NASA scientists and engineers had an unofficial policy, that they could yell and scream, and have heated discussions until they were blue in the face with the blessing of the Director *as long as it was about the work*. It was never personal, and it was never about ego. And folks, that got them to the moon!

There is a very real opportunity here to work with Queen Productions simply by being as accurate a resource as possible. QP probably has nothing to do with us because we come across as fan-boy know-it-alls. We are shooting ourselves in the foot by lacking integrity and solidarity. I'm not saying we should be friends or that we even need to like each other, but we can raise our standards of knowledge by simply staying focused on what is important to us: Queen's music.

Here's hoping we can do this properly.

*sigh*
I'm with you John - tried to do something similar in one of the other threats...
There have been a couple of people who tried to make some sort of peace and maybe start something positive.
Oddly enough ALL those attempts have been ignored. NONE of them have received a reply from GB.
Instead there is still a flood of personal namecalling, bullying and quaralling that's becoming sad and more childish by the minute.
This situation is realy pathetic and going nowhere.

GB, there is obviously a lot of frustration inside you. I doubt that all comes from some people on Queenzone critisizing you. (And responding to people that 'detest' you? ... Sorry, mate, you REALY should know better then that!). As a result your posts in here are of the sort of tone that a lot of people just LOOOVE to jump upon. As an adult you should also know that.

Yes, Queenzone IS a freestate where every moron can say what he thinks no matter how tact-less his choice of words. It is also still a place with potential when it comes to knowledge and creaivity. Both describtions fit you too, GB. Looks like you REALY could fit in here. You just need to learn to actually read the usefull posts and ignore the not-so-usefull and other-sort posts... Yes, it is hard when people call you names in public though your intentions where good at first. It is hard to ignore that - I KNOW! I've been there. But spend some more time in here in a decent manner and you'l get used to it before you know it.

There ARE people in here that actually said that they 'detest' (or equivalent) me.
There even are people in here that threatened to make my life living hell and that they would not rest untill I was dead.
On the other hand: there are MORE people in here that give me a good feeling. Friendly people, funny people, wise people, helpfull people. People that keep me going. People I would realy label as 'friends', also OUTSIDE the internet. Queenzone is oneof the places where I met a lot of people that actually made my life happier and more joyfull. Both in here and in private. Both on a business (collecting/trading) level as a private level.

I also do NOT like everyone in here. Yes, there are people in here that ARE morons, idiots, selfish dickheads, plebs whatever. I can NAME them.
I am not Mr tactfull himself either. I KNOW what to say if I am looking for a fight with certain people. But I also know what NOT to say if I want to remain alive in here. (Well, most of the time, I THINK I know ;-)
Were all the people you went to school with your friends? If so, you were very lucky. There were some people who's blood I still would drink.
Have all your collegues in all jobs you had, all your friends? If so you are very lucky. There is still some of mine, that I would rather kick in the head with a baseball-bat.
Same goes for Queenzoners and QueenFANS in general.
And you know what? You ARE right! The majority seams to be sick in the head! When I look around me in real life, I am sad to say, that I ALSO find that the majority of people in todays world is selfish, non-thinking, blunt and ignorant.
But that just seams to be the way of the world today... Yes, that IS frustrating from time to time... But I guess we must learn to live with it... Or would you rather jump off the roof?

Luckily in all above mentioned situations there have been people that kept me going. People that made it worthwhile to KEEP the job I could so easily have quit. People that KEEP me coming back to Queenzone, though it is SO easy to leave.

You do realise, GB, that you cannot just leave like this? You do understand that this needs to be resolved first, right? I assume you realise that by walking away now is keeping the rediciolous spirit of our contact as it is right now intact?

PLEASE, take the oppertunity to indeed, as some of us suggested, start a constructive debate. Use normal words, refer not to any individuals in a negative way and forget about all the bullshit of last weeke

Congratulation, fantastic post. If this doesn't lead to a normal conversation, nothing will.