Hey NICO. I've gotta say first, it wasn't until today when I browsed around the forum for the first time in a couple months that I truly realized how much I missed the community on here. You all are great people, and it makes me feel even worse for the way I had acted several times and, more significantly, my unannounced departure from NICO.
I doubt anyone will remember this other than myself, but quite a few months ago I got into a 'heated' debate with another member in the Politics Forum on NICO and, looking back on the situation, I had acted rather irrationally for someone who was simply typing a response on a computer to a post on an Internet website. I took the argument, my position in the argument, and the entire context of the issue far too seriously and, as the newest member on the moderator team, I felt that if I didn't defend myself and, for lack of other words, 'win' the argument then I would look weak in the eyes of the individuals that had asked me to join the NICO administration. Moreover, I was one of the youngest people ever to be asked onto moderator team and wanted to prove myself as an equal to the, admittedly, much more experienced and composed members of the administration team. I suppose someone could explain my behavior as a result of either 1) Protecting my manhood and territory on NICO or 2) Immaturity. I'd love to cop-out right now and call my behavior on Option 1, but I remember having several more similar irrational scenarios with other members on here: charlieo, Blastphemy, AppleBonker, and others. Therefore, I have to accept that my behavior was a result of Option 2.
I remember Greg giving me some advice after the whole Political Forum ordeal. It was an important lesson that I'll shorten down to a quick sentence: think before you act. In the specific incidence, I should have investigated the debate, developed my position, presented myself in a respectable manner, and then proceed to enter the debate. Rather, I had made myself look like a clown juggling ten balls in a business meeting that was running smoothly before I entered. While Greg's advice truly afflicts everyone, I have personally worked on this side of me and believe that I have improved ten-fold, which I hope will be seen in the future.
Now, as some of you know, overnight my infiniti_lineup account was deactivated and all of my posts were deleted. Though this may have appeared or be questioned by some as an act by the administration of NICO, it was in fact myself who had deleted my posts. I want to make it clear to everyone that the administration had no part in my departure and that, if the choice was mine, I would have stayed on NICO without having to delete my account. Unfortunately, the choice was not mine at the time. Here's why…
Nissan North America (which includes Infiniti) has an online portal website for their employees which provides all of their secure documents, national updates, finances, and everything and anything Nissan related to their employees. I had complete and legitimate corporate access to this portal at the time because of connections within my family and Nissan. The one stipulation with my access (and all other employee access to this portal) though - you CANNOT share, distribute, or copy any information from it and post it publicly. Well, in one of my posts on NICO, I had posted a secure document in order to prove something to a member - who shall remain nameless. Unfortunately, my post came and slapped me in the a** a few weeks later when Nissan Motor Corporation found out of it BECAUSE the member had printed out my post and provided it to some corporate contact at their local dealership. The post contained the document's ID number and, of course, Nissan has an access log to their confidential documents. As a result of my public posting, they removed all my access to Nissan portals, software, etc. and legally sanctioned me to remove all connections between myself and NICO. Worse, my family's dealership was in jeopardy of losing its Nissan licensing because of the public posting of confidential documents. I had viable no option at the time but to delete my account and all posts on NICO, which, looking back later, I probably could have moved the posts to a hidden forum and then later selectively restore them - but what's done is done, sadly.
Fast forward a few months to present day, Corporate is now happy that I've severed all ties with NICO and that I've lost all access to Nissan websites. My family's dealerships is in the okay, as Corporate found out that they really had no part in my posting on NICO and were completely unaware of it, and everyone's settled. More importantly, the waves that were caused because of my public posts have subsided and I actually have a great outcome from it:
I spoke with an executive at Nissan Corporate at the end of April and we came to the agreement that I would be able to regain my complete access to the Nissan Portal (because of my connection with my family's dealership and situation that I gained with Nissan Corporate which required access to certain resources in the Portal), as well as reinstate my account on NICO, baring that all my prior posts containing confidential documents remain deleted. More importantly, the corporate contact at Nissan has kindly now ALLOWED me to publicly post specific documents that are the Nissan Portal to NICO's forums and websites. I'll send a couple more details about this to Greg when I get a few moments later.
Should you guys be able to accept me back into the community, I really do hope to be able to build my relationships with each and every one of you and provide some good information from Nissan. Please try to forgive my past reckless behavior, which I am truly sorry for, and give me another opportunity to be a part of the community - as just a regular member.
Thanks NICO.
How have you been? I noticed the blue, by the way. Congratulations! When did that happen?
