Weirdest happening on the forum

[webny99]

What is the strangest thing that you think has ever happened on this forum?

I'm not talking about strange humor, I'm talking about actually confusing stuff that has never been explained. For example this.

Also, over 5,000 users joined in 2014, but there are currently only 3,352. How do thousands of users just disappear?

Also, one day last week there were 486 posts. It is quite possible that that is the most posts that there has ever been in a single day on the forum.

[hotdogPi]

Also, over 5,000 users joined in 2014, but there are currently only 3,352. How do thousands of users just disappear?

These phantom new members seem to be 6/10/11 to 9/6/13 (not in 2014 as you said), based on forum stats.

User ID numbers are chronological, and they count these phantom members as if they were real.

[jeffandnicole]

Weirdest happening?  That younger people seemed way-overly concerned about forum statistics. 

[Scott5114]

That's simple. When you want to join the forum, a moderator has to approve your account. This is usually done by US 71, although all of us have access to the function. The mod looks over your account to see whether you're likely to be a spammer or not, by evaluating your answer to "why do you want to join the forum?" (overly generic or blank responses are a rejection) and by searching your email against lists of known spammers. If the account is likely to be a spammer, it is not approved and thus not counted in the user count. However, because the account must be listed in the database until it is approved, it is assigned a sequential ID number (for basic SQL database structure reasons).

So the difference in account population is simply the total number of accounts registered minus the rejected accounts.

[adventurernumber1]

That Archer City crap was definitely weird as hell.

Also, another thing to note with that is that the thread in the "Welcome!" subforum ( https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=21049.0 ) had a random Interstate Shield Message Icon, and the thread in the "Bridges" subforum ( https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=21050.msg2256662 ) had a random US Highway Shield Message Icon. Is the latter fact supposed to imply that there is supposedly a US Highway 287 that runs through a non-existent Archer City, Florida, and that it goes across a major bridge? 

Don't know whether that was a bot or a troll or what; or maybe it was a baby who was exactly 287 days old at the time of those postings, like NE2 said in one of those threads.

      

[kphoger]

There was a secret war with Nimbya a while ago.

[Takumi]

-TheAlan360 threatening to call the police on us because of what Alanland became
-ethanman62187 pretending to be a moderator and subsequently getting banned for it
-blawp, the only person (to my knowledge) to get banned three times

[kphoger]

-TheAlan360 threatening to call the police on us because of what Alan.land became
-ethanman62187 pretending to be a moderator and subsequently getting banned for it
-blawp, the only person (to my knowledge) to get banned three times

Wow, I remember the first and third ones, but not the second!  Thanks for the blast from the past.

[1995hoo]

-TheAlan360 threatening to call the police on us because of what Alan.land became
-ethanman62187 pretending to be a moderator and subsequently getting banned for it
-blawp, the only person (to my knowledge) to get banned three times

Wow, I remember the first and third ones, but not the second!  Thanks for the blast from the past.

Right before he was banned, he bizarrely started using the purple text and threatening to ban people (why, I have no clue, and those posts appear to have been deleted). I'm pretty sure that was the last straw for the moderators.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I knew the stories behind the first two, but not about blawp. What happened with him?

Then there was the infamous dlzsabe. I incorporated his Hypotenuse into my plans after he was banned, and it has gone almost unnoticed since.

[kphoger]

Hypotenuse

This definitely ranks up there.

To be honest, the original post of the Alan land thread was really bizarre and was certainly not "strange humor."

[NE2]

I incorporated his Hypotenuse into my plans after he was banned, and it has gone almost unnoticed since.

I think that's because your plans go almost unnoticed period.

[formulanone]

Alanlandia was bizarre and not bizarre, yet it became bizarre-er-est. 

I think many folks' reaction to the announcement of I-69E, I-69C, and I-69W was a weird moment for our forum.

[Roadgeekteen]

When a member signed up with 2 identities and revealed it in a math problem.

[Takumi]

I knew the stories behind the first two, but not about blawp. What happened with him?

I’ve forgotten why he was banned the first time (he was constantly bashing the Midwest and saying everything California does is perfect and should not be questioned, but I’m not sure what put it over the top), but the second two times he was banned for joining after already being banned.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I think that's because your plans go almost unnoticed period.

I noticed that, and I believe it's because my plans are reasonable and prudent (Now I think, where did I see that?). Perhaps I need to route an Interstate through Yellowstone.

[kphoger]

I think that's because your plans go almost unnoticed period.

I noticed that, and I believe it's because my plans are reasonable and prudent (Now I think, where did I see that?). Perhaps I need to route an Interstate through Yellowstone.

For me personally:  they're very extensive, and I just don't the attention span to look through them all.   

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I think that's because your plans go almost unnoticed period.

I noticed that, and I believe it's because my plans are reasonable and prudent (Now I think, where did I see that?). Perhaps I need to route an Interstate through Yellowstone.

For me personally:  they're very extensive, and I just don't the attention span to look through them all.   

Truthfully though, what new material is still being brought to the table with any of these ongoing grand plan threads? We've seen the more "realistic" ones by original forum members, then the Fritz plans and the people trying to one-up his absurdity, so where else can we go? Brutally honest, it's all become a big yawn by now.

[roadman65]

That's simple. When you want to join the forum, a moderator has to approve your account. This is usually done by US 71, although all of us have access to the function. The mod looks over your account to see whether you're likely to be a spammer or not, by evaluating your answer to "why do you want to join the forum?" (overly generic or blank responses are a rejection) and by searching your email against lists of known spammers. If the account is likely to be a spammer, it is not approved and thus not counted in the user count. However, because the account must be listed in the database until it is approved, it is assigned a sequential ID number (for basic SQL database structure reasons).

So the difference in account population is simply the total number of accounts registered minus the rejected accounts.

How did Archer City get approved then?

[formulanone]

I think that's because your plans go almost unnoticed period.

I noticed that, and I believe it's because my plans are reasonable and prudent (Now I think, where did I see that?). Perhaps I need to route an Interstate through Yellowstone.

For me personally:  they're very extensive, and I just don't the attention span to look through them all.   

Truthfully though, what new material is still being brought to the table with any of these ongoing grand plan threads? We've seen the more "realistic" ones by original forum members, then the Fritz plans and the people trying to one-up his absurdity, so where else can we go? Brutally honest, it's all become a big yawn by now.

The “I-2 Immigration Freedomway” ensured all future absurdist proposals were either jumping the shark or created out of greater boredom than sense. Fictional Highways are fine for proposals that would make some sense given some data, renumbering situations, roads that are not quite complete...

Even more weird was I-2 actually appearing a few months later, seemingly out of thin air.

[Roadgeekteen]

InterstateNG. I have never seen a good post of his.

[vdeane]

Even more weird was I-2 actually appearing a few months later, seemingly out of thin air.

And along part of the same route for the Freedomway proposal, too!

[hbelkins]

InterstateNG. I have never seen a good post of his.

The irony is just dripping off this post...

[Brandon]

Well, considering the OP, there is this:
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=21445.msg2272354#msg2272354

And this:
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=21445.msg2272578#msg2272578

[roadman65]

Even more weird was I-2 actually appearing a few months later, seemingly out of thin air.

And along part of the same route for the Freedomway proposal, too!

He once shit his pants when I told a Bud Schuster joke and tried to get the moderator to warn me about necro posting as Bud jokes were old at the point in time except for NE2 who this guy never got upset about when he necroposted and such.  This guy acted like he knew me the way he was obsessed with my posts and it appeared that he singled me out as he never said a thing to others especially the troll.

Later I learned from Alex that he was trouble before and got himself banned for telling him to f off. 

I also think that he tried to become a user again using the name federalroute1 but a mod caught him on that name.