I miss MTR :(

[bugo]

No, not the current MTR with Larry Sheldon showing his ass at every turn.  I mean the old MTR.  The forum where everybody was cool with everybody.  The forum where questions that constantly pop up on this forum originally were asked and discussed.  The forum where you could say "do us all a favor and fuck off" and be called a terrorist one minute, then become a beloved figure.  I miss being myself and not worrying about having a mod change up my post into something barely recognizable.  I miss 1998-era MTR

[getemngo]

Due to my age, I can't nod my head in agreement, but... I miss a lot of the things you named, except with the Yahoo groups. I at least know the general direction you're coming from.

Call it the inexorable march of progress. Roadgeeks are still around, we still have websites, we still have places to talk*, we still gather in person, and we're still growing in number.

The only thing that actually concerns me is the move away from personal websites and toward doing everything on Facebook, YouTube, and photo sharing sites, because then all the content belongs to the site owner. You can't customize as much of what goes where, you're subject to their terms and conditions, and they can do what they want with your stuff. It's like how malls were heralded as a new public square in the 1960s and 70s, until we discovered that we were bound by the property owner's arbitrary rules and could get kicked out on a whim.

Roadgeeks as a group tend to be a couple years behind what the web is doing (look how long we stayed on Usenet), and forums have faded a lot in popularity in the last few years. I hope this one doesn't fade. You don't have total freedom to do whatever here, but you still have a lot, and everything new that comes along seems to bring a little less of it and a little less anonymity.

* And actually, it's pretty amazing that we almost all wound up here on AARoads, instead of going off in different directions and making 10 forums. Not many hobbies can say that!

[empirestate]

I miss having my website hosted on xoom.com.

[corco]

I miss being myself and not worrying about having a mod change up my post into something barely recognizable.

When has that ever happened? Post merges don't clear the threshold of "barely recognizable"- you might find them annoying, but there's no way to argue that makes them barely recognizable.

[Brandon]

I miss the old mtr, but I don't miss what's become of it.  In many ways, this is more like mtr was in its heyday (late 1990s, early 200s).  Many of the same people are here with new ones coming along all the time.

[hotdogPi]

early 200s

So mtr is ancient?

[Scott5114]

Moderation is what keeps this place from looking like modern-day MTR. No Calrog, no "Laura Bush killed her teenage boyfriend" or whoever the hell that was, etc.

[bugo]

I miss being myself and not worrying about having a mod change up my post into something barely recognizable.

When has that ever happened? Post merges don't clear the threshold of "barely recognizable"- you might find them annoying, but there's no way to argue that makes them barely recognizable.

The post merges make reading posts almost impossible.  Besides, it's silly to combine 2 easy to read messages about two totally different subjects into one hard to read post.

[NE2]

no "Laura Bush killed her teenage boyfriend" or whoever the hell that was, etc.

But she did! Then planned 9/11 to hide the evidence.

[bugo]

Moderation is what keeps this place from looking like modern-day MTR. No Calrog, no "Laura Bush killed her teenage boyfriend" or whoever the hell that was, etc.

Those guys were fun.  They added color to the discussions, and were good for a bit of a laugh. 

I have thought about reviving the Tom From Ohio troll, but I'm sure the moderators would nip that in the bud, even though I think most of the posters, especially the old timers would get a kick out of it.  The newbies who have only heard of the legend of TFO would get to experience it first hand and would get their own "do us all a favor and FUCK OFF!" posts.

[bugo]

no "Laura Bush killed her teenage boyfriend" or whoever the hell that was, etc.

But she did! Then planned 9/11 to hide the evidence.

She did kill him, accident or not.

[Molandfreak]

Moderation is what keeps this place from looking like modern-day MTR. No Calrog, no "Laura Bush killed her teenage boyfriend" or whoever the hell that was, etc.

Right, because the locking of the thread "Interstates that could go into Canada" was totally necessary to prevent these from happening to this forum.

[Scott5114]

Moderation is what keeps this place from looking like modern-day MTR. No Calrog, no "Laura Bush killed her teenage boyfriend" or whoever the hell that was, etc.

Right, because the locking of the thread "Interstates that could go into Canada" was totally necessary to prevent these from happening to this forum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

[Molandfreak]

Moderation is what keeps this place from looking like modern-day MTR. No Calrog, no "Laura Bush killed her teenage boyfriend" or whoever the hell that was, etc.

Right, because the locking of the thread "Interstates that could go into Canada" was totally necessary to prevent these from happening to this forum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope

[NE2]

Moderation is what keeps this place from looking like modern-day MTR. No Calrog, no "Laura Bush killed her teenage boyfriend" or whoever the hell that was, etc.

Right, because the locking of the thread "Interstates that could go into Canada" was totally necessary to prevent these from happening to this forum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Canadian_Interstates

[dlainhart]

Moderation is what keeps this place from looking like modern-day MTR. No Calrog, no "Laura Bush killed her teenage boyfriend" or whoever the hell that was, etc.

It's called a "killfile". Your newsreader doesn't offer that feature?

[vdeane]

Some of us used Google Groups.

[NJRoadfan]

This thread is bringing back memories of "Portland is not Atlanta".

[dlainhart]

I fondly remember MTRLog and the proliferation of the copycat MTRLogs, long before the term "blog" ever caught on.

[Scott5114]

Moderation is what keeps this place from looking like modern-day MTR. No Calrog, no "Laura Bush killed her teenage boyfriend" or whoever the hell that was, etc.

It's called a "killfile". Your newsreader doesn't offer that feature?

Some of us used Google Groups.

Indeed. I had no access to a Usenet feed (my ISP didn't offer one, to my knowledge).

[kurumi]

I fondly remember MTRLog and the proliferation of the copycat MTRLogs, long before the term "blog" ever caught on.

Surprised to see they're still online, since they stopped around 2001: http://mtrlog7.pitas.com/ (also 2 thru 6, same site)

[bugo]

Moderation is what keeps this place from looking like modern-day MTR. No Calrog, no "Laura Bush killed her teenage boyfriend" or whoever the hell that was, etc.

Right, because the locking of the thread "Interstates that could go into Canada" was totally necessary to prevent these from happening to this forum.

Amen, brother, a-fucking-men.

[bugo]

Moderation is what keeps this place from looking like modern-day MTR. No Calrog, no "Laura Bush killed her teenage boyfriend" or whoever the hell that was, etc.

Right, because the locking of the thread "Interstates that could go into Canada" was totally necessary to prevent these from happening to this forum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope

BURN!

[Scott5114]

Moderation is what keeps this place from looking like modern-day MTR. No Calrog, no "Laura Bush killed her teenage boyfriend" or whoever the hell that was, etc.

Right, because the locking of the thread "Interstates that could go into Canada" was totally necessary to prevent these from happening to this forum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope

BURN!

If you want MTR you know where to find it.

[bugo]

I don't want the current MTR.  I want the old MTR.