Rant about the traffic signal collector forum

[Mdcastle]

So AA roads is typical of every other forum, where you can read as much as you want, but you need to have a membership to post.

Another one of my interests is traffic signals, so I looked at a forum dedicated to that. Not only can you not read *any* of their content without registering (although you can to a limited degee from Googles cache), to sign up it's not just the usual provide a name and email address and follow a link. It needs to be activated by them, which took several business days, and you get thrown out if you don't chose an avatar, make an introductory post, completely fill out your profile, create a signature.

Obviously it's there board, but not one of the 20 or so boards that I frequent is run like that. I think I can get by without them...

[Roadsguy]

Well that was completely random.

But yeah, that sounds really stupid. One non-forum site I saw made you sign up just to click a link!

[vdeane]

Yeah, a lot of forums do stupid stuff like that.  I think even AA Roads did too, at least until V'Ger got kicked out.  Many don't even allow you to see the list of forums without registering!  How is anyone supposed to decide if they want to join under these conditions?

[Ian]

While I do agree that this shouldn't be the case with the forum, I do find the Signal Traffic Forum to be a fun place where different collectors "show and tell" about various signals in people's collections, out in the field, and in old photos. I've been able to land on several traffic signals for my collection, plus many highway signs.

[Alps]

The nice part about not needing to sign in here is that it's easily accessible from work, which sometimes comes in handy if a thread topic is parallel to one of my assignments.

[Sanctimoniously]

One of my airsoft forums made me do that (and never sent me an activation email back). Supposedly, it's supposed to keep trolls and spammers away.

[Duke87]

Some places prevent non-members from reading as a means of preserving bandwidth. It's a limited resource and depending on how things are set up, the site owner may end up paying through the nose if he gets too much traffic, much in the way you pay through the nose if you exceed your data cap on your phone.

And I have come across one forum before where they would delete your account if you didn't use it much (the webmaster there was quoted as saying "I delete inactive accounts when I'm bored"), though you could view as a guest and registering required no special activation. In this case I think the woman who ran the place was just compulsive about tidyness and saw fit to prune members who didn't do much because they were perceived as clutter.

But I can also see where a group would get a bit snobbishly exclusive and only want to deal with members who actively contribute and partake in the community. Not every club is going to be open to anyone to just join. Some people like being part of a club that not just anyone can be a part of.

[Takumi]

The Virginia Prelude Owners Association forum never activated my account. They also have a question that has to be answered perfectly before you can even register, so I guess it's a spam thing.

[agentsteel53]

The Virginia Prelude Owners Association forum never activated my account. They also have a question that has to be answered perfectly before you can even register, so I guess it's a spam thing.

"What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?"

[Takumi]

African, European, or JDM? Because everybody knows that JDM swallows have 25 more horsepower.

[Sanctimoniously]

Perkins Union domestic market.

[Mdcastle]

Is it too late to get into signal collecting in general?- seems like I just missed a couple of neon pedestrian units various places. Somehow it seems cool to me to have a garage full of red hands; it seems various insterts are available on eBay, ,but housings are a lot scarcer.

[Ian]

Is it too late to get into signal collecting in general?- seems like I just missed a couple of neon pedestrian units various places. Somehow it seems cool to me to have a garage full of red hands; it seems various insterts are available on eBay, ,but housings are a lot scarcer.

Never to late and you can never have enough! If you're looking into buying a pedestrian signal with the actual head, I know Twin Green Traffic Signals has many used signal heads that you may be interested in.
http://www.twingreenonline.com/peds.htm

[6a]

Some places prevent non-members from reading as a means of preserving bandwidth. It's a limited resource and depending on how things are set up, the site owner may end up paying through the nose if he gets too much traffic, much in the way you pay through the nose if you exceed your data cap on your phone.

And I have come across one forum before where they would delete your account if you didn't use it much (the webmaster there was quoted as saying "I delete inactive accounts when I'm bored"), though you could view as a guest and registering required no special activation. In this case I think the woman who ran the place was just compulsive about tidyness and saw fit to prune members who didn't do much because they were perceived as clutter.

But I can also see where a group would get a bit snobbishly exclusive and only want to deal with members who actively contribute and partake in the community. Not every club is going to be open to anyone to just join. Some people like being part of a club that not just anyone can be a part of.

Some places will let you see a certain number of forums while unregistered, and more magically appear once you have an account.  I like this balance, although I usually end up registering because I am nosy.

[Scott5114]

Some places prevent non-members from reading as a means of preserving bandwidth. It's a limited resource and depending on how things are set up, the site owner may end up paying through the nose if he gets too much traffic, much in the way you pay through the nose if you exceed your data cap on your phone.

And I have come across one forum before where they would delete your account if you didn't use it much (the webmaster there was quoted as saying "I delete inactive accounts when I'm bored"), though you could view as a guest and registering required no special activation. In this case I think the woman who ran the place was just compulsive about tidyness and saw fit to prune members who didn't do much because they were perceived as clutter.

But I can also see where a group would get a bit snobbishly exclusive and only want to deal with members who actively contribute and partake in the community. Not every club is going to be open to anyone to just join. Some people like being part of a club that not just anyone can be a part of.

Some places will let you see a certain number of forums while unregistered, and more magically appear once you have an account.  I like this balance, although I usually end up registering because I am nosy.

We are actually like this. Fictional Highways and Mass Transit are set up like this, since we want our membership's primary focus to be on the sections pertaining to actual roads. If you're interested enough in those to register, you get Fictional and Transit as an added bonus.

[Alps]

Is it too late to get into signal collecting in general?- seems like I just missed a couple of neon pedestrian units various places. Somehow it seems cool to me to have a garage full of red hands; it seems various insterts are available on eBay, ,but housings are a lot scarcer.

I got my first signal this summer. Probably my last, but I've always wanted one, so that's your answer.

[Mdcastle]

Well, I have a new hobby I guess, I just bought a pedestrian signal off eBay.

[The High Plains Traveler]

The Virginia Prelude Owners Association forum never activated my account. They also have a question that has to be answered perfectly before you can even register, so I guess it's a spam thing.

You mean, an undecipherable graphic of a gibberish word?

[Takumi]

^ No, not a captcha, but I guess it functions the same way. It asks a "secret question" to which you have to type the answer correctly to register your account. Like here, you have to wait for it to be activated once it's registered. Mine never was activated.

[Mdcastle]

Well, I got myself banned there already, all I did was post that I didn't like it when boards were run as elite private clubs, but that if I was interested in the content I would put up with it anyway. Maybe just as well I got thrown out if there that (what word am I think of...). It's going to make collecting harder since I'm limited to eBay now, but whatever.