Your Favorite Forum Quotes

[SSOWorld]

You're literally the top poster...

One wonders without the 12-18 month hiatuses he occasionally takes how many posts he could actually have...

It's not about quantity, but it's about quality.

[LilianaUwU]

You're literally the top poster...

One wonders without the 12-18 month hiatuses he occasionally takes how many posts he could actually have...

It's not about quantity, but it's about quality.

Yeah, what's the point of having 3536 posts if every single one of them sucks?

[Molandfreak]

Actually, it's more that I've never been to a roadmeet outside my own home city.

Strange that one's presence in an online forum counts as 'mainstream' in a hobby that purportedly exists out in the real physical world.

At least you've been to a roadmeet.

[Scott5114]

I used to argue for a living. Now that I'm a retired lawyer, I'm not giving it away for free.

[kphoger]

One wonders without the 12-18 month hiatuses he occasionally takes how many posts he could actually have...

It's not about quantity, but it's about quality.

I assure you, my hiatuses are of the highest quality.

[kurumi]

I used to argue for a living. Now that I'm a retired lawyer, I'm not giving it away for free.

"I could be arguing in my spare time!"

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

I don't know any other road enthusiast mainstreams named Kyle who visit Mexico as frequently as I do.

Am I mainstream?

Not sure how I feel about that...

You are the *Grand Alan.* You are your own stream.

[Scott5114]

Not everything nor every place is going to reveal the secrets of the universe all at once, and even if it does, it may use the wrong typeface and color choices.

[Rothman]

"I drove through that area last week and the new overhead signage looked...not commanding of respect." -- Architect77

[oscar]

I-305 appears on google maps when you zoom in close enough on US-50 near its western terminus, although google likes to make mistakes on route numbering

That's a "Go home, Google, you're drunk." Route 305 is not defined in the legislative code; I-305 is not signed in the field. Legislatively, that segment is part of Route 50, signed as US 50.

It was designated FAI 305 for funding purposes, and (insert appropriate adjective and noun) at Google believed that meant it was signed I-305, and so put it in their system.

[Max Rockatansky]

Is that the first time Daniel has been quoted in that thread? 

[vdeane]

I stand corrected then.

I had to preserve this for posterity.

[Beltway]

I stand corrected then.

I had to preserve this for posterity.

Anyone who remembers m.t.r knows I corrected myself regularly when new information was presented. It's just how I post.

[Beltway]

I don't have the mental flexibility necessary for flying.

You could fly on Titan. Gravity's low and the atmosphere's dense enough. Just build wings.

[Max Rockatansky]

MTR isn't worth remembering.  Calrog alone was enough to discredit it has some sort of halcyon era.

[Beltway]

MTR isn't worth remembering.  Calrog alone was enough to discredit it has some sort of halcyon era.

He got massive amounts of unwarranted personal abuse.

Annoying at times? Yes. Worthy of abuse? No.

[Scott5114]

MTR isn't worth remembering.  Calrog alone was enough to discredit it has some sort of halcyon era.

He got massive amounts of unwarranted personal abuse.

Annoying at times? Yes. Worthy of abuse? No.

Arguably what he was doing was abusing MTR for his own self-promotion. Given that the nature of unmoderated newsgroups meant that there were very few ways to curb the behavior, it's little wonder that people decided to give abusing him back a try to get him to stop.

Annoyance at Carl, as well as many of the other more obnoxious MTR posters, was one of the reasons this place was started, so I guess it all worked out for the best.

[Beltway]

MTR isn't worth remembering.  Calrog alone was enough to discredit it has some sort of halcyon era.

It's funny how every community eventually develops its own mythology. I imagine someone, years from now, could say something similar about AARoads. Hopefully we keep things healthy enough that no one ever feels that way.

He got massive amounts of unwarranted personal abuse.
Annoying at times? Yes. Worthy of abuse? No.

Arguably what he was doing was abusing MTR for his own self-promotion. Given that the nature of unmoderated newsgroups meant that there were very few ways to curb the behavior, it's little wonder that people decided to give abusing him back a try to get him to stop.
Annoyance at Carl, as well as many of the other more obnoxious MTR posters, was one of the reasons this place was started, so I guess it all worked out for the best.

What happened on MTR was classic group scapegoating more than anything else. Once a community decides someone is "the problem," the hostility snowballs and becomes a shared norm. Carl Rogers was irritating at times, sure, but the level of personal abuse he absorbed was wildly disproportionate. In an unmoderated space, that kind of pile‑on becomes a pressure valve for everyone else's frustrations. Your point is fair -- people were trying to push back against behavior they couldn't formally curb -- but the outcome was still a collective targeting cycle. It's one of those cases where the group dynamic explains far more than the individual behavior.

I could name three high volume posters (hint: NJ, NC, VA) there that were far more destructive to the forum that IMO led to the virtual abandonment of the forum in 2010. I don't recall you or Max or Rothman ever pushing back against them or building a mailing list about them.

Usenet in general largely faded out of usage in that period. Fewer and fewer ISPs were hosting newsgroups.

And there was discussion about building a moderated m.t.r but there was little if any support.

[Scott5114]

I barely posted on MTR—I discovered the roadgeek community pretty much right at the end of MTR's lifetime. I probably had only a dozen posts there or so. I doubt any attempt at pushing back against anyone would have been well received because I was a nobody.

As soon as this forum was available I jumped ship and I don't think I posted to MTR any more after that.

[Beltway]

I barely posted on MTR—I discovered the roadgeek community pretty much right at the end of MTR's lifetime. I probably had only a dozen posts there or so. I doubt any attempt at pushing back against anyone would have been well received because I was a nobody.
As soon as this forum was available I jumped ship and I don't think I posted to MTR any more after that.

Interesting, I was reviewing some of the Google archives a year or so ago, and your posts were in a number of places.

My last posts were in 2010.

[Rothman]

MTR isn't worth remembering.  Calrog alone was enough to discredit it has some sort of halcyon era.

It's funny how every community eventually develops its own mythology. I imagine someone, years from now, could say something similar about AARoads. Hopefully we keep things healthy enough that no one ever feels that way

Pfft.  AARoads has had a "brain drain."  A lot of actual experts in the field that were once active on here or m
t.r. have bolted.  From my discussions with them IRL, there's just too much chaff and misinformation to sift through.  The forum is just not as resourceful as it once was and they just don't consider the cost of even perusing the forum to be worth it any longer.

In other words, the forum is really no longer considered a good resource for information or even a place for constructive discussion about reality, and hasn't been for some time.

We're already there.

[formulanone]

MTR isn't worth remembering.  Calrog alone was enough to discredit it has some sort of halcyon era.

It's funny how every community eventually develops its own mythology. I imagine someone, years from now, could say something similar about AARoads. Hopefully we keep things healthy enough that no one ever feels that way

Pfft.  AARoads has had a "brain drain."  A lot of actual experts in the field that were once active on here or m
t.r. have bolted.  From my discussions with them IRL, there's just too much chaff and misinformation to sift through.  The forum is just not as resourceful as it once was and they just don't consider the cost of even perusing the forum to be worth it any longer.

In other words, the forum is really no longer considered a good resource for information or even a place for constructive discussion about reality, and hasn't been for some time.

We're already there.

The overwhelming reasons people leave forums and discussion groups is because (1) lives move on/change (2) marriage/kids/family (3) bored (4) have other interests (5) job takes up time (6) they're just roads...a means to other ends which are sometimes more enjoyable.

Noticing that a lot of long-timers leave or have rarely come back...a lot of things in their lives have changed and sometimes there's just only so much to say. There's already been lots of ground covered in the last 30 years of collective knowledge, and anything new is mostly of limited interest or gathers useful information at a glacial pace, since that's how long these large-scale projects take.

There's also a sense that lots of personal information is sucked and scraped up and compiled and less apt to share it quite as publicly compared to 10-20 years ago on forums. The shiny new toys of social media and chat opens doors but closes others, which has been The Way of the Internet.

tl;dr how many times do we need to talk about Breezewood?

[kphoger]

a lot of things in their lives have changed and sometimes there's just only so much to say.

You just summarized why Jake Bear isn't on the forum anymore.

[Max Rockatansky]

a lot of things in their lives have changed and sometimes there's just only so much to say.

You just summarized why Jake Bear isn't on the forum anymore.

I didn't even realize Jake "was" here until I was on the forum for about a year.  I have known Jake through signage trading since the early 2000s. 

[kphoger]

I didn't even realize Jake "was" here until I was on the forum for about a year.  I have known Jake through signage trading since the early 2000s. 

He held the top spot for number of posts for quite some time even after he drifted away.  I think HB and I were the first two to finally move above him in the list.