Discussion on:

'TR Community Newsletter' axed.

"Dear Readers: All good things must come to an end, and so it is with TechRepublic's Community Central. This is the final edition of the newsletter."

Another unifying feature discontinued. No more birthday notices or swap giveaways. (Happy B'day to Mae and Ansu, by the way.) This place has really changed in the last three years. The sense of community has been lost; it's just another web site.

doesn't it I miss a lot of the joking interactions with folks...and the barbing with others

.. I could pass out pick axes, and we could stick them all in Palmie :-D

-Tammy

The shovel has always been the tool of choice for Palmie abuse.

Now that makes for an interesting new abuse tool

you just need to bop him upside the head with an air wrench
or jack from Nascar Sprint Cup Series, hehe!
How'd you like that Daytona 500 Palmie?

If it was my call, I'd knock the banking down at Daytona and Talladega so the drivers can go back to actually racing, not running a 200mph parade.

because I would like to see that as well. This years Daytona
500 seemed sort of just there...maybe it's the new cars, and
drivers/crews not being as accustomed to them, but it sure
seemed like there was not much passing going on. When
the most exciting "racing" is getting off of pit lane during a
yellow, something is just missing.

Racing means turning left and right I always saw Oval racing as Speedway which is a low end cheap motor sport that contributes nothing to the development of the breed.

When there was some New Developments the PTB stamped on them very quickly like the Gas Turbine Cars which all flamed out during a race and then had the rules changed to make then uncompetitive.

Somehow choosing which plastic to use in a Window in no way improves the End Product which is what we all drive. If the current Nascar Rules where in place when they started we would still be hand cranking engines to start them and wondering what brakes where today.

Col

But as a spectator, one thing to be said for ovals is that I can see the entire track from one spot.

I'm not a gearhead, so the technology level never mattered much to me. The goal of manufacturers participating in NASCAR was never to improve the consumer product anyway. It was to showcase their existing vehicles. True, the cars they field on the track nowadays have little in common with what's on the showroom floor; at least the body styles are closer this year, and they finally abandoned carbs for injection. But for some reason the old 'Win on Sunday, sell on Monday' still holds true.

And believe that it represents the make of car when in actual fact there is very little of that brand involved.

Here the Bathurst 1000 for local Tin Tops Holden GM and Ford use a basic shape of the car for each brand and the engine but everything else is Special some being for safety like Fuel Cells which do not leak in a crash and others like Gearboxes which are Race Specials and where never fitted to any Road Car they where built for racing and the ability to easily change gear ratios quickly for different tracks or car setups.

The Old Ford Diff is still popular or at least was the last time I looked but that was a while ago now as I don't really follow that type of racing other than occasionally looking at some sort of failure and writing a report to prevent that happening again. Things like Fuel Rails for Injector Systems which leak come to mind but there is very little else that even comes close to what is supplied as Production Vehicles. Most do not even start with anything but a Body Shell and build their race cars from that after reworking the basic shell to suit their needs. Things like welding every metal joint get done which simply isn't in any Production Vehicle and all Engine, Transmission and Suspension Mount Points are changed to suit what is being used by that team.

However what really put me off Oval Racing was the crowds who attend as they seem to me to be more interested in the crashes than Motor Racing as to them there is no Motor Racing without big nasty looking crashes. Hence they want to see all of the track so that they miss none of the crashes and make sure that they get a better view of them when they occur.

Of course like the recent one where so many cars came together and mounted the walls a lot will complain that they got injured by bits of car entering the spectator areas. Ideally this should not happen but honestly it's what the majority of spectators want to see.

Col

Shovels just won't do the trick no more
And thanks for the B-day greet!

Another nail in the coffin.

But I have sort of abandoned this place now. Time to look for someplace new.

Any suggestions?

Anywhere that is what TR used to be?

And don't bother with the My Face, Linked-out and Space Book type garbage that's as pointless as Teats on a Bull.

Col

start our own channel on IRC, setup a gopher server so we could
have a place to share documentation, resurrect Archie and Veronica
(not the comics) and just use Lynx for the occasional foray to the
outside interwebs. Or maybe go all retro and setup a BBS, have to
find a modem bank somewhere unless we used telnet...hmmm,
maybe Fidonet?

http://www.undernet.org/
Haven't used that one in some 6 or 7 years...used to have a
channel there and on DalNet that I accessed using my old IBM
PS2 Model 5500SX with a 2400 baud modem, DOS 6.22....
hmmm...might have to see what Undernet offers.

Don't you dare mention Mae and Ansu in the same breath. The former is deserving of all due respect and admiration, while the latter is what's contributed to the demise of this site (at least the Water Cooler).

You mentioned the last "three years"? Between those two, who's been gone and who's been here? DUH!!!! End of story.

Put the PC crap aside, and call it as it really is.

Max,

You are the problem in the Water Cooler.

Sorry if that offends, though you obviously don't care if you offend others, but I'm calling it the way I see it.

to tell others what they may or may not say.
And blaming others for their own failures, too

Right or left-wing. Statist nuts, too, for that matter. Let's not leave out religious nuts.

Now I am hungry.

http://www.funny-games.biz/cartoon/maxwellssilverhammer.html

You never know when you'll set him off, hehe!

That's why he's "off" all the time

I'm not offended in the least. And you're right, I don't care if I offend others. Being "offended" simply because of what someone else might think or say, is not only stupid for someone to inflict upon one's self, but is smacks of support for Orwell's "new speak".

I know. You didn't read it. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe you should read a book or two about REALITY. And if that offends you, too damn bad; you made the wrong choice.

By the way, you say that I'm the problem with the Water Cooler. And you say this to the guy who created the term, Water Cooler for TR. As such, you are dead wrong. Try again.

My single biggest gripe with the comments you make is the fact that you accuse people you've never met of dishonesty just because they disagree with your beliefs.

You certainly have the right to say whatever you like, I would not argue with that, but you don't have any right to expect to have your opinions accepted when you make unfounded allegations about people whom you know nothing about.

The fact that I and many of my friends and acquaintances are in the groups you accuse of dishonesty means you are directly impugning our honesty. And as long as you continue to do so, I will continue to say what I think of you in similar terms. Seems fair to me.

Maybe you may not like what Max says all the time, but he has posted many of the most interesting, thought provoking discussions in the Water Cooler for many years.

There is room for all opinions here, whether you agree with them or not. Max can be challenging, undoubtedly, but how can you have any kind of interesting discussion without opposing viewpoints?

AV

Which means his whining about freedom can only apply to himself. There are words for those kinds of people, but none of them are polite.

I started this discussion; within TR's rules, I'll express myself in it as I damn well please. You're big on personal rights; do they apply only to you?

If you have problems with people being mentioned together, I suggest you take it up with the (former) editor of the newsletter. That's where I read the birthday updates. Any offense you may take from the birthday greetings I posted is entirely your own choice; don't take me to task. But while you're at it, feel free to froth at the mouth over these pairings: "Goldwater and Obama"; "Pelosi and Boehner"; "Founding Fathers and Gun Rights Opponents"; and to get really offensive, "Cowboys and Redskins".

If you think Ansu is a problem, have you considered not responding to him? Gods of us all, he publicly admits he's baiting you. You may want to hover your cursor over his avatar and click the 'Ignore' button; your choice.

If sticking "just between you and me" in the title of a public forum isn't "PC crap", I don't know what it is. If you really wanted something just between us; you know how peer messaging works.

EDITED - "You may want to hover your cursor over his avatar and click the 'Ignore' button; your choice." I've decided to take my own advice.

The TR Search Function didn't work way back when and still doesn't work.

Col

Or did they "fix" it again?

It just found more things than it ever did before but still missed a lot.

It's still missing a lot and I didn't see the TR Community Scoreboard from the 22 till today the 27th and even then I had to google it.

Col

Who cares about Mayans, this is the real doomsday clock, I tell you!

This thread actually has some posts and some spunk!

We better be careful or it might start to feel like old times.

As for a new hangout, just let me know and I'm there!

but i admit to letting it fall by the wayside that last couple weeks; been too focused on trying to find a job .

I'm hoping the opportunity that just fell into my lap this week works out well; it's a little outside my comfort zone, but it's time for me to put on my big girl panties and try something new .

You have the smarts, talent and pazazz

-Tammy

I've never done any type of sales work outside of working in a restaurant so this will definitely be a test of my skills. It's advertising sales for a publishing company one town over; they're looking to have a rep in my area as they don't have one right now. I'm nervously excited

I haven't found a job either and I spend most of my time looking and looking and looking . . .

One day something will come up for both of us.

AV

I know that Hal (and some others on this thread) aren't big fans of Facebook, but I'd really like to make the weekends GEEKEND on TechRepublic's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TechRepublic

Ok, so right now, other people's comments only appear in a little box called "Recent Posts by Others on TechRepublic." But what if I started a Friday Night Music thread on Friday nights there? Would you come and participate?

As for birthday shout outs, I still try to include those in the TR Community Scoreboard. If you search for "Community," those should come up right away - in case you've been having a hard time finding them.

Any other ideas? I'm all ears over here...

Searching for "community", even with 'most recent' as the sequence, doesn't pull up the community scoreboard until the fourth or fifth result. Selecting "last week" or last month narrows it down, but still doesn't pull up the most recent post.

I did find it on the "Hottest" tab in Discussions, though...

following you Sonja, hehe...then I just pull down the menu on My Account,
then People and see when you were around Friday mornings.
I'm one of those that doesn't do Facebook, I skipped My Space, no
Twitter. The forums here are about as much social networking as I do.

Currently My Space is just outside any Airlock Door built into Discovery. I have Video Feeds on every area to film the victims going out the Air Lock Unexpectedly for them.

Though that particular My Space isn't what is being talked about here I surmise.

Col

with most of this "social" stuff...try as I might, I can't convince my
wife and her daughter to limit their exposure to Facebook...so
I make sure they regularly scan for adware in addition to regular
malware scans!

I once had a Yahoo Group, not sure if they (Yahoo) still allow files or not but they used to. That way we could share pics, documentation and hard to find
utility software...it was a group of old DOS internetters, hehe! Anyway,
might be an option. Yahoo is somewhat accessible without having to use
the latest and greatest whatever OS/browser, and you can set your
privacy settings to maintain some semblance of privacy. The group is
no longer around, but my old Arachne at Freelists.org email list is alive,
somewhat.