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Why was SWCF put together?


Wilbur

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For me it was a combination of two things - a general sense that the mood/personality in the place had changed for the worse; and it was a time in my life when I didn't have time (or didn't make enough of an effort) to ride. 

I didn't really "flee" the Love Forum, I just stopped visiting.  There was probably a 6-year hiatus between when I stopped visiting the LF, and when I joined SW.

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I was invited by SW, and I signed up. At the time I posted at the old place, the LF (love forum). But I realized more peeps were posting here so I transitioned over and I'm glad I did.  I can't recall exactly why the demise of the LF, but others here do.

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The atmosphere at the LF could be a bit toxic at times.  Lots of great time and posters there, but a few of them really knew how to put you down and make you feel unwelcome.  I remember SW getting a bit of a hard time when he first arrived there.  When he decided to start his own forum with the hope of a friendlier experience, I joined.  

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I didn't spend that much time in the LF at the beginning of my tour of duty over there. Mostly the maintenance and riding forums. Some people were annoying but what the heck? You go with the flow and hold your own. I didn't join the mass exodus and ended up having a pretty nice time with the people who remained and those that visited from time to time. I met my current wife, @Razors Edge, over there so it was pretty good overall.

I came over here because they closed down and SW invited me to join here. He caught me at a weak moment in my life.

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I started posting because a number of the posters that I liked from the LF moved over here and I missed them, but I kept up visiting the LF from time to time until they closed.  But I liked the friendly atmosphere here.

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For me, the biggest push was the switch to that disaster format that was hoopla.  It gave me a headache to try to read it, the format was that bad for me.  Then you add all the functionality issues and I was pretty much forced to either quit posting or move.

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2 hours ago, bikeman564™ said:

I was invited by SW, and I signed up. At the time I posted at the old place, the LF (love forum). But I realized more peeps were posting here so I transitioned over and I'm glad I did.  I can't recall exactly why the demise of the LF, but others here do.

This

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And it was the Hoopla software change that caused this place to be created in the first place.  I believe I was the third person to join because @Randomguy drug me over here after SW got it setup.  While the general attitude on the LF did change over time, it's now what was the driving force behind this place being created.  People complain about Steve and his moderation, but I thought he did a good job.  He tried to stay out of the fray and compared to BF and the disaster that place was with moderation, I much preferred Steve's approach.

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1 minute ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

Mainly just lack of traffic for me.  I tried bike forums briefly but felt lost in the crowd there.  This is like Cheers. :D Yes, I am old.

 

Well, you wouldn't have felt that way but most of us were banned from BF for dumb jokes, or in my case a Dum-dum joke, never could figure out how someone could be so anti-suckers to ban someone over it.  :D

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From what I gather, it wasn't about "cycling" as much as about "love".  Naturally, as a serial polygamist, I was destined to land here at the SWC & the Cafe, and I have already begun the wooing process of a few of the folks here. Keep in mind, you can never have too much love in the world.

The rapid implosion of the Bicycling forum didn't help, either.  Like here, though, the actual "cycling" forums seem to struggle to get folks' attention or threads to be created. :(

Tom

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4 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

From what I gather, it wasn't about "cycling" as much as about "love".  Naturally, as a serial polygamist, I was destined to land here at the SWC & the Cafe, and I have already begun the wooing process of a few of the folks here. Keep in mind, you can never have too much love in the world.

The rapid implosion of the Bicycling forum didn't help, either.  Like here, though, the actual "cycling" forums seem to struggle to get folks' attention or threads to be created. :(

Tom

The forum actually was aboot love of cycling, but you can only say how much you love bikes and biking so many times.  So the descent into drivel was not a big surprise. :D

 

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For Razor Edge's birthday, my present to him was #1 ranking as I walked away.  The history on it. several years prior, Tom was aggressively posting and leaping over everyone with his quest to be #1. He made the mistake of saying Tizeye would be his next victim. I don't think think so, but the challenge was thrown. I think we were ranked in the 90's at the time, and I consistently out did him as we both rose to #1. At one point he complained to the moderator about somethin not bein fair, and hike 'liked' him, giving him a nice bump. That only educated me about the system...so I created 3 puppets who liked me accelerating my assent. Also, as he would get close to overtaking someone who was relatively inactive or had left, such as velobro1, dirtyhip, johnnypeds and FY, while I couldn't be as brazen as to like them, one or two of my puppets would and they would either increase their lead or jump back in front of him. I don't think he ever figured it out...until reading it todayn as it never was a subject of one of his complaints.  I would also aggressively post as well, at times trying, and succeeding, with filling the page where I was the last poster. Likewise, when I had multiple photos, instead of a single post with all photos, would do multiple posts adding an individual photo. Finally, after I reached #1 (I think he was #4) grew tird of the challenge as I had succeeded. He kept asking people what they were going to get him for his birthday. I told him I would LET him be #1...and walked away.

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1 hour ago, Road Runner said:

The final top twelve

lf-1.thumb.JPG.51e442ef9f62170df289b002b1fdc66c.JPG

Out Riding was one of my puppets, as was Western Rider and I forget the female name right now. They probably had a total of 50 post between them.  It is weird, when I came back to look around a year or so later, Rodale had changed the system again with new signon/password system. It wouldn't recognize Tizeye. Somehow in trying to sign back in, it switch user names. I am thinking that I used different browsers for each to keep straight and in frustration to inability to sign in tried different browsers. May have used the Out Riding browser which it picked up on through cookies or something and switched user names. Even more frustrating was trying to change it back in profiles and would tell me Tizeye was already taken.

 

Oh...and here is the avatar.

 

Gator Avatar 100.jpg

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3 minutes ago, Tizeye said:

 

Oh...and here is the avatar.

 

Gator Avatar 100.jpg

TO assure you that I didn't lift it from the earlier graphic posted, here is the base photo used in an iPhone app, Outcolor 2 which provides the frame and background choices. Masking with a thumb on the phone screen isn't that accurate, and I did clean up the fine detail in Photoshop.

 

DSC_5490.jpg

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I had numerous issues but was one of the hold outs. I couldnt log on except for an old PC, the place was dying and one particular person was expediting the demise.  I bounced back & forth for a while but there was more dialogue here so I was mostly here up till the other place died.

Im glad many of the hold outs joined us here after the demise of the old place.

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16 hours ago, Tizeye said:

For Razor Edge's birthday, my present to him was #1 ranking as I walked away.  The history on it. several years prior, Tom was aggressively posting and leaping over everyone with his quest to be #1. He made the mistake of saying Tizeye would be his next victim. I don't think think so, but the challenge was thrown. I think we were ranked in the 90's at the time, and I consistently out did him as we both rose to #1. At one point he complained to the moderator about somethin not bein fair, and hike 'liked' him, giving him a nice bump. That only educated me about the system...so I created 3 puppets who liked me accelerating my assent. Also, as he would get close to overtaking someone who was relatively inactive or had left, such as velobro1, dirtyhip, johnnypeds and FY, while I couldn't be as brazen as to like them, one or two of my puppets would and they would either increase their lead or jump back in front of him. I don't think he ever figured it out...until reading it todayn as it never was a subject of one of his complaints.  I would also aggressively post as well, at times trying, and succeeding, with filling the page where I was the last poster. Likewise, when I had multiple photos, instead of a single post with all photos, would do multiple posts adding an individual photo. Finally, after I reached #1 (I think he was #4) grew tird of the challenge as I had succeeded. He kept asking people what they were going to get him for his birthday. I told him I would LET him be #1...and walked away.

I gotta say, that was a fun period. Certainly part of the post-exodus period where the LF started to decline in activity in leaps and bounds.  I was more in the other areas - gear, beginners, pro racing, etc., but did pop in there periodically.  Anyway, I noticed as folks dropped off, my activity rank was going up.  I used to post a warning to the folks directly in front of me that the steamroller was coming and they better watch out. That worked for quite a while as I climbed from the 100's into the mid top-100 range.

THEN

I posted a warning to Tizeye, and that wise mofo smacked me around big time. As I rose, he rose quicker. He was a machine.  I didn't know about his "socks" but regardless, it was an education.  It was also awesome because someone actually gave a shit and posted more often - maybe just one word nonsense replies - and the LF had a brief gasp of life again.  I was very sad Tizeye actually dropped off. I don't mind playing second fiddle to someone who is actually playing the game too. Huzzah to Tizeye, and thanks for that fun bit of time in the LF.

Tom

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46 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

 

THEN

I posted a warning to Tizeye, and that wise mofo smacked me around big time. As I rose, he rose quicker. He was a machine.  I didn't know about his "socks" but regardless, it was an education.  It was also awesome because someone actually gave a shit and posted more often - maybe just one word nonsense replies - and the LF had a brief gasp of life again.  I was very sad Tizeye actually dropped off. I don't mind playing second fiddle to someone who is actually playing the game too. Huzzah to Tizeye, and thanks for that fun bit of time in the LF.

Tom

:D

 

Ahem...none of my posts were one word nonsense  replies!

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3 hours ago, Road Runner said:

No,  I am referring to someone who was blamed for leading the exodus, not for creating it.  :)

Yeah, the nerve of that guy. Went off and created another forum. Then went back and recruited people to come over. :huh:

Also at about the same time someone else started a couple of FB  groups which are still active with some of the same members as here over there.

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