Quiet place you got here...

[Imalawman]

Haven't been here in a while, I see I haven't missed anything. How sad. Oh well, life moves on and all good things have their end. I hope its everything The Management dreamed it would be.

[continue crickets and tumbleweed]

[jcolvin2]

Unfortunately for me, your leave of absence started shortly before I asked for advice on visiting Iowa.

http://quatloos.com/Q-Forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=8966

I ended up staying at the Blackhawk in Davenport, which has a cool bowling alley in the basement, and the 800 Locust Suites in Des Moines (large room but more expensive and not as nice as the Blackhawk). I also had a nice dinner at a restaurant called 'Baru 66" in the Des Moines area.

I hope all is well with you.

[wserra]

Haven't been here in a while, I see I haven't missed anything.

I guess that depends on your viewpoint. It's certainly what Van Pelt believes.

How sad.

A conversation ensued a few months ago on this board. You were part of it, as was I. We both expressed our opinions. The owner of the board decided how he wanted to go. At that point, whether anyone else agrees is moot.

I would think this a familiar process to a lawyer.

Everyone has his/her options, which certainly include finding greener pastures. Those options also include contributing to the goal of the board, exposing financial frauds. You haven't done that in months.

Oh well, life moves on and all good things have their end. I hope its everything The Management dreamed it would be.

Bitterness? Sour grapes? In any event, ugly.

[Pottapaug1938]

Anyone who prefers quantity to quality can head over to the Saving to Suitors circle-jerk, where there are no end of posts assuring us all that, if we just use the right paperwork, and include the right magic words, we can make the ebil gummint and its minions in the IRS dry up and blow away.

[The Observer]

There was (and still is) a third option open to those who were unhappy with the changes here: start up an outside forum where the conversations on politics and religion could continue as they wish.

I haven't seen or heard of that happening as of yet. It would certainly be a positive action and would be far better than coming here and sniping at the "management" over decisions already made. There are a number of people here that I would think be interested in participating in such a forum; it would be better to get such a forum organized now rather than wait to a point where the interest wanes and people move on.

[Burnaby49]

Personally I like it a lot better here now that politics are banned and Flame Wars is a receding memory. I don't have to wade through pointless squabbling over personal opinions on topics best argued elsewhere or put up with gratuitous hostility from the likes of Lawdog. It seemed, just before the hammer dropped, that political and religious arguing were becoming the main point of the site.

[Pottapaug1938]

Personally I like it a lot better here now that politics are banned and Flame Wars is a receding memory. I don't have to wade through pointless squabbling over personal opinions on topics best argued elsewhere or put up with gratuitous hostility from the likes of Lawdog. It seemed, just before the hammer dropped, that political and religious arguing were becoming the main point of the site.

That was my impression as well; and I was delighted to see the political squabbles removed from Quatloos. I have seen this happen in other areas, most memorably the various online Boy Scout forums of which I am a member. The main theme of these is the various ways to best deliver Scouting to boys and girls in the US and Canada, if not elsewhere; but at one point the increasingly ugly debate over the BSA's membership policies were dominating the topic lists to the extent that many members were leaving in disgust because of the increasingly nasty tones of the posts. Finally, the topic of BSA membership policies was put off-limits; and once again each forum is what it should be.

[webhick]

I haven't seen or heard of that happening as of yet. It would certainly be a positive action and would be far better than coming here and sniping at the "management" over decisions already made. There are a number of people here that I would think be interested in participating in such a forum; it would be better to get such a forum organized now rather than wait to a point where the interest wanes and people move on.

As I said when it all happened, I would be willing to put in my technical "expertise" on such a thing but I would not pay for it. Unfortunately, that left Imalawman with the impression that I would be willing to own it, which I'm not and should have been more clear about when I posted my initial offer.

For anyone still interested, the offer still stands. Setting up a forum isn't hard on the technical front. I could probably do it in my sleep by now. But whoever wants it would have to think about the forums they want up there, the theme (which can be previewed here and things like font size can be tweaked), domain name, ranks (if there are to be any), etc. Any host the person wants would be fine, so long as it has a minimum of PHP 5.3.3 (next version of phpBB is going to require it) and I'd really like to see Mysql 5.x because it's only a matter of time before they stop supporting 4.x.

I didn't hear from him after telling him that I wouldn't be owner and those were things that needed to be thought about. I don't know if he was willing to pay and unwilling to own, or if the todo list was daunting.

[The Observer]

As I said when it all happened, I would be willing to put in my technical "expertise" on such a thing but I would not pay for it.

And that was a generous offer on your part, people who were interested in having a forum should have recognized that and acted on it.

I find that it is more typical that people, having experienced a free thing over a period of time, tend to think that such a thing should continue to happen, regardless of what reality is dictating at the time. They tend to get upset when asked to step up and fill the void when the free thing is no longer available, despite their desire to continue the experience.

[Tax Man]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I was talking with Joey Smith about Robert Clarkson an hour or so ago, and I couldn't remember which Quatloosian had an encounter with Bobby that involved guns being drawn. Anyone remember which Quatloosian it was?

[Prof]

As you may recall, I knew Robert Clarkson, at Clemson as an undergraduate, and at Univ. of S.C., where we were both in law school after serving in the US Army. He had a very rough tour in Vietnam (I was lucky and was permanently stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC, for my 18 months on active duty). That said, in college and in law school, Clarkson was a different sort of guy -- arrogant, cocky, "wise ass" --, without much reason to be any of those things. He was later disbarred for fraud on an elderly client and much later charged with criminal contempt of the SC Supreme Court for "practicing without a license" during his "Patriot Network" TP days.

I do not remember a conversation about a gun, however.

[webhick]

It may have been The Operative, but I'm not sure. I think I recall a story where a Q member went to the location where a TP Guru was having a seminar and peeked in the living room window (took a picture, too). He was spotted and they came out to deal with him. Things looked like they might turn violent so this person flashed his gun and they backed down.

[The Observer]

I believe the person was actually called "Truthseeker" or some variant - but I can't confirm it since we purged the membership list. He hasn't logged in quite some time; he disappeared after posting some pro-conspiracy trash about 9/11 and was taken to task for it.

[Tax Man]

OK, here's why I can't find it:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5485&hilit=buffet

[webhick]

Oops, my bad. It was indeed Truthstalker.

It's kind of depressing looking through old threads now. Reminds me of how many people haven't come back in so long that they got caught in the purge. People like Florida, silversopp and Agent Observer.

[The Observer]

Oops, my bad. It was indeed Truthstalker.

Yeah, you nailed it.

Only one gun was drawn, Taxman, in the episode you were referring to. Truthstalker claimed that he had went into the restaurant where Clarkson was having one of his seminars; after identifying where they were holding out, TS then whipped out a camera and snapped a photo. He then headed to the parking lot with Clarkson and some others quickly following after him. When he got into his car, the Clarkson team confronted him at the driver's side, at which point TS alleged he pulled out his handgun, which caused the confronters to back off. TS then pulled out of the parking lot.

I used the words "alleged" and "claimed" here because TS never offered independent proof of the situation as far as I can remember (putting the photo up here that he claimed to have taken would been ideal - I just can't remember if it happened). In addition, TS going off into conspiratorial 9/11 rants here gave me the impression that he couldn't be accepted at face value. So I have my doubts about the story.

The only reason I can remember any of this is that I criticized TS for pulling a gun (loaded or not) out where there was little reason to fear for his life or safety. Of course he didn't see it was possible that he was escalating a situation beyond reason.

[Tax Man]

Oops, my bad. It was indeed Truthstalker.

It's kind of depressing looking through old threads now. Reminds me of how many people haven't come back in so long that they got caught in the purge. People like Florida, silversopp and Agent Observer.

Florida forgot his log-in information.

[Tax Man]

Oops, my bad. It was indeed Truthstalker.

Yeah, you nailed it.

Only one gun was drawn, Taxman, in the episode you were referring to. Truthstalker claimed that he had went into the restaurant where Clarkson was having one of his seminars; after identifying where they were holding out, TS then whipped out a camera and snapped a photo. He then headed to the parking lot with Clarkson and some others quickly following after him. When he got into his car, the Clarkson team confronted him at the driver's side, at which point TS alleged he pulled out his handgun, which caused the confronters to back off. TS then pulled out of the parking lot.

I used the words "alleged" and "claimed" here because TS never offered independent proof of the situation as far as I can remember (putting the photo up here that he claimed to have taken would been ideal - I just can't remember if it happened). In addition, TS going off into conspiratorial 9/11 rants here gave me the impression that he couldn't be accepted at face value. So I have my doubts about the story.

The only reason I can remember any of this is that I criticized TS for pulling a gun (loaded or not) out where there was little reason to fear for his life or safety. Of course he didn't see it was possible that he was escalating a situation beyond reason.

Yeah, that was it, thank you!