Wow, as I have stated, the kids at the Black Flag Cafe are truly the personification of the typical European whiner. You know, the kind of elitist that complains both ways--he yells 'Yankee Go Home' in one breath, and then biitches when we don't do enough for him.

For example, one of today's posts complains that Jobs only left 90% of his wealth to society, and makes sure everyone knows that his family is still rich with only 10%.

My Father complained about "little white crosses" all over the planet, and I agree. Why 3,000 WWII soldiers are buried in France still makes me angry. Our boys got killed in an allied country. Why didn't the French Resistance clear those beaches? We would have air-dropped them enough supplies.

I also agree with G. Gordon Liddy on our future in the world. He routinely stated, "Get the US out of the UN, and then get the UN out of the US."

During the second half of my lifetime I have had to listen to whining from the rest of the world. A hurriccane hits somepleace and the first gasp we hear is "Where is the USA?" Why not send a plea to China or our supposed ally France? After all, there must be hundreds of thousands of living descendants born of the French Resistance fighters who didn't take a beach, and lived a life our boys never enjoyed.

Fukk Europe. I have to deal with welfare queens here, and now a wave of foreign interlopers.

The saga continues...

I'm going to push this thing as far as it will go. Today I had to write to the owner/head-cheese himself, Robert Pelton, to report that none of his middle managers could make a decision. I have made it my goal to see how long it takes these folks to disconnect my account or ban me. How simple can that be?

As a former department manager I can tell you first-hand that I absolutely hated two things. The first was getting petty work tossed on my desk because no one wanted to act. Yikes, if that was the norm I felt I should fire them all and just do the work myself. It would not only save time, but a whole pile of wages!

And, of course, there's the other end of the pool. Even more I hated being beckoned to my boss' office with the fatal phrase, "Tourist, can I see you for a moment...?"

That always meant that I was in trouble for work not completed or a complaint from a client. To top off those embarrassing events was the gut-turning realization that some idiot did an end-run around me to cut corners.

Granted, that forum is a minor bump in the road, but I am a member (or client) there, as well. As such I deserve better. And I'm going to see that it is done.

Tourist, again let me beseech you to take a step back from the chalupa here. Its all small potatoes on the grand scale of things with regards to idiot run forums. There are far more worthy accomplishments then to give 2 shats about some insignificant forum and its aparently pathetic modus operandi. Unless you can knock on their door and when they open it show them the working end of a crow bar its not worth it. And you are far more worthy an adversary than for that.

Why not look up old high school/college friends, meet and play catch up. Or read up on the various prognostications of America's future and demise. Keep your finger on the presidential race du jour.

When you stop posting here I'll keep up with you on email and phone calls. Hows by you these days old timer in better shape than folks 1/2 his age. I guarantee if the people who are giving you trouble knew you or knew they were safe in their moms basement on the key board they wouldn't be doing what ever they are doing thats disrespecting/annoying you.

John

Don't worry, blood, I'm done. The guy isn't going to disconnect my account, and within a week or two no one (including my clients) will see my handle appear on the list of threads.

But my point stands. Anything you type into the "www" is there is some server forever. My best client ever lives in Tennessee and often spends long hours researching oddball knives on the 'net. I've received calls from him later in the evening to search out and procure some collectible knife.

I just wanted to make sure my best clients were assured I disassociated myself from some questionable forums. And spoiled little European kids that trash America--with the consent of the forum owner and the chief knife designer's permission--are certainly the wrong place for my name.

Almost as an afterthought, I recently received an e-mail response from their admin. While he's not the ogre I thought he'd be, you can tell by the tone of his prose that he doesn't like the children either. He makes the comment that their attention span is short and they will be off to new things in a few weeks.

I did sign on to check. It also appears that the many of the older and more thought provoking members are gone, as well. In business we refer to that as "the bozo effect."

When employees begin to believe their company is in trouble, the ones with experience and a good resume' find other work. The ones who need the work and have no options stay the course. When a guy like me is hired to buttress up the failing company, the staff has sifted and winnowed itself down to nothing but bozos.

It happens to forums, as well. When a forum gets strident and no one--not even the owner--gets involved, the place also sorts itself out. The hobbyists who love the topics but hate the flaming just find another forum. That is exactly how BI63 and I found HRF.

As I perused their new threads list, I found nothing of much iterest. The new topics that stand out were from members who bought some of the competition's knives and a guy who had Q/C problems with the forum owner's folder. You could pretty much capture the flavor of the topics just by reading the thread headings.

While it's unfortunate that forums burn hot and then circle the drain, it's not uncommon. In the end, the membership dwindles not from people being banned, but by folks just losing interest.

Come on Tourist at your age you must know familiarity breeds contempt is human nature!

I was just surfing an old HD forum tonite, one that I hadn't been banned from but just chose to quit posting on it years ago. You know nothing going on at work,watching the clock tick, time standing still so just seeing who is still there, what is everyone talking about etc.. to kill time?

Many of the posters have been there for ever with each other, self indulged and everyone new kissing their arse like it was newly discovered sliced bread and it is just one drama bomb after another. Massive fallout and mayhem,lol. It warmed the cockels of my heart to see that. Not because I am for such behavior but as you said it completes the cycle. Each turning on the other after a while. Its inevitable with idiots.

Dude, cyber biking and cyber bikers sux. Don't put to much time or stock into it. Think about it....... someone must be some lonely and desperate to cling so tenaciously to pratically unknown strangers rather than going out in the real world to get a real whiff,know what I mean.

Well, I think I did drop the issue. I don't go there anymore, and I've been sharpening--it's the start of the busy season. And both of my bikes are in storage. (I got the paper this morning and the ground was covered in frost, yikes, at first I thought it was snow!)

To be fair, I don't like 'people' much. I have this love/hate relationship with computers. So put 'people' on 'computers' and it adds up to detesting the buggers.

Its the nature of any forums in general. Seems its just a matter of time before there is some internal combustion. Whether HD Talking,HD Forum, TMF,HERD,West Coastbikers,Harley Davidson Motorcycle forum,Jockey Journal etc...people just don't seem to know how to beg to differ.

You seem to have a better constitution and patience for all that. I'm done. I'm still here as its a convenient format to stay in touch with you and exchange ideas. I appreciate whoever is the powers that be to allow this oportunity. I have met and stayed in touch with less than a 1/2 dozen real riders such as yourself over the 3 years I been posting and who's company I enjoy.

My biggest issue is I resent some snot nosed pseudo wanna be biker pretender POS with zero street cred having 100% control over me in any capacity just because he is an appointed "MOD". Maybe I do not understand the form and function of forums but I do understand that someone doesn't have the right to squash you just because your well spoken opinion doesn't match theirs. Its particularly horrendous on mixed bike forums. I can see why old school riders don't bother with the internet much if at all.

And most forums are the same..behind the scenes skull duggery, egotistical chest pounding. Do that in person I'd tend to have more respect for the chest pounder du jour.

First off, for this singular issue, I'm over it. I think the biggest problem I had was the European children (and I mean 'children' in the very real sense of kids flaming from their mom's basement) and their bashing of anything American. Of course, all of the time wearing American jeans, drinking American Coca Cola, typing on American computers and living safely in countries freed of nazis by Americans...

As for forums, the snag for me is that I need them for business. I order knives on computers. I peruse knife forums--a waste of time really, but you see trends. And I do like to read forums during Wisconsin winters. The politcal stuff has gotten too strident. And living in Madison has exposed me to over four decades of mindless politcal chatter.

While usually the life of the party, I have a mercurial temper. I can go from zero to axe murderer in 3.9 seconds. It is simply the curse of my genes. My Dad had the same temper, and my Mom was bipolar, as am I. Getting into a bike club way too early--and socialized in that environment--was a recipe for trouble. And of course now I carry very sharp knives...

But like most people so cursed, I blow up, ruminate quietly for a few days and then drift off to the next shiny thing. I just read the Sunday newspaper, I have my second latte' right here, and the mutts and the wife are still in bed. If there was one of my bikes here in the office, life would be perfect!

Well than it sucks to be you if you are depending on internet forums for your trade, quite the row to hoe. Good luck and if I can be of further assistance let me know.

I decided to use the forums as an alternative to hanging out in biker bars and how I met and made friends 25-30 years ago. 3 years later I'd say based upon my forum experience the HD world that I knew seems to be further saturated by shallow posers who made a nose dive for all the quantity of visual effects rather than the quality of personage. The bar has been lowered. The lifestyle diluted and poluted.

Its depressing but the writing is on the wall. Unto mine ownself be true and f*ck all these poser MF'ers.