Forest River Forums and Overly Sensitive Moderators…

So I joined Forest River Forums recently after I bought a fifth wheel with the kiddo in mind and Boomershoot. You can encounter all 4 seasons in the weekend and many times 3 of them in one day with a rapid swing. It’s often cold and windy and well a 7 month old kid in that environment isn’t going to be fun.

My new XLR Nitro fifthwheel.

TMW and Minnie Me with the new Fifth Wheel

So thought, get a bug out vehicle that we can use elsewhere. Well I’m new to the RV thing so I begin doing what I do and started sucking up every last piece of information on the topic and finding locations that would be helpful for future reference.

I joined Forest River Forums for the following reasons:

  1. Own a Forest River product.
  2. Forest River product engineers do surf that forum and offer help.

That seems like a great way to narrow down noise when dealing with a problem or issue. So I do the one thing I never do and join a forum. Yeah we will see why I hate forums here shortly. I joined shortly after pulling the trigger October 4th.

The clue Forest River Forums doesn’t want me:

Come November 10th, I was given this garbage in my inbox.

PM from a Forest River Forums moderator.

PM I got from a busy body.

So I don’t remember what I had in my signature. Most likely it was either this quote from Franklin:

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Or this one from Captain America:

Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right.

When the ob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of Truth and tell the whole world, you move.

Don’t remember, I was off Forest River Forums for a while and didn’t notice that PM until December 22nd. Well after seeing the message and then noticing my sig is different, I was less than pleased. Petty tyrants gotta tyrant. This is their forum and they can do whatever they want.

This is my blog and well they decided to be so fucking petty I have no need to hide any of this anymore instead feel it better to lay out the facts of exactly what transpired.  I fired off a curt reply.

So I just noticed this PM tonight. Since you seem to be this type of individual, here’s your trigger warning.

First, let me say this is your site and you’re free to do whatever the hell you want. I find it interesting though that I must censor the link to my blog though in the about me page. I can understand limiting commentary in sig lines, but if someone looks me up so what? They’re free to leave my website, just as I’m free to skip over threads I don’t care about.

If they want to get their panties in a ruffle well I’m not going to be the one to do it in a public forum. However while I understand your concern about someone not expressing such restraint you feel it necessary to restrain me. Petty tyrants gotta tyrant.

But here’s one for you. You want to be a resource for RVer’s and traveling with firearms can be a long legal nightmare. But we can’t have people asking questions about how to do that now can we? Because CONTROVERSY! We can’t have someone discover from looking in someone’s profile that they might be able to answer the question outside of the forum whereby the forum escapes their inclusion in a dreaded “controversial” subject.

We’re talking about the link to my blog as provided in my profile on the about me page. We can’t have someone discover from looking in someone’s profile that they might be able to answer the question outside of the forum whereby the forum escapes their inclusion in a dreaded “controversial” subject. You have quite literally said now I’m not welcome because “I am controversial” merely by my presence and who I am outside of this forum. Because that is my personal website. If you don’t like the fact that someone might have something controversial in their about me profiles, delete the url for everyone. Make it your safe space.

I’d like to point out there wasn’t a lick of controversy or issue until you created one. So with that, so long. I’d rather be some place where I feel welcome and not have to suppress my profile about who I am.

Additionally, I find it ironic that you bitch about my blog when I’ve had a couple people contact me after surfing through the forums. They contacted me to ask me RVing questions and didn’t want to join the forum, largely because of limited scope and it was regarding my specific rig and configuration, coupled with the fact they dislike forums. We’ll we see why, not to mention for a supposed resource to help people you seem more than happy to kill off some of the ways it helps.

I thought long and hard before joining this forum because honestly, I find most forums an absolute waste because petty shit drives out people who would be good contributors. I can see now that deep down this place is no exception.

TL;DR: Go fuck yourself you petty, hypocritical, tyrants. I’m out, I don’t need you or your generation of drama because of a fucking link to my blog contained within my profile. You either welcome me or you don’t. If someone else wants to get pissy because of who I am outside of this site, that’s their fucking problem; NOT MINE.

In hindsight I noticed a copy paste reorder issue but it still works. After that I didn’t goto Forest River Forums.

Forest River Forums cements the attitude.

Yesterday I searched for something and without looking clicked the link and this greeted me.

I have been banned from Forest River Forums.

And I’ve been banned.

How’s that for awesome right? Petty tyrant shows himself as a petty tyrant wielding the only hammer he’s got. But wait, it gets better. After seeing I am now banned, indefinitely, I decided to check my profile info. Lets look at my contact page.

My Forest River Forums profile still contains my homepage.

Look, my URL is still there…

So lets ignore the signature thing, because honestly while it’s annoying it’s not the serious transgression here. The transgression here is that the contact info for me regarding my homepage was an “issue”. Most entertainingly you then see this below:

Forest River Forums only approves of certain hobbies.

Only the hobbies you approve of.

So it appears that my polite behavior within the forum not to mention my intelligence regarding some of the subjects didn’t matter because my hobbies and interests didn’t align with their world view.

I know for a fact at most two moderators were involved with my ban, you can see only two reviewed my profile, and most likely it was this single moderator who had his panties in a bunch because how dare you have a hobby I disagree with.

Want the icing on the cake though? I have had people contact me through my profile page looking for answers to questions. They were looking at getting a similar trailer and didn’t want to join Forest River Forums. Smart decision that, petty tyrant has to tyrant and it’s best just to avoid their drama.

What’s entertaining is they trotted all this out and for what? A link to my personal blog about what I do outside of my RV and outside Forest River Forums. They cannot actually damage me or even really prevent me from reading the forum. It’s easy to delete cookies, change IP addresses, and any host of other things. Hell, I could create another profile right now and be back on and they wouldn’t know who it is. In other words, you can’t actually stop me, all you can be is a nuisance. It’s merely my ethical and moral stance that keeps me from burning your house down with the lemon.

Anyone involved in this shit show is free to contact me through the contact page or to leave a comment while comments are open. Note unlike a petty tyrant, it takes a lot for me to swing the ban hammer, even in a public space, and I’ll be leaving what you write for the world to see.

This post could be alternatively titled, why Forest River Forums sucks and you shouldn’t waste your time.

Quote of the Day – Mike Rowe (12/15/2015)

Bernie Sanders tweets, “At the end of the day, providing a path to go to college is a helluva lot cheaper than putting people on a path to jail.”

I wonder sometimes, if the best way to question the increasingly dangerous idea that a college education is the best path for the most people, is to stop fighting the sentiment directly, and simply shine a light on the knuckleheads who continue to perpetuate this nonsense. This latest tweet from Bernie Sanders is a prime example. In less than 140 characters, he’s managed to imply that a path to prison is the most likely alternative to a path to college. Pardon my acronym, but…WTF!?

Mike RoweFacebook Post

December 14, 2015


[Oh the commentary and hate in response to Mike’s post would be hilarious if it wasn’t for the reminder these people are so attached they believe it. Mike points out, and rightfully so, that the idea if you don’t go to college your other choice is prison is bullshit.

You have a large number of people who have become emotionally invested in their political candidate and they take it personally. Quite like if someone made fun of their sports ball team. Because if a political candidate says something that sounds good, it must be accurate and true.

Look, college isn’t for everyone. The prices are inflated due to the federal loan programs so the answer is to offer more?  Look it wasn’t 80 grand spent over two bachelors of science degrees that landed my wife a job. It was a 500 dollar vocational course for a CNA that finally got my wife work.  I’ve gone into detailed depth before about the economics, and it’s only gotten worse since I wrote it.

Education is an investment and people are investing poorly. I do not want to be forced at the point of a gun to keep supporting this bullshit system.

But TMM, you went to college! Yes I did and lets actually evaluate what it got me other than 80-100K out of my pocket. Most every material piece of information I gained via college I could get freely with a trip to my public library, or now with the advent of Google and the Open Courseware initiative sitting at home in front of a computer.  While I admit not all have the drive to do this solo, the fact is if you actually are in it for the education you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on something you can get for a couple bucks. Now the problem is, how do you prove you’ve absorbed the material, this is changing as well. MIT is offering credits if you complete some of their Open Classes, additionally it’s making a space for certification companies.

You have Cisco certification regarding network design, architecture, and administration. Why not something like that for software or other industries? The point is the mode of education is outdated. Most of what I had to do for my degree was “rounding” and that was all politically correct indoctrination. Don’t try and sell me it wasn’t because “disabilities and society” was bull shit, doubly so as someone who lived in wheel chair for a while. My wife hated the class as much as I did and she’s got nerve damage. We were graded down because we didn’t agree with the professors. It was a game of repeat the bullshit, even if our argument was valid and supported. If you cut out the bullshit like that, I could have done my degree in half the time at a more reasonable course load. What do I mean by a more reasonable load, I averaged 5 to 6 classes a semester, where most averaged 3 to 4. Are some classes required for rounding, sure, history, literature. But the volume of “rounding” was over the top and didn’t even directly correlate to things that do round someone, they were classes in political correctness.

For example I graduated with 152 credits, minimum for EE is 145, for the school it is 120. They actually derated core classes related to my degree in credit value because they had so much extra garbage I had to take. Most other degrees were between 120-130 credits. So I had a full extra year of school by the time I graduated, most was for “rounding”.

But TMM, what about networking. You met all those people and that was a big help. I met a decent number of people and it was a help, except I can tell you exactly who my biggest network source while I was in college and I didn’t have to goto college to meet him. I knew him since I was a child when he and my dad worked together. First job was working for him and it was him that brought me to other opportunities. He was my mentor, and while I did end up taking classes from him, I learned way more working for him as an intern. I made way more in terms of professional contacts and networking working for him as an intern and the jobs that followed along later.

You know what college really got me? A sheet of paper that says I learned something about some subject. That’s it. I’ve worked with plenty of people, even in the software industry, who didn’t have a college degree. They were just as capable, if not more so than me. The degree didn’t magically make them who they are or enable them to accomplish their goals. As a matter of fact, one of my coworkers is a highly respected and known game programmer who didn’t graduate from College and if he had stayed it probably would have destroyed him. It was NOT the environment for him. Yet he isn’t in prison. No instead he gets royalties off of Age of Empires and tons of other games I spent my childhood playing and has worked for heavy hitters such as Valve.

I have friends who are also in blue-collar work making the same if not more than what I do. They work their ass off and they get paid for it, they didn’t goto college and didn’t need to. Seriously, who’s smarter, the guy who spent 80-100k to make 90K a year after school, or the guy who spent nothing and got trained vocationally by his company and is making 150k a year?

Now after years of experience that college grad may match the vocational employee, however at the same time the vocational employee will also increase his value. The point is, different strokes for different folks. And if you think making college free is going to solve the educational system problems, I have some ocean front property for sale in Arizona. It’s a basic economics problem and well making it free isn’t going to stop price inflation, it’s just going to pass the bill to someone else and they get to suffer for the poor investments instead of the person who made the poor choice.

Lastly don’t try to sell me a pile of bullshit under a false dichotomy.  -B]

Today I am Thankful

Currently I’m sitting in my Fifth-Wheel at my in-laws while my baby boy sleeps. This year has been a year of ups and downs. Win’s and losses.

First, I got hired full time at my employer. While I prefer the world of contract work, stability is nice for the sake of the family.  Additionally the project and who signs my paycheck is a nice feather in my cap. As usual, see the disclaimer, I’m not naming names. And if you know who I work for and mention it in the comments I’ll delete it and ban you.

Later my house sold and on the same day as the house closed I welcomed my son, Harry Eugene, into this world.

The downs though have been seeing so many friends running into my most hated of enemies, cancer. I’ve been there and done that and am still living in the wake, you always are, of losing a loved one to that shit-heel of a disease.

So mostly I’m thankful for my health and being able to hug my wife and hold my son. Here’s hoping I get to do it for many years to follow.

The New Guy has Arrived

Say hello to TMM 2.0, named after his paternal grandfather.

12011136_10156084808575327_3224615067104484589_n

We welcomed him into the world at the end of August. He weighed in at 8.5 lbs and 21.25 inches.  Mother and son are both doing well.

The Big Update

So I’ve been meaning to actually drop this on the blog for a while but busy has barely begun to describe my life.

Why so busy?

Well we went into overdrive getting the house fully ready for sale. It’s on the market, we have an offer and we’re waiting for the other party to sell their current house. If I don’t look at a caulk gun for another 4 months it will still be too soon. Same thing with paint, dry wall, and mud.

We ended up in overdrive to sell the house because well…

Barnett 2.0 arriving August 2015.

TMM 2.0 arriving August 2015.

That’s right, TMM V2.0 is due August 24th. We needed to get as much done in advance because well this month is going to be spent finding more stuff we don’t want/need to clear out, moving stuff to storage, and rearranging the house.

Couple this with job related item and other things I just haven’t had much time for anything and well the outlook into the future doesn’t look good for my spare time either.

If you need a regular fix of my dry sense of humor, make sure to hit up the Gun Blog Variety Cast. It may only be once a week but it’s better than nothing. You can also go follow me on the Facebooks.

Screw The Facebooks…

So if you’re friends/follow me on Facebook you will have probably noticed that I, who am normally active and full of commentary have been dead silent. Not only that if you try to hit up my Facebook page it is gone. Every comment I ever wrote, everything. Facebook has scrubbed me entirely from its system.

What was my transgression I hear you ask. You would think I was excessively nasty or offensive or did something that pissed someone off and the answer to that is a simple no. That isn’t to say I don’t say things that are offensive to some or that I don’t poke the bear, it’s just that I don’t do it in a manner that I walk into someone else’s house to do it.

No the burr up Facebook’s ass is they seem to think my name is not my real name. Let me repeat that, they thinks my name isn’t a real name. Evidently the idea that someone is named with my unique name is just too damn hard to fathom. Now it should be noted I only used my last initial because well they wouldn’t let me suppress the damn thing otherwise. Frankly I’m not a fan of stalkers, supporting stalkers, or making it easier for stalkers, yet here Facebook is doing exactly that. Sure you could do some digging and find my Facebook page, not the one tied to the blog, but the fact of the matter is I’d rather keep the people who are missing the order of fries and the drink in their happy meal away from my personal page. I use the FB mainly to keep in touch with friends and family, if I feel like a debate it’s here or twitter. News flash Facebook, you claim this is to make sure people can find me. Everyone who knows me can find me, quite easily I might add. So please STFU.

So now that my account is disabled though, with no real note of when they will re-enable it if at all, I am wondering. Why do we need Facebook? Why do we need a centralized cloud which can censor everything? I’ve chatted with friends about a possible alternative method to remove the central gate-keeper. The main reason we haven’t is because well who cares? Facebook works right? Why is it worth my time? Well all the sudden you’ve taken the guy with the idea and the means and given him a motive.

So in the mean-time, maybe I should just blog more. Because eventually, we’re not going to need you Mark Zuckerberg and when that day comes you’ll merely be like Tom from MySpace.

Another Trip Around the Celestial Object…

So yesterday was the longest night to party. Why would I party? Well the days are finally getting longer today, and I had yet again survived another year and stayed on this side of the dirt.

It was a good day… Finished it by paying a visit to my mom and introducing her to Guardians of the Galaxy.

The past year was a good one. Hopefully the next year is even better.

 

I find this fitting…

So I saw a post from Oleg today and I saw the post before I saw his email. Considering I saw the image before anything else I had to do a double take for a second. bro_I594_5034web

Joe has some comments on it. I largely agree. Rights are rights, they are natural. However in the grand scheme we all did lose something because of 594. It makes education, competition, hunting, and recreational shooting all perilously difficult. It isn’t a joke or off the wall either, these fears are being confirmed. It has chilled the rights to the point where we have lost parts of them for fear of exercising them.

So why do I find this fitting… Well my expression nails the statement above oh so well. Most significantly is that rifle in my hands. That is my baby. If you don’t understand, go read it will make sense. It ties me to how I entered the frey.

Thanks for the pic Oleg!