Stupid Question Thread

[vsmith]

Hello all,

This was originally the "CONFUSED, What the heck is hpppening here" thread but I decided that this topics original title was becoming no longer relevant but since its already up to 3 pages we might as well find a use for it.

Over on the Trains.com forum is a topic called the "Stupid Question Thread" that is used to post simple questions or tips that might not necessarily need a whole topic dedicated to them. Now this is NOT the Coffee House but dedicated to the fact that even experts get lost and occasionally ask a stupid question and even idiots can have good advice, at least I think my advice is good[;)]

SO lets use this thread for that and see how it goes...

So Post here for....

Simple Questions....

Stupid Questions...

Good Advice.....

Bad Advice....

Tips on how to do something, and...

Tips on how NOT to do something...

Lets see where this takes us... [8D]

[Anonymous]

Reality has been adjusted.You can all now loosen your seatbelts and move around if you wish. [:D]
Anyway,what do I know.I think it's great fun .
Troy

[powlee]

Vic
[?]You went to lunch and missed an item. I went to work and missed everything!!![%-)]
I was in the process of getting valuable info from the coffee shop.
Ian P

[TurboOne]

QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith

OK I'm having a difficult time trying to understand now why even Rene's explaination about why the Coffee Shop thread was deleted has itself been deleted.

Vic send me an email. I sent you some, we can chat offline. [:)]

QUOTE: powlee Posted: Today, 17:47:03 Quote


Posts: 80
Joined: 03 Jan 2003
Location: East Bedfont; England
Vic
You went to lunch and missed an item. I went to work and missed everything!!!
I was in the process of getting valuable info from the coffee shop.
Ian P

Ian, send me an email, and I can fini***alking you threw it.

Hoping this doesn't get deleted. [:)]


Tim [:)]

[Marty Cozad]

Vic
I did not go to that thread after a couple of pages. But I do know its easy to get carried away and its good to keep the power in the fence wire. Helps keep the animals in line and we need (I ) need to keep focused on the theme of this site and every site.

[Anonymous]

Vic,

Now I don't know what happened in the original coffee shop. It' didn't have anything to do with trains and I gave up reading at the first page, so I never looked at it any more. (No offence to anyone who posted there).

I did see the post from Rene explaining why it had been removed. And I am sad to say that the way I read the replies, she was getting attacked and asked to justify her decision to remove the thread in question. So I am not surprised that that one was deleted too!

As someone pointed out, there are already other coffee shops here on Trains.com in the MR and O gauge sections, so why we need another one here on GR beats me. Why can't those of you who are suffering caffeine withdrawal just go and use those ones? [:D]

It suites me fine just reading the topics related to GR trains. That's what I came here for in the first place anyway [^]

Glen.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by RockyCreekNZ

Vic,

Now I don't know what happened in the original coffee shop. It' didn't have anything to do with trains and I gave up reading at the first page, so I never looked at it any more. (No offence to anyone who posted there).

I did see the post from Rene explaining why it had been removed. And I am sad to say that the way I read the replies, she was getting attacked and asked to justify her decision to remove the thread in question. So I am not surprised that that one was deleted too!

As someone pointed out, there are already other coffee shops here on Trains.com in the MR and O gauge sections, so why we need another one here on GR beats me. Why can't those of you who are suffering caffeine withdrawal just go and use those ones? [:D]

It suites me fine just reading the topics related to GR trains. That's what I came here for in the first place anyway [^]

Glen.

For what its worth,

There is another "Coffee Shop" thread in here some where...I was started, I think, by Locomotive10, a youngster, and it dwindled. Its on page 22, Locomotive10 (or Nicholas) isn't around anymore.

Point of Forum History.

[vsmith]

Curiosity satisfied, and the cat didn't die, thanks to all who responded. Vic

[Big_Boy_4005]

Hi guys, I know most of you don't know me very well, but I feel somewhat compelled to share my feelings and experience on this whole coffee thing. I'm not sure what happened here today, but like Vic I am disappointed that the topic was axed. I thought it was going well.

Let me share a little background about the coffee concept, and then you should decide if you want to try one more time, or simply skip it.

I didn't invent it, or think of it first. The original idea was brought to the Classic Toy Trains forum by Chief Eagles. He is also a member of a fishing forum, and the members there had a daily "check in" topic where everyone could stop in and say hi, or whatever. He started to do this on the CTT forum, and the guys liked it. After about a week of new topics daily, I suggested that he just create one, and keep it running. Well it was a huge success. I then brought the concept to the MR forum.

The point of the topic is that it has no subject. You can call it a trash can if you want, but it does serve a purpose. It allows the members to be social and get to know one another. Over on the MR version, we have people who, prior to coming to the forum did not know each other, and now they converse by phone. Some have traveled and visited other members. Bottom line, people are making friends. Isn't that a part of this hobby?

Maybe you garden guys are close knit enough. This group is fairly small, and you know each other well enough. I did not try to bring this concept here, because I felt I was too much of an outsider. This may be why when Nick (Locomotive10, who now goes by the name Bert and Mary Poppins <ugh>) tried to start a coffee shop here, it flopped.

I was very impressed with Tim's attempt, as a relative newcommer. I really thought he had succeded, and I posted a message to that effect. Perhaps I was premature in my congratulations.

I would like to invite everyone to visit either the CTT or MR coffee shops, in the hopes that once you get a feel for what goes on there, you might want to try one more time. They say three's a charm.[swg]

CTT: http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14891

MR: http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15409

[vsmith]

Thanks for the comments Big Boy 4005, time will tell if we can resurrect a good idea.

[Big_Boy_4005]

Vic, I'm putting you in charge. These are your people, talk to them.[swg]

[Curmudgeon]

There is no problem with the concept.
I will even bring in Submarine stuff to sort your sorry ......ooops...wrong forum.
There is a lot of stuff, and it doesn't have to be all trains.
Read the "rules", and we should be fine.
TOC

[Anonymous]

As a newcomer, I have been searching for it all morning. Someone invited me over there to chat, and I though it would be a great idea to get to know you all. Who cares if there is a 'coffee shop' in the O forum. I'm into G scale, so why would I wind up in the O forum?

Any such discussion forum would be one that I'd welcome. But we must remember that web administrators have a duty of care as broadcasters of a website to keep the comtents clean and acceptable. Ultimately we must respect their decision.

[TurboOne]

Thanks Elliott. You are well respected. With all your knowledge, your incredible layout, you time that you volunteer by doing the shows around your area, I really appreciate you stopping by here. All your hard work is greatly appreciated. Elliott has been most helpful to many model railroaders, in the other forums. He is the true trainman of the great white north.
I enjoyed the outdoor garden coffee shop. I like the O coffee shop, and the HO coffee shop. I have gotten to know a little about many great people. I have learned about recipes from some, how to build my benchwork from others, and what I should buy so I don’t waste my money. Most of all I have made some good friends. The coffee folks in all the forums are great, they love to share information about weather, stories, even family needs. I hope the others that visited the shop enjoyed the same.

Take care,

Tim

[Big_Boy_4005]

Wow Tim, I'm very flattered. Thank you for all those kind remarks.

I have always loved trains of all types and sizes, and pretty much devoted my life to this hobby. Given my current situation, I have lots of time to spend. Over the last year I have spent a lot of time here on the forums. I try to share what I have learned, and in return I receive motivation. I have met a lot of great people here, and had a lot of fun doing it.

Bottom line, this hobby is most fun when you share it with others!!!

I'll let you in on a little secret. I don't even drink coffee.[swg]

[Anonymous]

That's good then.I'm off to Tennis Weekly Magazine to tell them all about my trains.I'm sure they will be really interested.[:D][:D][:D][:D]

[Curmudgeon]

Come back and tell us what Tennis Weekly had to say!

[Anonymous]

Strange.No reply as yet Curmudgeon,but I'll be the first to let you know.Hey,maybe one of your submarine friends plays tennis?.If I send some photos he could slip them into the correct postbox for me.
Regards,Troy

[Capt Bob Johnson]

I'm gaining the sense of some half in jest and half in earnest sarcasm here when I think the point is that things can be brought to our railroading from many backgrounds and aspects of life. I look to the forums to give me insight from some of those aspects. If I have an electronics question, it could be answered by someone who has solved the same problem, someone with shipboard experiance, perhaps an electronics engineer who happens to be a G scaler, or an electrician!

This off topic stuff is simply a way of getting to know each other better, understand where the other is coming from, and you get an idea of where they've been! I sometimes find it very uninteresting as I browse over it and usually don't have anything to say, but that does not prevent me from filing things in the back of my head and saying "Oh, that's what he meant" or "That's why he said that!"

As always life is a learning process.

[Anonymous]

I really am joking ,in a way.Curmudgeon is like me.There's not a lot to learn out there anymore,forumwise,apart from new technology.
I really must put the record straight on off topic stuff.I love talking to people from other countries and cultures.We've had some great chats here about everything.
What I didn't and don't like is keeping a thread alive everyday with "morning everyone,It's really sunny where I live and I really must go out,get a life,and make some real friends!!"
Let the thread die a natural death .Then, when inspiration thumps you round the side of the head,start another.
Curmudgeon--you really need to find me a good source of motorised bogies for my trams.I don't care what make ,but they must run smooth.
And remember.English people are bred on sarcasm so it is very hard to win.
Troy

[Bergie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by troybetts

That's good then.I'm off to Tennis Weekly Magazine to tell them all about my trains.I'm sure they will be really interested.[:D][:D][:D][:D]

Troy, remember one very important thing regarding humor in written word. You might have the funniest thing to say, but unless you're actually speaking with someone, the message might get taken the wrong way. Trying to relay an off-the-cuf remark via written word is hard. With the lack of voice tone, the reader can misconstue your light-hearted remark for something worse.

Keep that in mind when posting things like this.

Thanks,
Erik

[vsmith]

Troy, I do have to agree with Bergie on this, as a fellow student of the sarcastic wit, one of the primary rules I follow is to never unlea***he wit-hounds on a person I dont know very well. Even then I have PO'ed a freind when my sarcastic photon torpedos were more damaging then I anticipated. I'm very carefull on-line with my humor because I know that what people read is not necessarily what I wrote, so better to err on the side of caution, or better yet, be real subversive with the humor. The witty ones will get it rest will just thinks its an odd comment. But definetly be carefull with the sarcastic swordplay

I'll end this with another of my sayings, its based on my experiences with trying to have fun with someone with no sense of humor , you can carve it on my tombstone...

You can't have a Battle of Wits with an Unarmed Person.[(-D][:-,][D)]

2004 New created Words for the English dictionary by changing, deleting, or adding a single letter. My favorite last year...

Sarchasm = the gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the reader who doesnt get it.

[Anonymous]

My apologies,
Troy

[grandpopswalt]

Troy,

You're a gentleman, I admire you.

Walt

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by troybetts

My apologies,
Troy

No, no apologee required , were all friends here[:D]

[TurboOne]

Does this mean we are all train people again ? Can I ask Troy a question ? Are the trams totally scratch built, or kits with a lot of extra work. They look real.

Tim

[Anonymous]

The trams are scratchbuilt .Only the bulbs and motors are bought whole.Built from pictures of the real ones.

[TurboOne]

They look so real.

Found this pic




It is a real one being restored.
Great job Troy.

Tim

[Anonymous]

Ha.Where did you find that picture.That's my Dad's tram .It's just been restored.We're both going to the museum in March for it's official relaunch.
If you check out my website you'll find the rest of the pictures of it.
http://members.lycos.co.uk/troybetts/
Troy

[TurboOne]

That is a cool website. If you don't mind I will send him your website. I bet he would enjoy it.
I keep an eye out for unusual. In Southern CA that tram is highly unusual. In the HO forum we have a gentleman called trolleyboy. Everytime I find a pic of a trolley, I send it to him. I liked this one, as it is colorful, different in looks from our California trolleys, and they were restoring it. Small world. No wonder yours looked so real. I inported your picture in to one of my video programs so I could see the detail. It still looks real. I envy you that you get to go see it, take some pics and post them please.
Will you get to ride on it also ?

Tim