I think people were discussing Nora's old thread on 'stupid questions' (which somehow got transmogrified into 'bad train pictures') and the urge came to revivify the ancient and crusted thread itself, rather than going back to first principles and starting a new one.
Now, the old thread had a problem. At some point, every post became doubled. So we have one of our resident 'bright sparks' make fun of this by quoting a Pink Floyd song with a pronounced heavy echo (the sonic equivalent of K.P.Harrier's "heavy telephoto").
This after Nora herself said the old thread was too long and unwieldy...
Me, I think we need a new 'stupid questions' thread, but perhaps this requires a new, humble, questions poster who genuinely wants to learn about the industry. Who dat gonna be?
Did I hear my name mentioned?
I see the photo at the outset of this thread is gone … So, it is difficult to comment on it or the thread.
Also, it appears a whole new clan posts now compared to years ago when the thread was started by “Nora.” And, in doing some checking, “Nora” seems to still be with us, but is rather quiet post-wise.
Nora way back when sure came up with a cute avatar … I’m married and over the hill, but if I was single, Nora’s avatar alone would make me want to meet her …
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.
Why does noone mention my cute avatar?
Also I've gone back a few pages in this thread and haven't seen any pictures, so here's one that some may consider bad
Patrick Boylan
Free yacht rides, 27' sailboat, zip code 19114 Delaware River, get great Delair bridge photos from the river. Send me a private message
I just did a search through this entire thread (no I didn't READ all 2461 postings, I just did a text search throught all 83 pages) to find out what constitutes a "Bad Train Picture" and could not find what anybody considered a "Bad Train" of which one would take a picture.
I suppose if I were to nit-pick, I'd say that any train pulled by Dismal was a "Bad Train" but there are way too many railfans that seem to like a Diseasel to have that as a universal criteria. On the Steam Locomotive side, I guess I find the C. P. Huntington to be a particularly ugly thing to take a picture of, but that doesn't necessarily make it a "Bad Train", as it is just an "Ugly Locomotive".
So, somebody tell me... what constitues a "Bad Train"?
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Wait a minute. Are we talking about pictures of bad trains or bad pictures of trains?
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"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
Paul of CovingtonWait a minute. Are we talking about pictures of bad trains or bad pictures of trains?
Neither. We're talking about a thread of 'stupid' questions that were mostly anything BUT 'stupid'.
This raises an interesting 'netiquette' question, though. If the original poster (Nora) gets tired of a thread, wants to terminate it, and goes so far as to retitle the thread to something else to throw people off reading through it ... do we respect her wishes, or just keep on posting and drifting and commenting?
I do think there's a place for a 'stupid questions' post, where dumb-sounding or naive questions can be fairly answered by knowledgeable people without the snark that so often appears in such cases here.
I don't suppose there is any way to put the questions and answers in their own 'new' thread (perhaps with a new and more PC title that still keeps the self-deprecating humility present...). But there was a great deal of good knowledge, well expressed, in that old thread (even with the repeated postings) and I think we would do well to start a new one.
Holy thread resurrections!
Have fun with your trains
Instead of having one endless thread with many, many "stupid questions" where it is difficult to track each question and answers (if any), it seems much more efficient to have a separate thread for each.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
schlimmInstead of having one endless thread with many, many "stupid questions" where it is difficult to track each question and answers (if any), it seems much more efficient to have a separate thread for each.
It was a very active thread in its day - never far from the top. And, as mentioned, the questions were far from "stupid." They were questions from someone not familiar with the business - honest and to the point. As were the answers. As Carl noted earlier, single question threads tend to die a fast "death." The question is posed, answered, then sinks into oblivion, especially if there are a lot of other threads being created.
You might be interested in what the question of the day was - or what the answer turned out to be, but you'd have to remember the name of the thread, then possibly search down a page or more to find it.
In other words - you probably wouldn't bother and you'd never know the answer.
With one on-going thread, you bring it up, scan down until you find the last post you remember from your last visit, and can bring yourself up to date.
Imagine if the two-tracking threads were posted as individual threads. There would obviously be a great many, and you might well miss updates you wanted to see. Curious about what's happening on the project in Podunk? If you don't get on that day, or if the title doesn't include "Podunk," you might never find out...
Same with the webcam threads.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
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