I don't think that would work. I mean, you rarely see railroads being fully private anywhere.
Railroads are basically just a perfect reflection of whatever kind of state or society they're in.
So, I guess that's why the German or French rail systems feel pretty solid, while things further south or east in the North America are just a total mess—and honestly, the further south or east you go, the worse it seems to get.
The current state of Amtrak is really just the result of decades of pure mismanagement. You can't exactly clean up a mess like that overnight, I suppose.
Yeah, honestly, the whole situation is pretty depressing. But hey, at least on this forum, which I know a ton of people follow, you can actually get some solid, reliable info thanks to you and everyone else who takes the time to break down what's really going on in a way that actually makes sense.
And well, people are just people, I guess—some listen to advice, while others just insist on doing things their own way until their bike gets swiped for the first time. And then there are those who stay stubborn even after that happens. Plus, there’s always those folks whose whole goal is just to spread misinformation for their own benefit, or they just like acting like they know everything when they really don't.
Sarah Doyle34 said:Believe it or not, they actually dodge away from the hidden cameras. I dealt with that recently.
What I really wanna know is, if anyone can tell me ASAP: if I report this guy right now, like today, for a decent amount of money on ESPN, am I gonna get all my $27 compensation or what? Because it's already been like half a month. Thanks!
Personally, I don't open the door for any stranger unless they check in at the apartment building's intercom first. That's pretty much the only spot where you can actually see a last name. There isn't anything on my apartment door. If someone is coming over with good intentions, I usually just wait for them by the elevator. 😁
I’ve always been pretty against locking threads unless it’s absolutely, 100% necessary. I guess my take is that we should probably be leaning more on moderator intervention to just nudge people back onto the right track instead.
electriccrane80 said:Exactly—it’s the same owner getting hit with two separate bills. I’m technically the user, but since we share a registered address, we fall under the "single household" rule, and honestly, I'm basically living under their roof. To put it bluntly, we’ve been throwing money down the drain for three years plus $167 because some inspector at the utility company just eyeballed the fees since we didn't report the receiver immediately. It could have easily been even more than 🙄. We were being completely transparent and did everything by the book, but apparently, being honest just makes you an easy target for these bureaucratic whims. It’s naive to think they’ll play fair.
I’m not entirely sure if we need to formally de-register the receiver, or if I should just send a notice stating that the owner shouldn't be double-billed per Section 34 and stop the payments altogether.
Man, what a mess. How did the inspector even find out there was a receiver in the other apartment? Honestly, I'm in a similar spot right now—living in a place without a registered receiver. And so far, nobody has come knocking to bother me about anything. If they do show up... well, they can take a hike.
I guess if we had just handled this behind closed doors, the money would’ve rolled in and our reputation wouldn't have taken such a hit. I mean, what are those intelligence agencies even for if not for stuff like this? For once, I actually agree with the idea that the public and the media don't necessarily need to be privy to everything.
Brandon Gomez2 said:About 15 years ago, I was riding my granddad’s old Rog touring bike—you know, the kind without gears, just a coaster brake on the back and a lever on the front that pressed some weird pad directly onto the tire—and I ended up running over a chicken. It was pretty bad. I probably could've missed her if I hadn't panicked and slammed the brakes to get away from her, but instead, my back wheel just cut off her path back to the safety of the yard. Ever since then, whenever I see any poultry, livestock, dogs, or even kids near the road, I immediately slow down to a walking pace.
Well, at least the soup was good, right? 😁
I once had to move a hedgehog out of the road so a car wouldn't flatten him. Poor little guy just burrowed straight into the dirt the second he saw me coming.
And I almost ran over some snakes recently too, in a spot where I didn't even realize they were hanging out. Near Savannah, on that road by the arena along the Mississippi River.
slywolf45 said:I mean, maybe one or two messages is plenty. If we bump it up to 1,000, you'll probably just fill it all up instantly anyway, leaving you with zero unread, 999 total, and then you're just deleting them one by one.
You can always save messages, too. I guess it’s just nicer to have archives of about 1,000 posts rather than dozens of tiny little archives with only 100 each.
Most modern forum software actually supports direct messaging threads now—you know, where your private chats with the same user are grouped together as one "conversation." But, I suppose that's just not how this site works 😁
Comparing PMs to a live chat is also kind of a bedarija. You might see 10,000 entries fly by on a chat in a single evening, so a limit of 500 or 1,000 for a PM isn't really much of a comparison at all.
It’d probably be helpful if you shared some actual arguments too, since I feel like the points in favor were actually pretty well put together.
BTW, rustydrifter10: we're looking at maybe 500-1000 posts for regular users, and maybe 2500-5000 for the mods.
Just bumping up those numbers doesn't necessarily mean we'll have to allocate all that extra storage space right away. It's really just a theoretical limit that most people won't even hit, so I guess the extra load on the server or the database would be pretty minimal—especially when you consider how much weight the spam threads actually pull.
So, I was just out mowing the lawn recently and accidentally ran over a few slugs hiding in the grass...
But on a more serious note—about a year ago, while I was riding my bike pretty fast with a buddy, a wasp suddenly flew right out from a driveway. I totally panicked and slammed on my brakes, which luckily happened just in time... but I didn't manage to yell a warning to my friend who was riding right on my tail. He ended up wiping out and hitting the pavement like a pancake. Thankfully... he was totally fine, everything turned out okay given how bad it could have been. Still, even now, I kind of feel guilty about how poorly I reacted in the moment 😢
Thomas Martinez9 said:Where? It’s actually not allowed. If you happen to spot a post like that and it hasn't been flagged yet, just hit that little triangle icon and report it. I mean, the mods aren't exactly superheroes or anything. They can't catch every single insult or whatever happens to pop up.
So, please, help me understand... why have you been totally sucking up to the moderators over the last few dozen posts? (And I don't even think you've posted that many, honestly). I’m just curious, like, are you getting some kind of kickback for this, or are you just your typical American self? ☕
Well, like Stanley said, it’s pretty much impossible to spot clones of users who have been banned—especially those on permanent bans—unless they go and reveal themselves by using that same old style that got them kicked off in the first place. But I guess you could argue that if they're just clones, they wouldn't really be facing a permanent ban; it's more like they're getting hit with a permanent ban because they just kept racking up violations until they hit the limit 🤣 . Because honestly, this whole principle feels a little silly to me. Like, once you get banned, you're gone from the forum for life? I mean, even a felony conviction eventually gets cleared from your record after enough time passes, but I suppose a forum is its own kind of institution! 😁
Matthew Anderson said:And here we go again... the same group of people who somehow managed to change their minds a few times already. It’s like permanent status on demand, I guess.
I mean, how does one even "change their mind" about this, if it's already been stated that permanent status is irreversible (whether it was requested or not)? I guess I have to wonder... are you actually reading what's being written here? 🙄
Matthew Anderson said:Wouldn't it just be more logical to log out and not come back?
I guess some people just love causing trouble for the sake of it.
Like, let's say I want a promotion right now, and I tell you, "Look, if you don't give me that raise immediately, I'm going to start acting out so much that you'll have no choice but to cave"—isn't it just easier to just give me the promotion from the jump? Why deal with all the headache of cleaning up my mess when the end result is basically the same anyway?
I mean, it would be easier for management, and definitely easier for the employee who actually wants the perk. But hey, I guess things aren't always logical, right? 😁