Posts by Keith Cox6

Donna Doyle2 said:I honestly feel like everyone here realizes that Rachel Richardson isn't trying to be malicious at all!

The real issue is just that whenever she runs into a familiar face in a thread, she gets so excited to say hello that she ends up focusing entirely on that person instead of sticking to the actual topic at hand, don't you think?

I really don't believe it's fair to penalize someone just because of how their brain is wired, and shouldn't we be embracing these little personality quirks rather than judging them?

In other words—rules are meant to be broken.🙂
But seriously, imagine what this forum would look like if we all had our little "quirks" tolerated under the guise of being accepted.
Personally, I'm not losing any sleep over the fact that the wiki guy got partially nuked. His "unique"—and I use that word loosely—way of doing things actually ruined half the threads I used to enjoy quoting.
In my book, if there's a thread about astrology, it shouldn't bleed into every other topic on the site.
Plus, remember that one great thread Flyin started? Yeah, that's gone too, totally trashed by the wiki guy’s endless nonsense, repetitive filler, and his refusal to even acknowledge anyone else. He'd just dump random thoughts while acting like he was some sort of intellectual polyglot king, barely even dropping a smiley face or a quick response to anyone else's comment.
No matter how smart or interesting he might be in person, his main contribution to this forum has been nothing but clutter and spam.
He kept bragging about his "post-production" work, and it was painfully obvious his only goal was to "collect them all"... or whatever.
Is there some massive cash prize for being that obsessive, or what? Why else would a married guy with three kids be competing against guys from the US or Europe just to win a numbers game?

The irony is, he ended up ruining his own astrology thread too. 😍

I really love this Wikipedia thread. If nothing else, it’s at least a place where I can actually vent. Not that I was ever holding back on the other boards, though I definitely went way off-topic in the Offtopic section.
And look at me now, acting all high and mighty, lecturing everyone and playing by the rules...
Honestly, Wikipedia, you’re like a tumor—spreading fast and just destroying everything in your path.
There isn't a single thread where your posts haven't completely taken over, which is honestly one of the main reasons I decided to leave the forum. Don't go thinking the site lost anything because I left, but it certainly gained something long-term once you were dealt with.
God, you even managed to spark a whole debate about romantic poetry just by constantly chiming in on everyone else's music taste. And don't get me started on how you dragged astrology into everything, or how you picked fights with people over their right to start chats, citing your post count like it actually matters...

In your defense, maybe the partial ban is a bit harsh. I’d love to see them lift it if you could just limit your posting to stuff that’s actually readable and interesting.
Otherwise—as mistyhound94 puts it—if your only goal here is to compulsively spam posts, then thank God you’re temporarily blocked from doing just that.

Sent from my phone using Reddit

Check out the recreation PDF—there's actually a whole section dedicated to cycling. Take a look there 🙂
I mean, I definitely did, and we used to get together in groups of like 20 people. Honestly, I wasn't exactly picky about which school I went to...
Back in the day, the US forums were always buzzing with sports talk, especially when everyone was trying to coordinate casual meetups. Give it a quick scroll through.

Look, tipping is totally normal. It’s standard practice and usually even shows up right on the receipt. Honestly, if I had extra cash lying around to give to people living way better than us, I’d do it in a heartbeat—so why on earth would I deny a tip to someone working hard right here at home?
When it comes to smaller stuff, like just grabbing a drink, I usually just round up to the nearest dollar. But when it's a full meal? Yeah, I’m generous, and I scale that based on how good the service actually was.

As for the people who make a big deal out of not leaving a tip? I think they're just plain rude.

Eric Gray2 said:The reason I’m reporting this—honestly, just blowing up the Slack group chat 🙂—is the same reason I jump into other threads, even the ones where I don't usually chime in 😲: people are breaking the rules. I mean, why should anyone get a free pass to violate the guidelines just because the mods aren't actively policing everything? 🤷

Seriously, what is the deal with all these reports? Isn't that exact feature there so we can stop people from having massive, public blowouts right in front of us? 🤷
Maybe the issue is just how loose this subforum is. We have a really high tolerance for all sorts of wild crap—including the stuff that isn't even wild—which is actually great, as long as nobody starts throwing personal insults.

I feel bad for the 40+ crowd, and honestly, I feel even worse for Finger, who were part of it—and I hope they're still out there somewhere, because they're some of the best people I know personally. As for the rest of you—the bored usurpers—you’ve got a brand new product line available to you: nothing but absolute garbage. Hope it lasts you.
Cheers.

Jacob Sullivan91,
If I’m reading you right—the crowd from the 40+ group kept reporting posts with the Finger that were basically aimed at them, just tattling on everything, which ended up blowing up the mods' workload and eventually forced this whole chat merger?
Do you think the number of reports will actually drop now? Or would it have made more sense to just punish the people who kept jumping into the 40+ thread specifically to provoke others—trying to turn that "exclusive club" vibe into a total dumpster fire? Isn't that probably why all those reports started flying in after the mods failed to step in when people kept crashing the party?
Yeah, I get your point; you can't just hand out bans because someone decided to post in two different threads. But I'm telling you, the real reason behind these moves—and even the troublemakers admitted it—was purely out of boredom. Just the older crowd needing to mess with people because they feel intellectually superior, haha!
Also, from what I know, before this famous merger, the Finger thread was locked because everyone was constantly bickering. Did the 40+ crowd have anything to do with that? If not, why did they get punished by this aggressive union?

jadetiger962 said:Well, I wasn't actually there, but apparently they showed me on the local ABC news broadcast. 😍

Man, my mom called me out of nowhere... like... "Quick, quick! You're on the news!" 😍
I didn't even catch you on screen, but a bunch of people texted me... saying you were spotted. 👍

So... what’s the deal with the poll? Come on, be brave... let's get productive here and actually raise the bar for these official PDFs... let's see. Are we actually getting in anyone's way, and if so, who and why? Or are we just bothering your merry little trio?

@brightridge59, why don't you ever step up to improve things over on the Reddit forums? You're a moderator there too, after all... honestly... just leave it to Drit. This isn't the right fit for him, but he was proven to be solid back on Reddit.

mistywolf17 said:Then why don't you all participate so constructively on the subforum otherwise? Why don't you start interesting discussions there? Why do you choose to write all this in a somewhat closed chat meant for a specific group?

Because this chat is the only bright spot in the entire US compared to the endless whining, insults, mockery, and useless advice found elsewhere.
Because it’s through this very chat that many lonely hearts have connected and found companionship.
Because no newly lonely heart is going to head over to Offtopic to search for other lonely hearts.

That's why. Because for most of you, the US is just one big whining session and you're sick of it. You want a chat where you can talk about everything without anyone complaining or crying. But why would you even read or engage with those kinds of threads? Because those types of topics are what make up the subforum. I suppose most people can't handle reading them because they find it too depressing, so they'd rather just have cheerful chats. But maybe do that on a different subforum. On the US, it just doesn't make sense.

It’s not even really a closed clique... I mean, if a hundred times more people are reading a thread than actually posting in it, then tell me... there's plenty to read. At the same time, Jessica Watson4 already told you—you've got a pile of threads with up to 50 replies and, get this, only 62 views total.👍

mistywolf17 said:I'm sorry, but most people don't really participate. In fact, Amanda James27 is probably the one most active on this sub-forum. As for everyone else, some might leave maybe 5 to 10 posts a month, while others don't post anything at all outside of the chat.

Regarding moderating a chat, it would take me several hours a day to monitor it properly. Do you really think any of the moderators have that kind of time or even want to spend it that way? 😕 But that's not really the point right now, because those chats aren't very productive anyway.
Like I've mentioned before, I think a themed chat would actually make sense.

Hey, I participate... or at least I did... whenever a thread actually caught my eye. But there aren't any lately. Right? You guys moderate such high-quality PDFs... that there isn't a single topic worth leaving a coherent comment on. And you know it too... if you didn't, you wouldn't tolerate those few brand-new threads that barely get any traction. In my humble opinion, they don't even belong on the US-ovac... but whatever. I'll just advocate for world peace and getting the chat back to the US.😁

Instead, moderators... just run a poll. Let people speak up about bringing back the thread—even if it's not because of some "high-quality, unique, unbiased" moderator staff. Yeah, let's see how highly your "agreements" actually rank.

brightridge59 said:Do you really think the other people joining the US isn't lonely?
And is the chat truly the best or only way to meet and socialize?

The whole intention here is to make the subforum a much more constructive environment.
Chatting happens everywhere, practically within almost every thread, provided it contributes to a productive discussion. That's a perfectly normal occurrence, and frankly, we even encourage it ourselves. 😬

Have you perhaps had a chance to look over the rules? There's a reason why someone might get a warning just for posting a single smiley face or for putting something in their 'signature.'

For those users who have become close friends through chatting, there is a dedicated subforum where they can continue to socialize. There's also private messaging. There are all sorts of ways to build connections without it being solely about padding your post count.

Besides, the way things are set up, it encourages users to step outside their specific chat topics and wander over to other subforums. I won't even mention how peculiar it is to see people who NEVER post anywhere else except within a specific chat topic on one particular subforum. 🙄

Nah... I guess it's definitely better to just mock anyone who actually posts an ad.😁
That is... that's just hilarious. It's so incredibly optimistic and fits that very specific PDF vibe that the US absolutely requires.
Look, let's be real... I find it funny too, but in a... quiet way. Like, poking a finger at those desperate, pathetic, clingy, husband-seeking, tiny-dicked narcissists... and yeah, I could go on. But when I really think about it... if anyone else on this forum (not counting the favorites) opened a thread like this... they’d get banned instantly for harassment. All while being arrogant—which is fun, sure, but exhausting—and honestly, it's no wonder why the finger of fate doesn't point toward the US anymore. We find other ways to entertain ourselves, rather than making fun of others just to camouflage our own lack of fulfillment.

Supposedly a pretty great gig yesterday. Congrats.

Brandon Castillo4 said:Look, you really need to take a breath, grab a heavy drink, and then maybe come back when you're ready to actually talk. Seriously.

Technically speaking, I have never received a more intellectually profound piece of advice from a highly respected Mr. Moderator. Like, seriously.

:starry(homeo)stasis of UScid: 👍

But hey, brightridge59... why haven't you been nuking all those mindless posts yet? Or deleting the semi-intelligent ones? Honestly, we'd all be incredibly grateful if you did.

brightridge59 said:And you are more than welcome to keep doing all of that over on Off topic.

When you try to patronize others, it just makes you look silly rather than authoritative.
The reason I haven't participated is simply because I don't find the current state of it to be high quality, you see?

I honestly can't tell if that bolded text was a clumsy attempt at sarcasm or a sincere argument for why the chat should be reinstated, but either way, it’s quite funny. 😁

this isn't the way to do things... you can't just act on your own whims without any shred of respect. I would have appreciated it much more—both from you and regarding your decisions, no matter how questionable they might seem—if you had just stepped into the chat to announce what was being planned. That represents the bare minimum of respect that your role as a moderator should entail. But, kudos to you... it isn't easy to show respect to others when you can just come to the forum and play at being big, powerful, and righteous.

How many times do I need to explain that these aren't MY decisions, but collective ones? Do you even know how to read?

I think you're exaggerating here because you clearly have some personal issues with me and my fellow moderators, which is evident from the posts in the newly moved chat, as well as from this:

You're making accusations without a shred of evidence, throwing out insinuations, and drawing the completely illogical conclusion that just because I (pay attention now) am the one who moved the chats from the US side, then I should be the one to do the same for the LJES side.

I consider you to be a low-quality forum user and a poor debater, so I won't be wasting my breath arguing this specific case with you.

👋

Look, what you think of me doesn't change the facts. Honestly? It’s a good thing we two actually clicked so well. If we hadn't... well, you wouldn't be waving goodbye right now, retreating from a "debate" that barely even got off the ground—one where I definitely could have backed up my points if you'd actually stayed.

Austin Chavez6 said:So what's actually wrong here? Do you even realize how boring those meetups were? There weren't even enough to equal all the other forum chats combined. People travel from miles away just to meet up. Now tell me the chat isn't fulfilling its purpose.

Bravo, Markec.
Signing off like a total spammer here.👍

Brandon Castillo4 said:Look, I’m all for moving these threads around, but let’s not dump them into Offtopic. People here are actually building connections, they aren't just posting random nonsense. In my book, they belong over in DiK. That's my call.

You're totally undermining your friend who's a mod here... wasn't it a perfectly logical, collective decision made by the US moderators to move us to Off topic? You can't just change your mind now like... "oops, we already agreed on this."👍

mistywolf17 said:The chat could never have been strictly topical to begin with. Just read what I wrote earlier. People had to be allowed to chat about anything, because nobody was interested in coordinating hangouts right away. So, my conclusion is that it simply can't function as a topical chat. It just doesn't work that way.
That being said, of course you all support that idea. I saw how much you wanted it. I’ve been following you lately because there were so many posts in the chat. From what I could see, it seemed like you just wanted to drive certain people away because they don't intend to meet up in real life. Which, honestly, is kind of ridiculous. It happened because, just like in any other chat, not everyone gets along, so people end up kicking each other out. I'm quite familiar with that dynamic.
So, I think I’ve explained the situation more than thoroughly. These chats on the US subforum really don't make sense; as far as I'm concerned, they belong on Offtopic.

I don't quite follow your question. If someone wants to chat, they should just head straight to a dedicated chatting subforum like DiK or Offtopic. They don't necessarily need to come to the US section just to chat.

mistywolf17...you, of all people, who used to hang out in the chat while ignoring the rest of us via private messages on Nexmo that you could have easily sent on PP...you can't claim we were trying to kick anyone out just because they weren't "down" to hang out. What we actually wasted our energy on was explaining things to the newbies coming in...trying to make it clear that US-ovac isn't a place for people with zero brain cells. Seriously, when you have a constant flood of unrefined nonsense being pumped out with smiley faces, it completely kills the whole vibe of actually meeting and getting to know people...which, if I'm being honest...happened almost every single week. So...the chat definitely served a purpose. You guys shut down a chat with over 30 people, some of the crew showed up at the meetup...and those are the people we actually met🙏. Some of them, who live closer to the Oakland area, even kept hanging out with us.
What I'm saying is...I met more people at the meetup than I ever did at some random forum party. So, do the math.😁

brightridge59 said:That’s perfectly normal. 🤷

Honestly, I feel like the US subforum really doesn't need those dedicated chats. It’s as simple as that.

It’s pretty clear that we need our fellow community members, especially since they are the very heartbeat of everything we do here. We aren't some exclusive, gated clique trying to keep people out; rather, we’re just a group of folks who naturally gravitated toward the US sub-forum and decided to start a chat to keep the conversation going. In fact, two former US moderators were even part of those early discussions. Please know that any member from the US side of the forum is always more than welcome to jump into the chat whenever they feel like joining the fun.

Honestly, I’m struggling to see what difference it makes who exactly was participating in that chat. Does it truly change the substance of what was discussed? 🤔

If you find that you need them, they are right there waiting for you—exactly where they belong.

It seems like the current US moderators aren't really engaging with the chat at all lately. It honestly feels as though they don't see much value in having the conversation active there, so they’ve been quite nonchalant—bordering on arrogant, if I’m being honest—about simply pushing all the discussions over to Offtopic.

Maybe we aren't participating because we simply don't feel like it. Personally, I don't think we really need a dedicated chat feature on the US subforum. It feels like it might just add unnecessary clutter to an area that works perfectly fine as it is.?

It was actually quite impressive to see how lively that chat stayed; we regularly had over 50 people jumping in and engaging with one another at any given time.

I?

Who exactly is it that keeps encouraging these folks to stay involved and keep participating?

If the goal here is really to reduce the load on the main boards, then I honestly feel like we should just move all the casual chat threads from every single sub-forum over to Offtopic. It seems like the most logical way to keep things organized without cluttering up the more serious discussions. If everything is done with that kind of intention behind it, then I truly believe everything is perfectly fine.That being said, if the US forum is an exception to the rule, it really makes you stop and wonder about the objectivity here. It raises some serious questions regarding whether the moderators are actually being impartial, or if there are underlying motives driving this kind of behavior.

Are you really deciding that it’s okay only "if..." certain conditions are met? 😁

Personally, I don't have much of an interest in how the other moderators choose to manage the chat threads on their own sub-forums. It was a collective decision made by the US moderators to move all the chat discussions over to the Offtopic section.

Most of the people hanging out in those chat rooms don't actually contribute anything of substance to the subforum; they just seem to exist solely for the sake of chatting. Honestly, if that's all there is to it, that chat could be hosted anywhere else under the sun. It’s pretty much functioning like that right now anyway.

Correction to what micek said—the quality of the US chat has been seriously tanked... by a bunch of chatty idiots. This should have been dealt with way back in the ninth inning.
Don't act like you know what's happening if you aren't actually in the chat... if you were, you'd see it’s actually one of the best places to hang out... where people actually talk in full sentences, deconstruct love, build friendships... and deal with those ego-driven types who caused the quality drop in the first place by making everything nonsensical.
But damn... this isn't how you do it... you can't just push your own agenda without an ounce of respect. I would have respected you and your decisions way more—no matter how questionable they were—if you had just hopped into the chat and let us know what was planned. That's the bare minimum level of respect expected from someone with your moderator authority. But hey, props to you for this... it’s not easy showing respect to others when you can just play the part of the big, powerful, and righteous queen here on the forum...

brightridge59 said:That’s perfectly normal. 🤷

Honestly, I feel like the US subforum really doesn't need those dedicated chats. It’s as simple as that.

It’s pretty clear that we need our fellow community members, especially since they are the very heartbeat of everything we do here. We aren't some exclusive, gated clique trying to keep people out; rather, we’re just a group of folks who naturally gravitated toward the US sub-forum and decided to start a chat to keep the conversation going. In fact, two former US moderators were even part of those early discussions. Please know that any member from the US side of the forum is always more than welcome to jump into the chat whenever they feel like joining the fun.

Honestly, I’m struggling to see what difference it makes who exactly was participating in that chat. Does it truly change the substance of what was discussed? 🤔

If you find that you need them, they are right there waiting for you—exactly where they belong.

It seems like the current US moderators aren't really engaging with the chat at all lately. It honestly feels as though they don't see much value in having the conversation active there, so they’ve been quite nonchalant—bordering on arrogant, if I’m being honest—about simply pushing all the discussions over to Offtopic.

Maybe we aren't participating because we simply don't feel like it. Personally, I don't think we really need a dedicated chat feature on the US subforum. It feels like it might just add unnecessary clutter to an area that works perfectly fine as it is.?

It was actually quite impressive to see how lively that chat stayed; we regularly had over 50 people jumping in and engaging with one another at any given time.

I?

Who exactly is it that keeps encouraging these folks to stay involved and keep participating?

If the goal here is really to reduce the load on the main boards, then I honestly feel like we should just move all the casual chat threads from every single sub-forum over to Offtopic. It seems like the most logical way to keep things organized without cluttering up the more serious discussions. If everything is done with that kind of intention behind it, then I truly believe everything is perfectly fine.That being said, if the US forum is an exception to the rule, it really makes you stop and wonder about the objectivity here. It raises some serious questions regarding whether the moderators are actually being impartial, or if there are underlying motives driving this kind of behavior.

Are you really deciding that it’s okay only "if..." certain conditions are met? 😁

Personally, I don't have much of an interest in how the other moderators choose to manage the chat threads on their own sub-forums. It was a collective decision made by the US moderators to move all the chat discussions over to the Offtopic section.

Most of the people hanging out in those chat rooms don't actually contribute anything of substance to the subforum; they just seem to exist solely for the sake of chatting. Honestly, if that's all there is to it, that chat could be hosted anywhere else under the sun. It’s pretty much functioning like that right now anyway.

Why didn't you lead with that? Everything makes perfect sense now.🙏
Long live nepotism, cronyism... and cloning.🙏

I honestly don't get it... why is Christmas making exceptions to the forum rules? The guidelines on banning are pretty straightforward. Plus... five of those Crodra clones were permanently kicked off the site...
As for the writing style... I’d say Alfonso (sorry, Olivia Kim84) couldn't pull off a Crodra impression if they tried. We all know how easy it is to track stuff via IP addresses anyway🤣
Just leave the guy alone. Though, if I'm being honest, I'd actually prefer it if you banned him because he really gets on my nerves... luckily there are actual criteria for who gets to participate here and who doesn't.

Nathan Baker... why are you getting so worked up over Crodra?

Kenneth Scott41 said:It’s been quite a while since I’ve checked in here, so I’m not entirely sure if someone else has already posted something similar lately. To give you some context, Dr. Sakoman suggested I switch over to taking Elice instead of Lexapro. When I asked him why, his reasoning was pretty straightforward: they are essentially the same thing, but with Lexapro, you're just paying a massive premium for the brand name. Anyway... I’ve been on this Elice for about two months now, and honestly, I can't tell if I'm actually feeling any better or not🤷. All I know for certain is that things haven't gotten worse. It makes me wonder, though—what specific symptoms are supposed to indicate whether an antidepressant is actually working? It feels like such a vague, difficult question to answer, I know, but🙄

I had already mentioned to Sakoman beforehand that I had previously tried Zoloft and Effexor (which was easily the worst experience of my life). He immediately recommended Zoloft because, as a top-tier neuropsychiatrist, he considers Zoloft to be the gold standard, followed closely by either Lexapro or Elice. Since I view him as a premier expert in the field, I tend to trust his judgment, though I suppose we all know that what works perfectly for one person might not work at all for someone else.

So, in case anyone else is curious,I'll provide a Quote from Dr. Sakoman: "The number one antidepressant in the world has proven to be Zoloft, followed by Lexapro."
Basically: 1. Zoloft 2. Lexapro. Just something to keep in mind before you head off to see your primary care physician.

Since we’re already picking through all this... why aren't we just going with Citalopram? If it's fully covered by the fund, what's the point in paying a copay for Lexapro? It's not like it's some miracle drug that works significantly better anyway.🤣
Man, you're being way too naive. Have you ever actually looked into how pharmaceutical sales reps work? They spend their whole lives cruising around, visiting specialists and family doctors, trying to get their foot in the door.
So, what exactly is the "reward" for letting someone talk you into believing that Zoloft is the absolute gold standard?
The second time you drop by Sakoman’s office—right after some rep from a different pharma company decided to "reward" him—that list of the best, most ethical Ad reps is going to look a whole lot different.😁

Kenneth Scott41 said:Honestly, I wouldn't touch Effexor ever again! And if you ask me, it's your own fault for not realizing sooner that Zoloft just isn't right for you; it's not the doctor's fault. You should have just told him, and he would have switched you to a different AD. As for how I handle Effexor? Well, it made me start vomiting immediately! From the very first pill!

See, this is exactly what I mean... it just goes to show how much therapy is a total "you" thing. There's no one-size-fits-all approach, and honestly, neither is how long you have to stay on it. It’s all deeply personal.😉

Eric Richardson49... no way. The only way that makes sense is if an ADH deficiency is triggering polydipsia, which would then lead to polyuria. Was their kidney function actually normal before they started the meds? Honestly, they should probably get their blood sugar checked too.