After my med school graduation, while somewhat ****faced, I handed the men's room attendant in the Bull & Bear a fin and said, "this is for my brother,...he can urinate as long as he wants to."
No,..I'm not proud.

 

You must be a urologist .....

 

Yes, I visited Ben in the OC in March (I wasn't trying to hide this and actually mentioned our friendship in the other ban thread). Since then I have also visited (and made friends with) a couple of other Rennlisters (I'll visit whoever invites me, and unlike Coochas I won't pee all over the bathroom), and I have had off-Rennlist contact with a bunch of Rennlisters (email, MySpace, etc.).

Getting to know each other in person is something I highly recommend. The thing is, Ben and I had really tough arguments in the OT with regard to politics and some U.S. foreign policies... we had serious issues and it's SO EASY to take this stuff personal, but once you meet in person you notice that - really - at the end of the day, this is just a random little forum in which sometimes the poster and sometimes the reader overreacts; ultimately we are all here because of our love for the same thing, and that's enough we have in common to be able to get along.

When I started here two years ago, we had way more carefree ("community-building") threads going on*. Then trolls increasingly stuck their noses into the 997 forum and not the least because of Ben, we were able to fight them off; but somehow things never were the same again and the whole atmosphere turned rougher. Now, I DO have lots of friends outside Rennlist, but it was still a fun time back then and we would have never had arguments like these in the 997 forum. Just read some of the threads below, and particularly Ben's comments if anyone is so critical and if they think it's been all bad all the time.

By the way, we've been throwing around the idea of a 997 party at Ben's new house. We'll have to ask him about this when he comes back. Otherwise y'all have to come to Louisiana next fall when my new home is ready.

*Threads such as:
What do you look like?
Everyone needs a wife like this
What a bunch of lazy posters!
Greetings from Germany!
Is your Porsche hotter than mine?
What's your move after eye contact with a babe at a stop light?
How old are you?
I'm standing at the altar...
Spin the Topic - Non Sequiturs on the 997
What does your username signify?

 

Wolfgang- If I remember correctly Ben also helped you out in setting up a small education trust fund for Craig Cope's son after Craig, a Rennlister, unexpectedly passed away earlier this year. Just another small thing to add- hope you don't mind.

 

Yes, you are so right, that was actually Ben's idea to begin with (https://rennlist.com/forums/997-forum/358330-rip-craig-cope-fellow-rennlister.html). We just recently finished all the paperwork and all contributors received a copy of the trust documents. We set up an education trust worth $2,600; big thanks again to Oz, our attorney who worked out the trust document (quite an effort).

 

Those guys are a pisser....me, I'm just a humble gas passer.

 

As always Wolfgang,....very well said.
I really hope to meet you and Ben and many other Rennlisters one day.
When your new LA home is ready, please let me know so I can christen the bathroom for you.

 

For clarity, I've always thought Ben could be very informative and certainly not always or even mostly unkind.

I just can't understand the desire to ever be unkind intentionally.

 

I'm not sure if I am the only one on this forum who actually joined (Membership #070425-5930), yet when I went to sign in with my original user name (sdw909), I was unable to log in? My point being that at times non-members are looked down upon for not joining, yet they use all the great info that Rennlist provides. I would just caution everyone to not assume someone is not a paying member just because they are not listed as one, such as in my case. Who can fix this, Jen perhaps?? I'll search this out, as Ben would suggest.

My idea for being banned would involve fines to re-join. Say, after three bannings, it would cost $100 to be a member, and so on. The extra revenue could go to Rennwish, or general up keep, etc. Of course, if someone makes a racially, or sexually derogatory comment, or is clearly trying to troll the forum for the sake of starting trouble, then the possibility of re-joining would be out of the question. Just a thought...

 

sdw999 - send a PM to Jenn or John D. They will get your ID/membership issue straightened out.