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[RALFFERS 0]

Very well said, I couldn't agree more!

Dialogue/commentary between Divot, Twardo & myself -

"from your first Oshkosh when the three of us were riding to or from one of

[bigway 4]

Seriously, He has said he does not want to run a website that has all this filthy bullshit on it, Why is everyone going on about how it would be good and he should make another space for it. He does not want it, Full stop!

Should we not be respecting his wishes instead of questioning them?

I may be a part of the one liners problem etc but i aint part of the filth and can see how he his losing out on registrations and advertising from it. It's is his site, His rules. Time for us to makes sure we abide by them and that would be the ultimate sign of respect to someone who has given everyone here so much by maintaning this site for us and the public who are interested in skydiving.


If someone wants a forum for filth and everything, surely one of you could build one and maintain it very easily.

.Karnage Krew Gear Store
.

[bigway 4]

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Why not put all that crap at the bottom???

Might I suggest that you put this suggestion in a thread in the Suggestions and Feedback Forum?

That's a simple answer. Bonfire never used to be 'crap'. It use to be a lounge with a fire place in it and comfortable couches for people to catch up about their jumping over the weekend... or their plans for the coming weekend.

Sure there are still people who do not agree with each other and some flaming that went on and people being removed but at least the topic of conversation was friendly and related and consuming.

Now it is what it is.

I don;t want to see anyone go, but I do hope many of us slow down and see the vision that slotperfect has just described and remember how it was.

I would love to see this site again where every thread on the first page is from a different person about something useful to our lives.


I may be part of the problem, i don't know but i sure am sick of what it has become from the daily masses.

.Karnage Krew Gear Store
.

[GflyDog 0]

Excellent points made, very well stated PERFECT analogy. Kudos to both sangiro & slotperfect. Respect the house.
The well voiced support & points of other members is also nice to see. Can't stand the repulsive disgusting posts myself. Having fun or a sense of humor is not the same as being obnoxious & caustic. If we are not part of the solution we are part of the problem. I appreciate & enjoy the site itself but have to admit I feel the same about the obnoxious abusive content being referred to here.
What it all boils down to is simply RESPECT for the site it's founder, his crew & the members that gather here.

[slotperfect 7]

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If we are not part of the solution we are part of the problem.

Hmmm . . . I beg to differ with you there. Not being part of the problem, in this case, is part of the solution.

Arrive Safely

John

[GflyDog 0]

Another good point. I never looked at it that way. Nice catch & philosophical play on words. Tally up another 3 points on the scoreboard for slotperfect. Hail Ceasar.

[monkycndo 0]

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Why not put all that crap at the bottom???

Might I suggest that you put this suggestion in a thread in the Suggestions and Feedback Forum?

Where is that?


Ohhhh, it's way down at the bottom of the page.

50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[Bolas 5]

I'll admit I've been guilty of violating some of those rules in the past. This list includes but is not limited to:

* Provoking
* Allowing myself to be provoked
* One liners

I try to give myself a "time-out" after times I feel I went overboard. Having a little more encouragement to "behave" is not a bad idea IMO.
The other reason I post sporadically is that keeping up with the Bonfire is very time consuming. Perhaps less new posts and threads might encourage people to actually look in here more often.

Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting
If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh.

[PWScottIV 0]

Since when is "keeping it clean" fun? I thought it was sort of the point of Bonfire to just have fun and post random stuff as long as it isn't at someone's expense (i.e. personal attacks). Personally, I think some one the more "questionable" threads are the most entertaining, and I doubt I'm the only one who thinks so. If it's moderated too much, then what's the point of even having it?

I think it IS pretty strange that bonfire, SC, etc are the 1st forums you hit when you come in though... Shouldn't the skydiving stuff be at the top and non-skydiving stuff be at the bottom?

Gravity Waits for No One.

[AggieDave 6]

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Like Lisa, I sort-of miss the "good old days" sometimes (where most of us had met, wanted to meet, etc.), but I've definitely still found some new "friends" I've enjoyed here and would likely even "be there for" should circumstance call for it.

It was that old community that motivated me to drive to Eloy for the first Dz.com gathering at that DZ at the Memorial Day boogie in 2002. This was after the first US DZ.com gathering in the fall of 2001 at Spaceland. There was only about a dozen DZ.commers in Eloy for that boogie and only a handful more at the first DZ.com gathering at the Holiday Boogie in Eloy that Christmas. Even though the numbers were low, it was like meeting old friends whom I had known for a while. Well, I had known them for two years online.

The site has grown exponentially, with many growing pains inside and outside of the online community. Too bad it will never be like it was even just 5 years ago.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[skymama 35]

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It was that old community that motivated me to drive to Eloy for the first Dz.com gathering at that DZ at the Memorial Day boogie in 2002.

It was that old community that got me to start jumping again after I had quit for 7 months, after completely scaring myself on a jump. I missed skydiving so badly, but I was just a lurker on the forums because I didn't even consider myself a "real" skydiver anymore. The enthusiasm and camaraderie from the community back then was so infectious, I decided I had to be a part of the dynamic again. I knew once I jumped again I would love it, but I really forced myself to get on that plane again.

That was 2001. I just did my 500th jump last weekend. Had it not been for the Talkback forum, my jump numbers would still be where I stopped at 26. Would I had gone back to jumping if I stumbled upon Bonfire the way it has been the last year or so? No, it's not the same. I know we can't move back in time, but we can certainly move forward with the knowledge of what doesn't work.

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[JohnMitchell 14]

Thanks for the great example of how good it used to be. What used to feel like friends and family at a great party has maybe gotten a little out of control. Skydivers certainly know how to rachet things up a notch or two, until the party gets out of hand. I'm kind of the old guy, standing in the corner, wondering what happened.

[Thanatos340 1]

I agree. I have been posting here fairly regularly for almost 6 years now. I have met well over 100 people directly from this site. This site allows us to reach out well beyond our Local DZ`s. I have visited over 20 DZ`s all over the U.S. and met at least one person at each one that I had first known from this site. I have made friends with people that I most likely would not have met otherwise. For that I deeply grateful that Sangrio allows us to meet in the house he built.

I still remember going to my first Boogie without knowing anyone at all and being recognized from my avatar by someone that was Mod at the time. They made sure to introduce me to several others. It was a great welcome to Skydiving outside my Home DZ. Bonfire is a great place for people without alot of experience to get to know others in the community as those same people may not have the experience to participate in the more topical forums.

This post did make me go back and analyze my post over the past few months. (For those that would like to do the same, there is post on how to do that here and a follow up here. I set my search for the past 3 Months and ran the macros to see how much "cheering" I was doing). The signal to noise ratio was not as great as it could have been but for the most part I dont think it was too bad. Am I part of the problem? I try not to be.

I just hope that others can come here and find the sort of welcome that I found several years ago. Getting rid of the Skat and Shock posts will certainly help more feel like joining.

[dannydan 0]

WOW!!! I have read all of the 62 posts up to this one of mine here! And I say WOW!!!

BADA BING!!!

I see a few (alot) of postees here in a couple of threads about this subject useing the term "lately" and basically I think of ME! I probably am the newest poster that has "gotten out of hand" the fastest in the earlist time....

While I can say that I have never been "officially warned" either in public here or by a PM, I have had a cpl of posts scratched.... And I totally understand WHY even tho I was never told why.... That is ok. Besides, "Who am I"...?

I have expressed some quite obnoxious material in these forums that I would more than likely not express at the dinner table and or meeting peeps around a real bonfire at a dz or in "my own backyard"... Alot in just and YES some starter threads to "just see how many replies and what sort of responses can be had from them!

I can see the error of my ways with not even being directly told of them.

For those times, words and expressed thoughts that have been negligent of others.... I APPOLOGIZE

Wholeheartedly. . . I mean that as true and honest as I type these characters at this moment!

I really truely don't want to beat my appology into the ground, and screw it uP by continueing, because I am sure that everyone understands what I am saying, I will close this by saying while I wish everyone laughter and good times with words and thoughts, I WILL KEEP MINE IN CHECK!

THANKS for the renewed eyeopening for I do see the LIGHT!!!...

peace
dannydan

[PLFKING 3]

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Then you look for the perfect house, and find exactly what you were looking for!

Well, in Willem's instance, it was a modest grass hut on the African veldt

Don

"When in doubt I whip it out,
I got me a rock-and-roll band.
It's a free-for-all."

[PLFXpert 0]

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I have been posting here fairly regularly for almost 6 years now.

I was a brand new jumper, 20-years-old, in love for the first (and only ) time, about to be a junior in college, and driving a beat-up car covered in surf & skydiving stickers when I first posted here. I'm 27 now and while much has changed, a few things have stayed them same. This has been "my community" for better and for worse for almost eight years.

It's a pretty fucking cool place to hang and deserves our appreciation--which can be shown in more ways than one.
Pardon my french.

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[Skyrad 0]

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Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I hope the "loud obnoxious" users have enough of a clue to understand that you are referring to them.

I'm kinda hoping that it would come with a pm type warning. . . . cuz part of me is wondering: "Am I a loud obnoxious" user? Or have I just been a postwhore during this past month of confinement to my bed.

Phew! I though it was just me thinking that.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[CSpenceFLY 1]

I'm guessing there were some PMs sent out. I notice there are a few people missing.

[SkyDekker 1,122]

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It was that old community that got me to start jumping again after I had quit for 7 months, after completely scaring myself on a jump. I missed skydiving so badly, but I was just a lurker on the forums because I didn't even consider myself a "real" skydiver anymore. The enthusiasm and camaraderie from the community back then was so infectious, I decided I had to be a part of the dynamic again. I knew once I jumped again I would love it, but I really forced myself to get on that plane again.

That was 2001. I just did my 500th jump last weekend. Had it not been for the Talkback forum, my jump numbers would still be where I stopped at 26. Would I had gone back to jumping if I stumbled upon Bonfire the way it has been the last year or so? No, it's not the same. I know we can't move back in time, but we can certainly move forward with the knowledge of what doesn't work.

Funny, it has been the opposite for me. Some of that sentiment has even come forward in this thread.

Skydiving is extremely cliquish, with constant reminders how skydivers are better than other people. The constant forming of groups within the larger community, all thinking they are better, cooler and/or more bad-ass than the other groups. Many skydivers like to constantly claim they are individuals and do as they please, but then desperately try and hang on to their group.

Even here it is evident, not only in the main forums, but more specifically in the creation of a forum specially for one group.

You do not get included in the skydiving world if you just show up and jump on a dz. It is rife with politics, rampant drug use and filled with large groups of people who need to constantly "prove" themselves. Those are the three main reasons I have stopped jumping. Those same reasons also seem to be drivers behind the "slow slide" in the non-specific forums of this website.

[stitch 0]

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Pardon my french.

You speak French?? Ooo la la.

"No cookies for you"- GFD
"I don't think I like the sound of that" ~ MB65
Don't be a "Racer Hater"

[PLFXpert 0]

The kind I speak isn't capitalized.

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[skymama 35]

I guess I'm lucky then. I just showed up at a dz one day and made some amazing friends who are easy to get along with and who are down-to-earth. I've had the same friends for 7 years now, in addition to the ones I've made through dz.com. Sorry to hear your experience wasn't the same.

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[BillyVance 34]

John, I agree that things need to be toned down, and I have been one of the biggest offenders. I can count a few hundred posts that most likely ended up in the recycle bin, either by the mods or that I deleted myself.

I'll resolve to post more tasteful pictures from now on, and everyone else used to the shock value are just going to have to get used to the new me. Or just PM me if they want me to email the filthy stuff instead.

It is Sangiro's playground and it is his rules, and as many times as I've pushed those rules to the edge or flat out broke them, I'm lucky not to have been banned permanently. I'm shocked that I've only been banned twice, the last time more than a year ago.

I know I'm going to miss Walt's posts but that's the way it goes.

Here's to a cleaner 2008 and getting this forum back to what it was really intended for.

How's that for shock value?

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[ladyskydiver 0]

Hey, SkyMama!

I've got to agree with SkyDekker to some degree. I'm not jumping right now due to my current priorities in life. However, I post only in Bonfire since I stopped jumping as I don't feel that without being current, I can add value to the other forums.

As much as I love and miss the skies and those that I communicate with in Bonfire keep the desire to jump again and with them alive, some sentiments that are expressed such as (and I'm paraphrasing here and not picking on one specific individual as many have expressed these sentiments):

If you don't jump, you shouldn't post here...go elsewhere.

or

If you're not jumping, why show up at a DZ?

are enough to have me wondering if the B.S. and the politics in the sport are worth staying in the sport. After a year away from the sport previously, I came back to jumping because of the people that I communicated with here as well as the love of the sport. Now-a-days....with the above sentiments...I don't know if coming back to the sport in a couple of years will happen.

Obviously, things can change between now and then, but it's just my personal thoughts right now.

Life is short! Break the rules! Forgive quickly! Kiss slowly! Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.

[Thanatos340 1]

There was a thread on this several years ago. HH expressed an opinion then on who he thought should be allowed to post. I haven’t seen anything that would indicate his opinion has changed.

Those that say you cannot belong to the "Clique" because you don’t jump enough are entitled to their opinions but maybe some Cliques are not worth being part of. I once had one of these people tell me I could no longer be their friend because I didn’t jump enough. You know.. I am OK with that.

As for visiting a DZ when you are in town with no intention of jumping while there.. I bet the DZO, Property owner and people that actually Jump there would LOVE to see you. If in doubt, Call em up and ask if they mind if you drop by. Most DZ`s, Like this site, are pretty open and welcoming.