Custom Intamin seat belt belt (+ how to)

Great description, Andy.

Yes, and it perfectly justifies how it caused Gonch to go Daffy.

1. Somebody had to do it.

2. Such a classic cartoon. One of the best.

It's awesome that Tomtortoise spent alot of time and effort to create this "seat belt belt". He went to great lengths to achieve his pet project. Who would contact Six Flags and Intamin to inquire about the type of seat belts used on El Toro? And after a few weeks discover Stubai and then find their US distributor? Who would then wait seven months to get the belt? This is a sweet story of a coaster enthuiast who pursued and achieved a 'coaster geek fashion accesory'. I've never heard of anyone doing such.

And his post wasn't just about showing off his creation. He went into great detail on how to create your own coaster belt. Tomtortoise includes links and a few helpful hints. A pretty awesome post in my humble opinion.

And how does the CB community respond? Almost 6 pages of mostly irrelevant garble.

Nope. The "community" responded with noise, which seems to have been the straw that broken the camel's toe. (sorry!)

edit: See Andy's summary.

And how does the CB community respond? Almost 6 pages of mostly irrelevant garble.

To be fair, that's pretty much how the whole forum has been lately. I'd like to think this thread fixed that.

Weird seat belt obsession aside, I'm still hung up on the My Little Pony thing.

I truly think that I should have been called out instead of Bunky. I really didn't see much wrong about any of her posts, but I sure did post get carried and posted random crap that could definitely be classified as noise. However, I do understand that being a teenager is still no excuse for that. I'll do my best to go ahead and stop with the noise.

Vater said:

Weird seat belt obsession aside, I'm still hung up on the My Little Pony thing.

Look up "bronies" man. Seriously. Crazy stuff.

I um...did. That's kinda why I'm hung up on it.

Remember, everything you read and hear on the internet is true... Anyone remember what people thought about people of other sexual orientations, races, and religions? Whatever, believe what you want.

One of the hard core computer security groups at U-M went off the brony deep end...but in a self-referentially ironic way, which redeems it. Sort of. Not really.

Also: Andy's summary is dead on, but the phenomenon is not so unusual---it goes way back. I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers the days when universities had qualitatively-better-than-average Internet connections, making September the worst month of the year in terms of noise.

It seems as though this offseason has been worse than most; perhaps because '13 is offering a better-than-average crop of new rides, which has helped drum up interest. Luckily, I've been buried in work this week and missed most of this thread.

janfrederick said:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bronies (see definition 3)

You're a prophet.

#3 is unfolding right before our very eyes.

ApolloAndy said:

I wasn't going to jump in on this one, but I will say, I think one of the biggest differences in the last month or so of noise and the previous 10 years or so is that a critical mass of noisemakers showed up at almost the same time by coincidence (or maybe it's just a recurring pattern at the start of each season and I never noticed it). It was enough that the noisemakers could actually carry on a very noisy conversation which almost looked like it was contributing but without any meaningful discussion.

Often, new posters don't have anyone to echo their noise so they realize they're the odd duck and go away or adapt. In this particular case, the noise became a positive feedback loop.

This is what I was struggling to identify and quantify, and Andy completely nailed it. He's right, it does happen pretty much every year, but it seems particularly bad this year. I checked the stats, and I'm astounded to find that the percentage of new visitors compared to last year is up 20%. I don't think we've seen that kind of growth in 10 years (I wish the ad revenue was keeping that pace). Take that growth of new members and combine it with said feedback loop, and you can understand why those of us who have been here awhile are throwing our hands up and asking what the hell happened in the last month.

So here's my suggestion to the new people: Back off a little. You don't show up, new in town, and expect to be the life of the party. You don't crash the senior dance when you're a freshman. Stand by the punch bowl, watch what's going on, and determine how you can fit in without drawing attention to yourself. You may even decide this isn't the place for you, and that's fine too. Most importantly, click those user names and see when people joined. Even two or three years makes people more veteran than n00b.

And Tyler, I don't like to call people out, but I'd rather you think twice before telling others what the tone should be here, given your n00b status and youth. I don't come to your house and tell you what to do, don't come to mine and tell me how to run it.

Break the feedback loop.

First they came for the Bronies, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Brony...

Sorry, I guess what I said was a bit un called for.

So, let me get this straight... We are comparing the brony lifestyle to LGBT and/or race now???

I'm sorry, but nobody is born a Brony.

Not really. I think the summary is something like this:

Bronies : Enthusiasts :: Enthusiasts : General Public

Seriously guys, get over the brony thing. So the OP is a fan of an animated show. Wow, so much less cool than the rest of us.

Tomtortoise, your belt is at least 20% cooler than every single hater in this thread. If the buckle weren't so pricy I would consider making one myself.

I'd be the first to admit that I'm not cool. Look at my mug shot fer crissake!

And other than hearing the convention interviews (where some bronies admitted they were actually into My Little Pony porn), I had never seen the description in the urban dictionary until yesterday. But you must admit, it is ringing true, even though it is on the internet.

And before you get your tail in a knot, I'm sure you are not one of those bronies. But even if you were, I wouldn't hate you for it. I'm all for diversity. People think I'm strange for liking coasters, rocks, and offal. But don't knock me for thinking it strange, nor for pointing out how people other than myself have noticed some of the more annoying aspects (i.e., overly defensive) of this particular subculture.