My journey through life as an enthusiast.

You haven't been here long enough to miss. (See, that's personal. Not really. I don't even know the difference between 67440Dodge and 67441Dodge.)

Jeff said:

I don't even know the difference between 67440Dodge and 67441Dodge.)

But really...does anyone?

Jeff said:
I don't even know the difference between 67440Dodge and 67441Dodge.

Maybe they're the same person who just gave themselves a +1?

RatherGoodBear said:

Recently however, the disagreeing has gotten quite nasty and personal. There's a general lack of respect for posters who have

I've often thought that as well. But not recently, more so in the past. The number of people that 'I am sure hate me' has gone from about 10 to 2. But I'm chalking most of that up to me learning to not take things personally. And also realizing this is an online forum and I never know what the persons real intention is. Are they just joking or really trying to ram heads with me? If they are, I'm learning to just let it go.

I've been really happy with people I have met from here in person - people I never ever ever thought I would like based on what they said to me on here/reacted to what I said on here/said on here, etc.

Mike Gallagher said:

Jeff said:

I don't even know the difference between 67440Dodge and 67441Dodge.)

But really...does anyone?

Heck, I own one and don't even know the diffrences...

I think CoasterBuzz discussions keep improving, as far as respecting other people's opinions go. I guess I am not seeing it either, and don't anyone take that personally. :)

I guess I remember some of the really heated and stupid arguments on here. Compared to today's CoasterBuzz, they were much worse.

I'd like to have a contest to see who the biggest CoasterBuzz cheerleader is. I would hope that I would be the winner. How pathetic does that sound. :)

The number of people that 'I am sure hate me'

http://l.yimg.com/a/p/sp/tools/med/2010/09/ipt/1284578079.jpg

LostKause said:

I'd like to have a contest to see who the biggest CoasterBuzz cheerleader is. I would hope that I would be the winner. How pathetic does that sound. :)

I seriously do not need to see your pom-poms. ;)

Show 'em Travis.

*Travis* *Travis*

I seem to be having Deja-Voo.

CoasterDemon said:
The number of people that 'I am sure hate me' has gone from about 10 to 2.

I'm pretty sure that number is zero, unless I'm really underestimating people and how seriously they take the online world.

OK, now that I think about it, maybe those people exist. Some dude came up to me at an event and asked if I "still hated him" after banning him several years prior. I have no idea what his name was, or what he did (other than violate the terms of service in some way), and yet he was hanging on to it that long. I can't even wrap my head around caring that much about anything on the Internet, and I used to work on a forum that does 45+ million page views a month!

Jeff said:

CoasterDemon said:
The number of people that 'I am sure hate me' has gone from about 10 to 2.

I'm pretty sure that number is zero,

I figured it was just pretty much my perception. I have issues :)

My problem isn't that I feel the site is contentious. I think you guys are right - it's a probably more harmonious than it's been in years.

My disconnect comes in that much of the conversation lately is stuff that is simply uninteresting, I can't identify with or is exactly the things about the enthusiast community that irk me and I tend to shy away from.

Not counting this thread, the 10 most recently active threads:

Dollywood Announcement - interested in the announcement, but the tangent on heartlines and the similarity to 4D or whatever are a total bore/annoyance.

Anyone Remember - Don't care what Dorney park looked like back then and I thank God it's not that lame anymore.

Williams Grove Cyclone - Zombie thread that gave me a chance to rag on the park with the pinwheel photo.

Wisconsin Man Banned For Life - don't give a crap.

The Waltzer - don't care.

Voyage *Not* Getting Treatment - don't care, fixed the title for Paula.

Kings Island Soak City - Don't care much for Kings Island, don't do water parks. Wonk wonk wonk discussion.

Older Wooden Coasters - Hard to find a more uninteresting subject...but then it veered into evil restraint discussion and I gouged my left eye out with a fork.

Indiana Beach Buyout - "Something I like sucks now" talk with a fantasy purchase element thrown in. There goes my other eye.

Six Flags Announces Ultimate Flight - Cool announcement, but I have nothing to add.

And there lies my frustration. I just don't identify with much being said lately...and the trendline continues on a downward slope. I skim everything in the course of general mod-like duties and find myself sighing a lot.

It's really no more complicated than that for me. Me and the general CoasterBuzz vibe are in different places right now. I find myself less motivated to swing by a read stuff. At this point I still do mostly because of the group of people that posts here more than what y'all are posting.

I've said for years that I'm not a coaster enthusiast. The more "enthusiasty" the conversations gets, the more I realize how true that is. I don't care how rides work, I don't believe a restraint makes or breaks a ride, I don't care if an old coaster is bulldozed or saved, I don't care if a family-owned park is run into the ground by money-hungry corporations, I don't care about 'the good ol' days"...

I just like to visit parks for a few hours, ride some rides, hang out, take pictures and move on. It's a diversion at best. I'm not attached enough to any of it to care like some of you do. It's one small facet of my life that is mostly only significant because of my interest in photographing the parks, maintaining my website and turning a buck on the side. Beyond that I can take it or leave it and while some of these new announcement have us thinking about some trips next summer, this year we visited zero parks for the first calendar year since 1992 and I didn't miss it one bit.

I'm pretty sure the only reason I've managed to stay interested around here for 10 years is the people. I like most of you. I like that CoasterBuzz conversations can veer off into political debates or business talks or weird philosphical sharing among a group of friends. That's what keeps me here.

Reading about how a classic coaster was 'ruined' because of some ridiculous brake change or how some new coaster is only a shell of what it could be because of a trim or a restraint style leaves me reaching for the fork again. :)

No forks, Gonch :) It's just a passion I have.

Example - I have no clue and could care less about financial park stuff, but lots of people are into it. Obviously, it's important to lots of folks.

It's good to take a break from anything that you have to do.

Gonch totally just ruined my enthusiasm for coasters.

( ;) )

Lord Gonchar said:
And there lies my frustration. I just don't identify with much being said lately...

Maybe if you'd leave Dayton and actually ride something this year. Poseur!

Like I said, first year without at least 1 park visit in almost 20 years...and I didn't miss it.

In fact, I found more than a few places to put that money I would have spent on trips that left me feeling a lot better, a lot longer... Like these awesome goggles ----->

Maybe it's different when it's by choice. After two years of living in the coaster desert, all I can think of is, "****, it will be so nice to not have to fly somewhere to ride a ****ing coaster!"

If this was 10 years ago, all the recent announcements from Six Flags would have my head spinning and I would be spending every waking moment here and on other forums reading and sharing my enthusiasm.

Now? I saw the announcements, thought 'cool', and had nothing really to add. Some of these things are groundbreaking, but I think this last decade has offered such an overabundance of variety and extreme rides that I've become desensitized to it all...coupled with the fact that I'd kind of burnt myself out on the militant enthusiasm some years ago, not coincidentally around the birth of my now-5-year-old son. I've made no more than one or two park visits a year since then, and I'm more looking forward to when he (and my 1 year old daughter) are old enough to really appreciate amusement parks like I did when I was a kid.

I'm with Gonch, I'm here primarily because I dig interacting with most of the members here. I feel like I've gotten to know some of you, even if just a little bit. I can dork out a little at times, because I still do have the appreciation for coasters that I've kept since I was 6 or so...but not to the point where I'm picking apart every little potentially negative thing about the industry. When I start doing that, it's ceased to be fun (see aforementioned militant enthusiasm). Once I began avoiding saturation of the hobby, going to parks and riding rides became fun again.

I don't think I've quite gotten to the point where I could skip an entire summer and not miss it, but I'm definitely less enthusiastic than I was 10 years ago. Part of that is changes in family and personal life (wife, kids, job responsibilities), part of that is having ridden a whole lot more and being less impressed by anything new, and part of it is just that there's less new stuff being built. I remember reading the announcements when V2, DV, and X went in and thought, "Is that even physically possible?"

That said, I still enjoy a good coaster ride and will still go (a little bit) out of my way to get one and sharing that enthusiasm is still at least 50% of why I come here. I love learning about roller coaster engineering and I will occasionally pick apart things about rides that I don't like and could be improved easily.

I think it'd be really interesting to see how the average age of "active" posters on the Buzz has changed over the years. I also think it'd be interesting to track the relative amount of relevant discussion vs. tomfoolery vs. off-topic discussion over time.

general mod-like duties

There's your problem, right there. I just skip all the boring stuff---and the majority always has been---and instead participate in the threads that interest me. Until they don't.

If you didn't have to read the stuff you don't care about, you'd sigh a lot less.