FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

[Empty_of_Clouds]

ps. actually I am a bit of a fraud. I've always suffered from a kind a proxy gear acquisition syndrome - that is, I hear/see/read about people being enthusiastic about something and get a strong urge to make purchases on that basis alone. Most often this occurs with items that I have no way of assessing in hand. Most of the time I am disciplined enough to stave off the feeling and keep my money, but there have been quite a few exceptions in the pen domain and elsewhere. I see it as a mild form of mental illness, and definitely a character defect. Despite knowing the dangers I still have to live in the real world, I cannot divorce myself from the stimuli entirely. Tricky balance.

After reading the thread on Avatars and seeing the bicycles shown by Ray-Vigo, I actually went ad checked my local bike shop for a similar model. While I wouldn't stretch to $2000 for the Kona Sutra, the Kona Dew at $799 seemed quite reasonable. I had to take a deep breath and put the wallet out of reach.

[penwash]

All I can think of posting is about pens that I restore, I can see *those* being super boring to others

Those are not at all boring Will and nor are your hand drawn images of them.

The pens that you restore are certainly not boring to me. They, and items like them, are the main reason I'm here. I love your drawings too, so unique to you and full of character.

Thank you both for the support, which I appreciate... a lot.

My point was that in most cases, posting about a pen does not naturally engage the readers beyond the respond towards the pen itself.

Nothing wrong of course, it is what it is, I suppose

[silverlifter]

While I wouldn't stretch to $2000 for the Kona Sutra, the Kona Dew at $799 seemed quite reasonable. I had to take a deep breath and put the wallet out of reach.

Before they demolished the building on Vivian Street that has now become the Whitirea Music School, the bike shop on the ground floor had a closing down sale. One of the bikes in the window, with the markdown was 6k. I remember just standing there staring at it, thinking that was more than I had paid for most of the cars I have owned...

[Empty_of_Clouds]

There's quite a lot of road bikes in the $10,000 and up bracket. Astonishing to my view.

[TSherbs]

There's quite a lot of road bikes in the $10,000 and up bracket. Astonishing to my view.

I feel the same way about some pen prices.

[Johnny_S]

True, but I don't participate much on FPN these days, mostly just reading, and the same goes for FPG. There just isn't the engagement there anymore.

BTW it's not a crime to modify your opinion on something.

What is all this BS about permanent Warnings on members profiles and demerit points on FPN

Is this something new?

It is like being at kindergarten.

One person still has a warning on her profile from 2016.

Ridiculous.

Quite seriously though, if anyone knows what these demerit points are for and how many you are allowed I for one would like to know more. It has all the whiff of being at school and having a gold star or detention.

[Sailor Kenshin]

True, but I don't participate much on FPN these days, mostly just reading, and the same goes for FPG. There just isn't the engagement there anymore.

BTW it's not a crime to modify your opinion on something.

What is all this BS about permanent Warnings on members profiles and demerit points on FPN

Is this something new?

It is like being at kindergarten.

One person still has a warning on her profile from 2016.

Ridiculous.

Quite seriously though, if anyone knows what these demerit points are for and how many you are allowed I for one would like to know more. It has all the whiff of being at school and having a gold star or detention.

Sayyyy! How many did I get?

[Johnny_S]

True, but I don't participate much on FPN these days, mostly just reading, and the same goes for FPG. There just isn't the engagement there anymore.

BTW it's not a crime to modify your opinion on something.

What is all this BS about permanent Warnings on members profiles and demerit points on FPN

Is this something new?

It is like being at kindergarten.

One person still has a warning on her profile from 2016.

Ridiculous.

Quite seriously though, if anyone knows what these demerit points are for and how many you are allowed I for one would like to know more. It has all the whiff of being at school and having a gold star or detention.

Sayyyy! How many did I get?

Not enough.

They ought to do a Loser of the Week Scoreboard.

I got a warning for starting an innocent enough thread, it went on for 7 pages or so and then two scumbags started making racist comments. I got a warning for starting a thread which could get volatile, like I can predict what f***wits are going to come along?

[Ray-VIgo]

I'll admit I have not been back at FPN much since the re-load. My interest in pens waxes and wanes. I tend to enjoy it most when I'm learning new things - last year it was restoration of Sheaffer vac filler pens and Pelikan piston fillers. And I started collecting English-made Stephens pens, and American-made Eclipse. I also have gotten into re-blackening hard rubber, though it's not my favorite thing to do and it's not a perfect process by any means. It's a hobby and not my job, so I can punch in and out as suits me. I really would like to learn solvent welding celluloid, at least the point I can reliably do it well, but it's still 50/50 for me. I have an Eversharp stripe Sklyine waiting for a weld. I'll probably send it to Ron Zorn because there's that 50% chance I screw up the weld.

Then there are times where I kind of get sick of it and go do something else. I did a bunch of pens last winter, but this winter it's fixing Sturmey Archer bicycle hubs. I have boxes of them in the basement from years of accumulating spare parts for bicycles - light sets, dynamos, geared hubs, coaster brakes, hubs with both gears and dynamos, etc. I'll eventually get sick of that, but hopefully by then it will be spring and I'll be back to riding the bikes and doing the outdoor chores. We've had a potent winter this year - there's probably 2 feet of snow on the ground at my house still.

Everyone should have at least one good bike. It's a great way to see the neighborhood. You'll learn and see all kinds of things you miss when you're driving a car. And you'll memorize the location of every road hole and crevice if you ride enough. The modern, aluminum bikes have plenty of gears and are pretty lightweight.

But I think $10,000 is a little ridiculous. My wife did triathlons for a few years, and at one point I went to a store devoted to triathlon stuff. They had bicycles there, and some very expensive. They had this one bike that was something like $12,000 - the whole bike weighed less than just the three-speed hub on one of my bikes! It was crazy.

[Empty_of_Clouds]

Should have said, I was talking in NZ dollars. $10000 is approx. $7500 in US money. Still a lot. Mountain bikes and road bikes are typically expensive here in NZ, as I think they may be viewed as 'specialised' in some way. A big regret that I had when I moved here was that I dodn't bring my hand-made Claud Butler with me. It was a MTB fitted for the road. Lovely bike, can't even remember the model now. Before I immigrated I was told to not worry about bikes here, there a big thing and there's plenty of choice. What I wasn't told, and I should have found out first, was the huge mark-up on anything reasonable.

Anyway, here in my city I don't see a lot of cyclists. There are cycleways and such, but I think more people go offroad. Lots of e-scooters around though.

[carlos.q]

Warning points? I hadn't heard of that since high school!

On top of that there is a message informing that it will soon be mandatory to remove ad blockers if you want to use the site.

[RobJohnson]

Warning points? I hadn't heard of that since high school!

On top of that there is a message informing that it will soon be mandatory to remove ad blockers if you want to use the site.

I was involved with McKinsey a few years ago, there were a number of companies that we reviewed where the outcome was 'the best resource of the company is the people who contribute to its success'

If FPN makes it difficult/expensive/depressing to contribute and take part then it will write its own death warrant.

[Ole Juul]

I'm new on FPN but I haven't seen anything uncomfortable. Except perhaps the classifieds which, as a potential buyer, is outside of my sphere of comprehension. I simply don't know what it's about or how to find what I want. Too clever by half.

[Jon Szanto]

Warning points? I hadn't heard of that since high school!

On top of that there is a message informing that it will soon be mandatory to remove ad blockers if you want to use the site.

When I finally got the new site to load, I did some setup and profile changes to match the new layout. In doing so, I saw some old warnings that had never been removed... years ago, some comment I must have made. Childish.

As to the bit about ad blockers, I just went to look at that, but I don't find any message to that effect at all. I checked my Ad Blocker Plus to see that it was still running on the site, and it is. I also saw that since I flagged FPN for egregious ad-in-face-shoving, ABP has blocked 267,377 ads. It's been a few years, but that is a lot of ad hits deflected.

For a pen hobby site. Wow.

[Empty_of_Clouds]

The notification is under the "News" tab. It will be interesting to see if membership drops off (especially if the 'ad-in-face-shoving' is as bad as before).

[Chrissy]

The exact wording says:
We are still building up our adverts currently. However, once that is at least partly done, possibly today even, we will switch on our ad blocker checker, asking you to disable your ad blocker for our site. That will be all we will do right now.
However, we will with time change this to a mandatory option, because it is the only way to achieve the funding we need to keep FPN running. This will mean that you won't be able to access most of our content here, unless you switch off your ad blocker specifically for FPN.

[Jon Szanto]

The notification is under the "News" tab. It will be interesting to see if membership drops off (especially if the 'ad-in-face-shoving' is as bad as before).

Thanks - not a place I normally visit. The original mention of it made me think it was posted globally or something, but now I've seen it.

The exact wording says:
We are still building up our adverts currently. However, once that is at least partly done, possibly today even, we will switch on our ad blocker checker, asking you to disable your ad blocker for our site. That will be all we will do right now.
However, we will with time change this to a mandatory option, because it is the only way to achieve the funding we need to keep FPN running. This will mean that you won't be able to access most of our content here, unless you switch off your ad blocker specifically for FPN.

And, yes, I've now read it. Honestly, I understand the resources that are needed to run a site, and the fact that the expenses expand along with the growth of the site. The one think I would ask those people, if they are going to implement a hard no-block policy: does this mean that FPN itself will be liable for any malpractice by the adverts (through tracking, malware, etc.)? Will they be able to give assurances that if I turn off my ad blocker, they can vouch for any ad they run as safe?

Monetization isn't always an easy thing, and with each succeeding breach, no matter the platform, I end up becoming accordingly more vigilant.

[Chrissy]

And, yes, I've now read it. Honestly, I understand the resources that are needed to run a site, and the fact that the expenses expand along with the growth of the site. The one think I would ask those people, if they are going to implement a hard no-block policy: does this mean that FPN itself will be liable for any malpractice by the adverts (through tracking, malware, etc.)? Will they be able to give assurances that if I turn off my ad blocker, they can vouch for any ad they run as safe?

Monetization isn't always an easy thing, and with each succeeding breach, no matter the platform, I end up becoming accordingly more vigilant.

I guess they won't be able to give those assurances but you never know.....

[An old bloke]

I have to admit that when I've -- figuratively speaking -- 'looked in' to see what was happening on FPN lately, I've noticed that the self-appointed PC police waste little time ganging up on anyone with a diverse opinion or humour they personally find objectionable. With that, I have to agree with previous comments (when the site was down) alluding that tolerance is not a feature of FPN.

[Ole Juul]

I have to admit that when I've -- figuratively speaking -- 'looked in' to see what was happening on FPN lately, I've noticed that the self-appointed PC police waste little time ganging up on anyone with a diverse opinion or humour they personally find objectionable. With that, I have to agree with previous comments (when the site was down) alluding that tolerance is not a feature of FPN.

I'm not at all doubting what you say, but how do you find out? I check FPN and read threads of interest to me a dozen times a day and I've not seen such a thing. Perhaps I don't know where to check. I mostly read threads about ink.