Sure seems to be a large number of new DUers lately

[rurallib]

May I first say Welcome and I hope you find this board interesting.
The fact that we seem to have so many must mean that things are a-brewing out there and folks are looking for some port in the storm.
If any folks have a story, I am sure many of us old-timers would enjoy listening.

And again - welcome: :applause: :toast: :toast: :fistbump:

[liberal N proud]

1. I don't pay much attention to thread count unless

I will check thread count when I see something that looks un-like a DUer.

But I too would like to welcome those who are new and enjoy this place.

[sunwyn]

7. I've been here for years, just a little overwhelmed sometimes by the venom here if you disagree

[liberal N proud]

8. Some are very think skinned

I always figure there are two options, put those who can't debate on ignore or just walk away from the thread.

Most can take good debate though, I currently only have 1 or 2 on ignore from the Gun Forum, talk about venom!

[mrcheerful]

11. Yeah I'm posting over on Ed's site and got an "independent" repeating the old welfare queen

crap. He said he is a store manager who see's people abusing food stamps all day every day, he made the claim that he saw with his own two eyes a few people buying $700 worth of rib eye steak on food stamps then load everything into brand new cars! Food stamp abuse he cried. So when I asked him how he knew the person buying the food owned the new cars, next thing I know I'm on food stamps and I am abusing the system. He got upset when I said wasn't he just as guilty if that were the case that he knew they were defrauding welfare and didn't turn them in. Or how about if he just stopped allowing food stamps to be used in his store, after all stores mark up food prices for profit so wasn't he also guilty of milking the food stamp program. It has been fun toying with mr independent because he outed himself out as a rabid righty.

[bobbolink]

25. Ed has been known to say things close to that, so it may be one of his fishing buddies.

[Enthusiast]

33. They just make shit up.............nt

[Fumesucker]

9. That's just the nature of forums on the internet..

DU is actually pretty mild compared to some..

On one hi-fi forum some years back I was told I was unfit to reproduce because of my opinion on headphones.. :crazy:

Too bad for them I already have three grandkids. :evilgrin:

Political forums in particular tend to bring out the worst in some people.

[blondeatlast]

13. You want acid--try posting ANY opinion on the Atkins Diet on diabetes boards.

:rofl:

[xmas74]

29. I don't know.

I've had some deeply disturbing fights on tv forums that ended with the posters threatening to do horrible things to my child in front of me while I'm duct taped nude to a chair with my eyelids propped open with toothpicks.

The subject? Why is TBS/TNT showing A League of Their Own almost every week?

[hifiguy]

15. LOL. Been there Fumesucker.

What I have learned:

On hi-fi forums:

Lesson #1 - Never argue with the Single Ended Triode crew. They are crazy.
Lesson #2 - Never argue with people who say interconnects and speaker cables don't make a difference. They are as crazy as Freepers and will never be convinced by evidence or facts.
Lesson #3 - Be prepared for torrents of abuse for admitting you own/like Wilson Audio loudspeakers despite the fact that they are the best reviewed line of speakers in the world.

On bass guitar forums:

Lesson #1 - Never argue with the "all you need is a Fender Precision strung with flatwound strings" crew. They are as crazy as Freepers and just as easy to persuade.
Lesson #2 - A corollary to #1, never argue with the "real bass players only play a Fender" crew. Same reasons.
Lesson #3 - Be prepared for torrents of abuse for admitting you own/like Alembic or Fodera instruments despite the fact that they are finest bass guitars in the world.

'twas ever thus. :eyes:

[Gold Metal Flake]

20. Single-endeed, zero feedback 71A amps RUUUUULE!!

Gotta use a single 755C Altec in a transmission-line cab per side or YOU SUCK!!!

[socialist_n_TN]

27. FUCK YOU HIFIGUY!

:rofl: From the owner of a Fender Jazz! BTW, I agree with you about those Precision guys. Nuckin'FUTZ!

[hifiguy]

35. LOL. I am on my sixth Jazz

in 35+ years of bass-playing! But I lurrve my Alembic best!

[socialist_n_TN]

38. I've got one that I bought in 1976

that I still use. I did some work on it back in '80 and ever since then I've been able to get exactly what I need out of it, so I'm happy.

Of course, I've been out of music full time for the last decade or so. But I just used it to record about a month ago and it still worked fine. I got what I needed.

The only thing that I toyed with when it comes to a different bass is possibly wanting a fretless. I never bit the bullet and bought one, but I've always thought I would be able to make use of a fretless Jazz. And I've enjoyed playing one every time that I did.

What always stopped me was I knew there wouldn't be much call for it. I figured I'd use it MAYBE 5% of the time and otherwise it would stay in the closet.

[hifiguy]

42. Mine is a '91 FOJ - strictly a player's bass

but the comfiest and best feeling J I have ever owned. Paid $250 for it in the late 1990s. Just had some extensive work done - brass nut, Hipshot A4 quick-release chromed brass bridge (a stout MF, in the style of the Leo Quan BadAss) and an Audere Engineering JZ3 active preamp. It's been the backup to my Alembic for years, and when the original nut crumbled, I went whole-hog with the mods I wanted.

If you want to try a fretless, why not get yourself a fretless neck from Warmoth or one of the other parts houses? Nothin's easier to swap than a neck on a Fender. If you don't use it, there's always someone looking for a fretless J-bass neck on the bass boards. For that matter I think you can get a Fender MIM (Made in Mexico) fretless Jazz for not all that much cash. There are plenty of exclusively or mostly fretless players on Talkbass.com, which is a good message board. Much like the DU of the bass guitar world in both the good and bad senses. :)

A '76 J is a "collectible" these days, which flips me out. '70s Fenders were notoriously variable in QC. Some were really good and many others were pretty sketchy, but the vintage maniacs are lining up these days to pay premium prices for all of them. :crazy:

I tried fretless a couple of times but I just don't have the knack for it. No matter how much I practiced, my intonation was always kinda wobbly. Been playin' fretted for too long, I guess.

[socialist_n_TN]

45. Wow. A collectible huh? ..............

That's really funny because when I bought it, I got grief from some of my buds because it was a "Japanese" Fender. :) I did have some pretty serious trouble with tuning issues caused by the neck actually slipping. So in '80 me and a guitar player that I was working with fixed it. With epoxy. :)

As I said it worked and it's still the only bass I've owned since I bought it new.

Funny story about the fretless thing. I had noodled around on them in music stores, etc, but as I said I never owned one or really even played a song on one. One night I was at a bar at a buddy's blues jam and he called me up to sit in. All were real good players, so I was looking forward to it. I got on stage and the previous bass player said something along the lines of "Are you going to be OK with this?" So cocky bastard that I am I said, "Sure. There's not a bass built that I can't play." So he handed it to me and I started fiddling around with the amp trying to get my sound. In the back of my mind I remember thinking, "Something doesn't feel right." But because I was concentrating on getting the sound, I wasn't really paying attention to what wasn't feeling right. I got a sound I was happy with and by then the guys ahd picked a song, called a key and started the count. On two, I looked down at this Jazz in my hand and went, "Holy shit, this is a FRETLESS!"

In short, I went from never having played an entire song on a fretless to playing an entire SET on a fretless. The next week, I was doing a session and the producer wanted me to use a fretless on one of the songs we recorded. I said that I didn't have a fretless, so he pulled one out and I played bass on it for that song. I figure after those two incidences on a fretless under that kind of pressure, I was OK with playing one. :)

[notadmblnd]

10. You should see what one old timer posted to me yesterday

and I'm a long timer too. He didn't read my post correctly (maybe his reading comprehension was off that day?), he took it personal (must have hit a nerve), and displayed such fake outrage that he had to type in CAPS. And the last thing this poster did (which really hurt, NOT) was put me on ignore.

However, I just let it roll off. People are angry about the hand they've been dealt the last few ears. And if being mean and rude is the only way they can cope, why should I care? Anonymous people on the internet affect my life about this much [].

[Skip Intro]

19. Been here for years as well, and agree with you.

on edit, just to be clear, that doesn't stop or even discourage me from stating my opinion, and defending it, when so moved...

[heppcatt]

24. Yeah I mainly just read the threads and do not post very much either.

n/t

[Lugnut]

31. Meh.

Pick your fights and ignore what doesn't interest you. I've been here for a long time using those guidelines.

[PatSeg]

41. That was bothering me for a while,

but I learned how to navigate through the threads, avoid contentious issues and intolerant people. As soon as I see personal insults and irrational behavior, I just move on to something else. Life's too short for that kind of crap.

[drm604]

2. K&R for visibility.

:kick:

[sufrommich]

3. The more the merrier! nt

[latinaliberal]

4. Thanks.

I joined DU in 2001, and I read it daily, I tried to reply a few times and realize that I forgot my password, I eventually re-registered, and here I am.

[rurallib]

12. welcome back!

[latinaliberal]

14. Thanks.

Gracias

[mmonk]

22. Wow. I didn't join until 2003.

:hi:

[Viking 1]

5. Thank you

:-)

[Ohio Joe]

6. Welcome new DU'ers

Be sure to visit the gaming forum

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=248

:toast:

[Lucian]

16. I find it to be a...coincidence...

But welcome nonetheless...

[DavidDvorkin]

17. Aah, these kid DUers today

No respect for their high post number elders.

And as for that noise they call music ... !

[scarletwoman]

26. I just yell at them to get off my lawn. Buncha juvenile deliquent punks...

x(

[DavidDvorkin]

30. Where's my cane?

[Aerows]

18. I had nowhere else to go

after HP was devoured by AOL and shown to be a haven of silliness.

Glad I found DU, because it now feels just like home :)

[hifiguy]

43. Six months to a year ago HP was a good place to be.

But around February all semblance of moderating there vanished and it was overrun by the vilest and foulest sort of (paid) trolls imaginable. I had 6K posts there in a year, but threw in the towel and reupped at DU in March. Life's too short to waste arguing with trolls. While the language police (no, not you, mods!) and DLC types here aren't much more pleasant than the HP trolls, they are a LOT easier to avoid.

[w8liftinglady]

21. welcome- i remember being a newbie once..

DU saved me on my kid's multiple deployments.
Welcome.Stay and learn.

[bigwillq]

23. Welcome Noobs!

:hi: :bounce:

[socialist_n_TN]

28. I'm a relative newbie to DU myself........

I lurked for about 6 months, then actually started posting about a year and a half ago.

I used to post on an political board attached to a sports site, if you can believe that. It was about 75/25% RWers, so I had some interesting times there. I did learn a lot about how they argue though.

One thing I HAVE learned for SURE. It's just message board shit. Don't take it TOO much to heart.

[TBF]

44. In good company -

I started posting at a music board (TBF was originally "TexasBoFan") ... we had a political thread there & one day someone posted a link to the 10 conservative idiots. I was hooked.

[socialist_n_TN]

46. My brother actually turned me on to this site.........

He's been posting here for years and had even told me about it, but I never signed up or even lurked because I had the other board that I was comfortable with.

The political board was started because a few of us started having long arguments about politics rather than sports. So the owner started the political board. He NEVER came over, so we were fine with sniping at each other for several years. One day he came over and apparently lurked a while. He then posted that he'd never seen such discourtesy and shut us down. :) So here I am.

[Enthusiast]

32. I think a goodly portion

of the newbies come here with less than good intentions, unfortunately. But I welcome those that share our left of center philosophy of government.

[TBF]

34. We did get some new Wisconsin folks which was cool,

but getting close to an election the trolls will ramp it up (especially the ones who are paid by the republican party).

I welcome them, they have no idea how happy they should be with this democratic president. He spends wildly on the military and continue to give tax breaks to the very richest in our society. I love to tell them why we need to ditch capitalism immediately in favor of a more equitable economic system.

[Enthusiast]

36. You said it!

These Freepers have a gift in Obama and they don't even know it. What if they had an actual socialist president in office, or even a moderate liberal. The wealthy and corporations might have to actually pay some taxes like they do in other countries. I think their real problem with Obama is the 'D' next to his name and his pigmentation.

[socialist_n_TN]

39. Yep. I like to advocate Marxism and

watch their head's explode. :) Classic entertainment! It never gets old.

[PatSeg]

40. I think it has to do with states like Wisconsin, Ohio,

Maine, Michigan, and Florida where governors and legislatures are trying to eliminate unions, women's rights, gay rights, etc. I believe the extreme measures being taken in these states have awaken a lot more voters to what conservatives are doing to this country.

People are looking for answers and kindred souls.

[robdogbucky]

37. Must be the upcoming election cycle

New paid recruits please check in at the front desk.