Just getting back to mpedrummer2 about his request

I wanted to get back to mpedrummer2 regarding his post.
--- merged: Jan 5, 2013 at 9:29 PM ---
Unfortunately, I will have to write 8 more posts before I can do that because the site won't let me post links.
--- merged: Jan 5, 2013 at 9:30 PM ---
And since it merges every post I write, that probably won't be any time soon.

 

If you're talking about something from the last version of TFP, mhannigan, you're almost certainly wasting your time since he hasn't signed up here. There's no member at TFP 5.0 by that name, so what exactly are you talking about?

The merged post thing that you saw is a tool to keep spammers from gaming the system exactly like you were (not that you're trying to spam us [I think] but that's the same thing they do.).

 

I understand. Mostly tongue in cheek. I found a post of his from several years ago and I was being funny by telling him I have his answer. Well funny by my unconventional standards. But the site foiled my attempts to be extraordinarily funny, which is why we have my somewhat odd and slightly if at all, funny posts instead.

 

Oooookay.... Sure.

Just a little constructive criticism: it's generally funnier to the rest of us if we're in on the joke.

 

Agreed. But you see, I was unable to do that because of the restrictions on posting that weren't revealed to me until my first post, which took any possibility of the joke being at all funny. Instead it just made me look like a fucking idiot. I had to abandon what would have been tremendously enjoyable to the users at large, and was unable to give it context because of the silly restrictions after I went through a TON of crap trying to join, and then trying to post. Because of the theme colors on the board, anything I put in the post as the link became invisible. It turns out it was turning the same color as the background. Anyway, the post represents literally a couple hours of my trying to do something funny, so try to appreciate the small amount of funniness a was able to achieve, despite the obstacles.

 

Sorry that you think our anti-spam feature are silly. I understand that they can be frustrating, but they're there for a reason.

That said, if you need help with something, all you have to do is ask a staffer.

 

ok, im a little busy now so i cant look it up....

But i'm curious, what exactly did mepdrummer request?

 

First, let me explain that I'm being sarcastic about the anti spam features. There are far more sensible ways to do it that are more transparent, but it's not you're fault that I ended up getting passed off that day. Actually, the outcome was great because I love the forums. They are unique and I would never have found them if it wasn't for this chance encounter.

Now, because of the extraordinary interest in my story, I will explain to put it in context. I answer questions for a living - online. I've answered nearly 20,000 technical questions in the past few years. When I came across the post to which I was replying, I had been looking for a service manual for an old product. I saw that this person had asked the question, but never received an answer. So when I did find it, I figured I would be helpful and come back to the post to tell the person that I found the manual. I don't normally have time to do this, but the service manual was extremely hard to find and I must have been in a good mood or whatever.

So I come back to the post and try to reply. But I get a message telling me to register first. I try to register and it tells me something to the effect of "TFP Forums don't exist any more, they have been moved to TFP Forums. Go to TFP Forums Because TFP Forums doesn't exist." It tells me I'll have to register again because TFP Forums is totally new and that TFP Forums accounts won't work. So, I register, then I search for this "mpedrummer" fella, figuring that I'd made it that far-too late to give up on doing my good deed. I couldn't find any trace of the user, except in links to the old Forum. It was around this time that It occurred to me that the original post was about 20 years old. This is when I made the decision to be extremely funny. I had crafted an absolutely hilarious response. But to make it completely funny, of course, I had to link to the original thread. Also, the nature of the question required a link to the 25 year old manual to be a real answer, and it had to be a real answer to an impossibly hard question in which no average person would have any interest, including the original poster, to maximize the funniness of the post and justify my spending the entire evening on.

Unfortunately, I encountered several problems in trying to be funny re this post. First, every time I highlighted text and made it a link, it appeared to vanish. After several attempts to do this, I realized the link wasn't actually vanishing in the traditional sense, but rather becoming the exact same color of the background, causing the illusion of vanishment. So, I cleverly reformatted the text to be a color that could be seen against the background. In doing that, the rest of the message text was somehow getting screwed up. But I eventually worked all that out, and the preview looked OK. It was time for me to make this funny post public for all to enjoy. With some trepidation, I stared at the submit button. I mean, I didn't know these people or what their forums were about. How did I know they would like my funny joke? All I had was the question from "mpeddrummer". I knew nothing of the culture here, nothing of how or whether my extraordinary sense of humor would fit in, whether I would delight or offend. Still, knowing that what I was doing was intrinsically funny, my hand trembling, I clicked SUBMIT. Immediately, the page went mostly blank and stared back at me. I allowed it several minutes to respond. "Processing all that funny WOULD take an average computer a long time to do", I thought - perhaps my wit would take a computer a long time to process. Holding on to a hope that I knew in my heart was lost - that I would recover my humorous work and still be able to post it. But I finally gave up on waiting. After all, how long could the public go without having this post to enjoy? I clicked the back button on my browser, knowing that I was sealing the fate of my original post, now lost in cyberspace. When you lose something like that your first thought is "what am I going to do? Nothing I can come up with will be as good as THAT post". Butt against the odds, I created a post that turned out to be even funnier. And this t time I copied I it before clicking "SUBMIT". Much to my dismay, the result was the same. So I took mutt post and opened the forum in another browser, certain it would work this time. And it almost did! Except that the response the computer gave me was that my links, essential to my humorous reply being successful, were not welcome on the forum. I figured I would have to be content with the links just being in plain text. I wasn't thrilled about it, but I could accept it. To my astonishment, the system STILL identified them as links. No dice. But I couldn't let this funny go to waste. It had cost me so much already, I had to pleasure the user base. It became a kind of a responsibility. I determined that I could still do this. It would need simple. The rule is that I must have 10 posts before I include a link. I'll simply start the joke, and then post a few times until it is complete, and in the end my effort will be appreciated and enjoyed. The thought drove me to continue.

So, that's where my first post came from, and my second was to put me only 8 posts from my goal of being reverently funny. That's when I found that the system would automatically merge my posts and count them as one despite my best efforts to innocently circumvent the security in place to prevent rogue users from misbehaving.

This is when I gave up, and it's why you have only half of an extremely funny post, making it a post that really isn't funny at all because it's completely missing context. It's not for lack of trying.

If you want more detail, please let me know.

Mike

 

Oh dear god, more detail is even possible?! I feel like I'm drinking from the firehose as it is!

Welcome, Mike.

 

ok, im going to ask anyways..

mhannigan what do you do for a living answering questions? and are all your answers that long?

p.s. you're at 8 posts now.. see its not that hard to get if you're not trying to cheat the system.

 

mhannigan, please tell me more!

I don't think I have the whole picture...

 

This makes 9. As you can see, I am not completely powerless. I have manipulated you into asking me questions so I reply and increase the number. Very astute of you to notice that I was "cheating" the system.

I'm sorry. What was your question?

Mike

 

Lish, note that I was not cheating the system. The system was cheating me. "Cheating the system" would imply that the "system" and I had contrasting goals, which I hope is not the case. My only intention was to provide pleasure to the masses.

Also, I took the time to fully introduce myself in the forums in an extremely funny way, and I don't think anyone really read it because nobody replied. O would post a link to it, but I am not allowed. Sorry.

Mike

 

mhannigan the word 'cheat' may be a little strong. i meant it in a way to mean that you were trying to circumvent the system.

anyways, i did read your introduction where you said you were a tall, gay, black and purple cowboy-hippie French Protestant Jew cop. But you did say not to reply if i had anything against you. So i didnt.

you didnt tell me what is it that you do answering 20K questions. i'm certain Charlatan wants to know too.

 

What did you have against me? The funny part about my profile is that it is almost verbatim from the welcome message about "...we don't care if you're black, purple, Korean Jewish, protestant, a cop... " and so on. And you said something to the effect of all being welcome. So what part of that did you hold against me? I guess it was only funny if you understand why I put those things and I thought you would since you wrote them.

 

Someone that persistent is either a boon to the site, or not.
I'll vote in favor.
Welcome, Mike.