poor RWOL, what the heck is going on over there?

BFwillie_g

Barefooters
May 17, 2010
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Kulmbach, Germany
Hey,

anybody got an idea or some inside poop on what's happening to the forums "over there"? Looks like a train wreck, and has been for a few days now. Spam out the wazoo, including the kind of jacka55 stuff where they reply to two dozen ancient threads, bumping them up to the front, and burying the current topics. That just sucks.

Wouldn't surprise me if it were being done by a few disgruntle psychopaths from the defunkt L&O forum (which was a mistake in the first place).

I'm not so much interested in RWOL now, since these forums are now such a pleasure to use (yay!), but I do like Remy and feel bad for him when his baby gets abused like this.
 
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I agree, it's a lot of fun here now with the improvements. I never really participated in RWOL. When I first checked out its BFR forum in 2010, it seemed like it was mostly a few people dominating discussion, mostly as a way of mentioning that they were 'veterans' or 'early adopters' from 2009, marking their territory. A real bummer, and kind of pathetic. I don't hear much of that crap around here. I did just go there yesterday -- the hackers are persistent.

I do like RWOL's Amby Burfoot column though.
 
I tried over there before I found the BRS, I would ask questions and would never get any responses or help so I stopped looking over there and found this site (thank you TJ!), which is far far far better and easier to navigate. Not to mention people are actually helpful around here. It's like an extended family here and kept me coming back.
 
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If Mark is the father, then I must be its mother, because I initiated the creation of that forum. I was actually surprised when he responded that he would do it, then he actually did it. I couldn't believe it! I mean a shoe-sponsored forum supporting a no-shoe forum! I didn't think it was possible. I like Mark's way of thinking outside the shoebox. He told me if I didn't stay on top of the forum to make sure that it was a success, it was his ass (paraphrasing). He said he was already getting heat from RW for doing it.

In the beginning, there were a lot of members from the other forums over there messing with us, calling us names (hobbit feet) and stuff and driving new, potential members away, so I wrote to Mark, told him all about the harassment, asked him to intervene, and he did. He wrote to each of the abusers and told them to stop or he would ban them. Then he deleted their nonsense posts and cleaned it all up. Immediately, things got rolling. We started growing, and I and a few others (miss you Victor) kept the forum active with tons of support and info.

If we ever have a spam attack here, I will take responsibility for that. But have you noticed that we don't get spammed? The reason is I verify every single membership request manually against the spam databases. If they show up as spammers or spam bots, then I block them. If I find good results, I let them in. If I find no results, I email them asking them to confirm their email address manually with me personally. If they don't, after I attempt to contact them three times, I block them. If they respond, then I know they are a human being, most-likely with no ill-intentions. I can see where this would be difficult for RW to do though, since they are so huge. But it is sad to see it collapsing like it is.

A final note, I always enjoy telling people that the BRS was conceived at RW.

And Lee, I hope I didn't come across as one of those who was marking their territory, but I am pretty proud of what I, along with all of you, have accomplished, there and here. I am so glad you all like the new forum and site software that we all have built (with a special thanks to Matt). That old BRS site was a real pain in the ass. I call all of this growing pains, but they are so well worth it, don't you think?
 
And is it only the RW BFR forum having this problem or all of their forums?
 
Okay, and ignore that little spam attack I have in my signature. Ahem.
 
TJ,

Thanks for the history. You might consider including a background blurb somewhere on this website: How you all first got started, why you decided to set up BRS, etc.

And you should be very proud of what you and Matt and others have accomplished. Whether or not BFR remains a boutique taste or goes mainstream, you've had a huge and lasting influence. This new site has an excellent layout and elegant graphics, is extremely easy to use, and attracts high quality participants.

And while I don't recall exactly who I was reacting to in 2010, I wouldn't think it possible for one of them to have been you. The atmosphere here is very collective -- no one-upsmanship. You set a very nice, family-like tone. If I had known about BRS back then, it might not have taken me a whole 'nother year to get serious about BFR. The first year I just dabbled, partly due to the fact that I was trying to get back in shape while my wife was undergoing our second harsh pregnancy, but also, I think, because I lacked the virtual support of a vibrant online community like BRS.
 
Lee, I've been here at BRS since the beginning, so I can probably comment a lot better than you; thanks for the try, but leave the heavy work to us veterans.

Thanks
 
And is it only the RW BFR forum having this problem or all of their forums?

TJ - it's most of them, that's why I referred to it as Remy's Baby (instead of your baby, lol). The BF forum is relatively low-traffic, so the bogus posts clog it up a lot more quickly (my analysis, anyway). But it does seem like the most screwed-up of all of them, with the weird truncated list of posts ... I don't see that anywhere else. So, I dunno, targeted attacks? Or do the RW staff care less about the BF forum and aren't keeping up with it? Just random thoughts ....

The really low-traffic forums (Treadmills, etc) don't seem to be affected. And, ahem, the Shoes forum seems to be completely normal ....

Btw, Burfoot's current article is a must-read, really:

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-239-582--11867-0,00.html

(and not an Amby-fan for the most part)
 
I tried to follow that link Willie and I got an ad for rw magazine. Then whn I clicked skip there was numerous articles. The top one being a Burfoot article from 2007. Not sure where your link is supposed to take me but I am assuming this is not it.
 
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