Ethan said that I would be better off making a blog about this instead of saying it all in this thread and ignoring the "no more posts after this" rule, so I think I will.

Look, we all should realize that while most of us are thrilled to go to a forum where we can take part in constructive discussion about the show we love, there are some obvious flaws to the way it actually runs on a daily basis.

There are some people on the forum who are more mature than others, but if you think about it, that's how life in the outside world works too. Yes, there are some people who are still nothing short of a headache after several years who continue to haunt the boards. But is it really fair to start a full fledged rally against a new member when they may not be used to the site just yet? Every time I see a new thread pop up that I know goes against everything that the members who give a crap about the guide are striving for, I sit back and watch the fun begin. Someone posts a reply explaining why the thread should not have been made, a reason why, and information for future reference (and "no more posts after this"). Then someone else adds their opinion on it ("no more posts after this"). Then someone else comes up with something to say (again, "no more posts after this"). Is it just me, or does "no more posts after this" never seem to actually work the way we'd like it to? If you're not a moderator or an editor, you have no authority other than reporting the posts to somebody who actually is.

In theory, thread check is a great tool to combat the problem. The problem is that new members tend to just search for the threads that are of most interest to them first, and if they don't, they just go and start up a new one. I doubt any member who knows nothing about the guide would even think to go to thread check beforehand. Hell, when I first came here, I didn't even know topics were referred to as threads until I actually got involved a little more and learned some forum lingo.

I guess my question is this: does the Thomas forum even need any additional threads? We are already faced with 28 pages chock full of topics that make up the Thomas forum at this very moment. Chances are that if someone wants to talk about something Thomas related, there is probably an existing thread in which to do so. It seems that for the past few months, there haven't been all that many new topics that have actually become active; exception being any sort of notable event or speculation about the future of the show. I know David, he's one of my closest online friends. I seriously feel that constantly turning to him to delete threads that should have never been made in the first place is just unfair to him. His job is to moderate submissions and take care of serious matters on the forum, not the nonsense that his inbox must be flooded with day after day.

So yeah, the bottom line is that we should stop allowing new threads to be made unless it is a topic that will spawn off constructive discussion, which will be determined by either David or a certain number of other forum members. I'm not expecting any progress to be made or anything because it rarely ever does, but I hope you'll at least give it some thought.

While I'm at it, I might as well go ahead and tell you about my summer in one paragraph or less. It's been stressful, relaxing, depressing, and thrilling. I got things set straight with my girlfriend, even though my family still hates her. I went to a three day orientation at college where I was thrown out of bed at two in the morning so my roomate could have sex with his new girlfriend. I went to Atlantic City and Disney World, had a lot of fun at each. I'm going to Cooperstown on Friday, then I'm doing nothing until I start college. In short, the remainder of my summer has consisted of sleeping until noon every day and hanging out at the station once in a while to watch trains. What an awesome life.

Oh, where's my manners? Forgot that you can have a song too. That would be Rum is for Drinking Not for Burning by Senses Fail.

Here's another awesome survey, brought to you this time by rusty005.

1. Have you ever met anyone named Curtis?

No. Unless they were lying when they told me their name, in which case there is a small chance.

2. Have you ever tried to fix your television?

Many times, experiencing both complete success and total (quite spectacular) failure. I'll just say this, if you ever see a kid trying to put a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into a VCR, please grab him/her before they do. DVDs are better anyway.

3. Have you ever eaten anything with a smilely face on it?

Yeah, those puppies are always rather happy. Seriously, I have also had those hash brown things that was referred to in the original blog.

4. Have you ever been lost in the desert?

...I live in New York? Kinda have no desire to go to the desert anyway, not much to do other than playing with undetonated nuclear warheads until you start glowing in the dark.

5. Can you stand on your head?

No.

6. Have you ever been dumb enough to eat a dollar bill?

Again, no. Just...no. I value my money too much anyway. Sort of like a real life Mr Krabs.

7. Has your dog ever bitten you?

I don't have a dog. But the dogs that I've been around usually tend to like me, with the exception of one that nearly made me, shall we say, less of a man.

8. Do you think that you live in a parallel universe and the other side of the mirror is the real world?

You know, I've always thought it was the other way around, but these days, I wouldn't be surprised. So, yes.

9. Ever thought about robbing Wal-Mart?

Not sure how good I would be in a serious robbery, too much stuff to keep track of. Think I'll just stick to pocketing M&Ms.

10. What's the longest time it's taken you to finish a chocolate Easter bunny?

No idea, someone else usually ends up getting to it before me anyway.

Well gang, that sure was fun. Remember, Ronnie's blog was brought to you today by the letter Æ and the number -11.27. Hope to see you again soon.

Song for this blog is Warriors of Time by Black Tide. Really awesome band, if you haven't heard them, check 'em out.

Wow, I finally posted a new blog.

The past month or so has been hectic to say the very least. I have been coping with a painful breakup, my usual amount of bullsh!t school responibilities, and tons of other stuff over which I'm sure anyone else would have taken a shower with their best toaster or simply hanged themselves by this point.

With all the crap that I have been dealing with in my life as of late, I seriously needed a little something to take my mind off of everything. So I ask you, how exactly do you get Ronnie's adrenaline pumping full force and actually get a smile on his face for a couple of minutes? Simple, just take him to a park which offers some of the fastest rides in the world, and a completely free lunch.

My day did not start off well. We were an hour late leaving my school because, well, I was surrounded by pinheads once again. Story of my life. But thanks to a noticable lack of traffic through the city and into Jersey, that little delay did not mean much at all. We actually made it there in less than four hours, which gave us sufficient time to do a ton of stuff.

I have not been to Six Flags in a number of years, so obviously, there was a great deal of new stuff that I hadda check out. We started off with Skull Mountain. A kiddy roller coaster compared to the rest of the collection of thrill rides, but definitely a good choice to get warmed up on. I was eventually able to go on that ride three times, the Batman coaster twice, and Superman Ultimate Flight once. Medusa and Kingda Ka were closed in the morning, but we were able to make Medusa later on. Sucks, since I really wanted to go on Kingda Ka, but since we didn't waste time on that two hour line, we were able to squeeze in some other things.

I got to ride some smaller stuff later on such as the runaway train and go karts, but for the most part, me and my friend were far to tired to go on Nitro or anything wild like that. Nevertheless, we really had an awesome day, and it was a great chance to clear my mind. I may have a pounding headache and an inability to walk in a straight line at the moment, but trust me, it was totally worth it.

Hope everything is going well with you guys as well.

Today's song is Ex's and Oh's by Atreyu. Rock on and enjoy.

See ya whenever,

~Ronnie