Why not a VIP Member

I never viewed this in some "us vs. them" context as some have chose to categorize.

My point is simple.
Where else can a Norton enthusiast ACCESS the vast amount of information and insight offered here without paying for it?
Operating this forum costs real money, supporting it with real cash is the right thing to do.

Lineslinger said:

My point is simple.
Where else can a Norton enthusiast ACCESS the vast amount of information and insight offered here without paying for it?
Operating this forum costs real money, supporting it with real cash is the right thing to do.

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Norton as well as 3rd party Service and User manuals are a good source of information for most of the questions LAB answers over and over again.

If Jerry was losing a lot of money operating this website, I think he would shut it down and his motorcycle collection wouldn't be so nice. Given the cost of web hosting and server hosting going down considerably over the last couple of decades I would think it is running near break-even. If not, Jerry is a Saint.

Many motorcyclists now in their 70's built and raced Nortons before the for the public internet existed. I built my P11 up from a basket case of bits and pieces without any help other than a Haynes manual for pre-Commandos and bothering Bob Raber, and Phil Radford in person or on the telephone. I'm not taking much away from the brain trust here believe me. I do my own thing and make it work. There are those that know a lot more than I do about Nortons. I know enough to make mine work without help other than getting parts though. I guess that makes me a bad person. So be it. If I'm not on your ignore list, put me on it if it will help.

I too was a non VIP member for several years, while my Norton stood in a corner. When I actually started to work on it, I found the help available on this site to be so great that I decided to support Jerry.

Schwany said:

...If not, Jerry is a Saint...

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If you were to ever meet Jerry you would find he certainly is no Saint.
However, you would find him to be a very dedicated Norton loyalist.
And for that, I thank him for this website.

I joined for the first time a few years ago when I was working on my bike regularly. I let my VIP lapse for a while and I wasn't here much during that time. I don't plan to contribute here all that much because my bike is mostly finished, it runs really well, and my voice is redundant here. But, ... I also don't dismiss the value of this place, nor pretend it didn't help me with my commando.

I saw this thread that Greg started and I remembered why I stopped coming here after my bike was mostly done. I had enough of a stick up my ass to want to say something terse. While writing my complaint, I also realized that the core of this place is NOT the few Jackasses who couldn't be civil to anyone who disagreed with them. The core group was a bunch of helpful, knowledgable norton guys that have seen all the same problems that I've seen for almost 50 years of owning a commando. I pretty much convinced myself to pony up again while writing my little saga.... I'm sure I'll let it lapse again, because I'm a poor working/retired slob.

Personally, I don't care who is or is not VIP. I take a medicine that costs about $80,000. per year, that I don't pay for, so who am I to point the finger.... I'm sure the tax payers in the USA pay for me. When people ask me why I'm so frugal, my answer is usually, somthing along the lines of, "The Kennedys had a lot of kids but I wasn't one of them" People should remember that owning a commando doesn't mean you're a "rich guy". It means you're a smart guy!

Telling other people that they can afford the things you can afford without knowing their situation is potentially, "Punching down", and you don't want to do that.

Schwany said:

Norton as well as 3rd party Service and User manuals are a good source of information for most of the questions LAB answers over and over again.

If Jerry was losing a lot of money operating this website, I think he would shut it down and his motorcycle collection wouldn't be so nice. Given the cost of web hosting and server hosting going down considerably over the last couple of decades I would think it is running near break-even. If not, Jerry is a Saint.

Many motorcyclists now in their 70's built and raced Nortons before the for the public internet existed. I built my P11 up from a basket case of bits and pieces without any help other than a Haynes manual for pre-Commandos and bothering Bob Raber, and Phil Radford in person or on the telephone. I'm not taking much away from the brain trust here believe me. I do my own thing and make it work. There are those that know a lot more than I do about Nortons. I know enough to make mine work without help other than getting parts though. I guess that makes me a bad person. So be it. If I'm not on your ignore list, put me on it if it will help.

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Some interesting numbers! You've been a member for 1323 days and have posted 2416 times and have 1778 reactions. What draws you here?

It don't matter what forums you get involved in you get some wankers who think they are better than most or know everything and will dispute anything if it's not to their way of thinking, but I do know my own Norton, I don't care what others think and I don't care if they don't believe me in what I have done or say, after 48 years with my Norton and knowing every bit on it, if I can help others then I am happy, but some people you just can't help, but that's good with me, we try our best as there are a lot more good people on here than the wankers.
I had one member on here who wrote once "just ask ashman, he knows everything", well I don't but I do know my own Norton and if I can help I will no matter what.
But if Jerry is no saint (and who is) he does one hell of a job for all of us Norton loving madmen lol as well Les.
Wankers = Penis with ears = dick head

marshg246 said:

Some interesting numbers! You've been a member for 1323 days and have posted 2416 times and have 1778 reactions. What draws you here?

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Greg - for you 3040 days, 3591 posts and 2638 reactions - wot's your story?

It's never crossed my mind why some are VIP members and some are not
It's only their contribution that I'm interested in

robs ss said:

Greg - for you 3040 days, 3591 posts and 2638 reactions - wot's your story?

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Several reasons to be here:
1) Get Information
2) Help others
3) Generally alone in the world, no social life, fills a void
4) A laugh
5) Marketing

A lot of what I know how to do came from watching/listening to others, especially old men. Since I am now an old man, I figured it would be good to return the favor and today's way to do that is online. One of the ways I do that is my web site which was originally about my IT Business but is today primarily about motorcycles. Of course, there is no advertising or charge in any way to utilize the info I provide - lots of it is unified from other places and some here have helped. The vast majority is about Norton.

Got my first Triumph in 1968. Was stolen in 1970. Got a basket case replacement in 1971, took 4 years to afford and gather parts, still have it. Prefer Norton Commandos, Triumphs from 1967-1979, and BSA singles. Enjoy rebuilding them to stock but not restoring every nut and bolt - mostly use modern fasteners and always hand re-write.

Lifetime member of TriumphRat but rarely go there - hard to use and got a bad taste from a moderator early on.

VIP Member here since the beginning of my membership if I remember correctly.

I average around 2 calls and 2 emails daily from forum members and I so far this year, I've averaged 2.6 sales per week overall. My net profit this year from motorcycle parts sales is $537.79. I clearly do not make a living selling parts!

Anything you or anyone else wonders, I'm happy to talk about. I have posted my email and phone many times: 703-200-4025 marshg@gregmarsh.com

Lineslinger said:

I never viewed this in some "us vs. them" context as some have chose to categorize.

My point is simple.
Where else can a Norton enthusiast ACCESS the vast amount of information and insight offered here without paying for it?
Operating this forum costs real money, supporting it with real cash is the right thing to do.

Click to expand...

i guess the above, somehow explains why you started with
As noted there are a lot posters on this forum that have been using AN for years with 1000 posts or more and have never laid out a dime of support....to me that says a lot about that particular user.

asking again, what does it say? & pls elaborate on the rest of it? do you mean there are users vs contributors? non vip folks are users?

I thought all members were welcome, all use & or participate as they please, then there was a vip option, that the site owner spoke on.

I'm also in the never thought about it camp, after the prior discussion, but here we are again.

marshg246 said:

Some interesting numbers! You've been a member for 1323 days and have posted 2416 times and have 1778 reactions. What draws you here?

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I tried answering this question a couple of times, but I get logged out when I try to post and lose the content. Besides all it will do is increase my post count.

Edit: Got lucky and the post went through that time.

Looks like I can edit and post maybe...

I don't pay attention to those numbers. I assume the reactions are all negative if the content in this thread is typical. lol

Google initially drew me here when looking for parts. Then joined and posted a pic of my P11 in the P11 forum and decided to talk about the modifications I have made to it. I have already mentioned that previously. I continued making changes and continued discussing those changes. People asked questions about why I did what I did and I answered those questions. I also respond to unsolicited expert advice with a thank you even though I've already decided what I am going to do. Also tried to pass along some help once in a while. All this drove up my post count and is apparently not such a good thing according to VIP Members because I don't have a VIP Membership. I am not going to stick around after I describe what it will take me to install a TTi 5-speed gearbox in a P11 frame. So I just never really considered becoming a VIP member.

74ok said:

i guess the above, somehow explains why you started with
As noted there are a lot posters on this forum that have been using AN for years with 1000 posts or more and have never laid out a dime of support....to me that says a lot about that particular user.

asking again, what does it say? & pls elaborate on the rest of it? do you mean there are users vs contributors? non vip folks are users?

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Wrong.
I did not start my comment as you misquoted above.

Accuracy counts. Read it again and find the start point original to my comment.
Cherry picking and quoting out of context are easy.

If you are having comprehensive issues with understanding the meaning of "to me that says a lot about that particular user.", try researching a bit instead of your insistence that I spell it out for you.

Curious as to why the ongoing challenge to my observations?
Not comfortable with said observations?
Use the ignore option...its free.

For any that don't know, this site has a wonderful feature. You click on the member to the left of any post and then click Ignore. You then won't see anything they say.

Before starting this thread, I unignored all I had ignored because I wanted to know what everyone said. I kept no list of who used to be on the list. Of course, over time, I'll be adding to the list again. I'm pretty sure those on the list will be happy that I don't respond to them so win - win!

Funny to me what people are offended by. Me not asking for help in a forum being one example.

Clearly I am not VIP Membership material. Can I just send a donation and not get the green tag?

marshg246 said:

For any that don't know, this site has a wonderful feature. You click on the member to the left of any post and then click Ignore. You then won't see anything they say.

Before starting this thread, I unignored all I had ignored because I wanted to know what everyone said. I kept no list of who used to be on the list. Of course, over time, I'll be adding to the list again. I'm pretty sure those on the list will be happy that I don't respond to them so win - win!

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I did the same and deactivated the ignore button for your same reasoning...wanted to view what others thought and share my thinking.
The deactivation of ignore was a bad move on my part, just leads to another episode of the bickersons.

Lineslinger said:

I did the same and deactivated the ignore button for your same reasoning...wanted to view what others thought and share my thinking.
The deactivation of ignore was a bad move on my part, just leads to another episode of the bickersons.

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You won't get to see this response, but I unignored one person. No plans to ignore them again though. I was missing out on some really humorous content.

Schwany said:

Funny to me what people are offended by. Not asking for help in a forum being one.

Clearly I am not VIP Membership material. Can I just send a donation and not get the green tag.

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I'm lost! I cannot figure out what you're upset about. This thread asked a simple question. No answer or any actual answer is fine with me and with most. I'm still wondering what attracts you to the site and to post, especially since you appear to not like it or the people here. I apologize if I'm wrong about that.

marshg246 said:

I'm lost! I cannot figure out what you're upset about. This thread asked a simple question. No answer or any actual answer is fine with me and with most. I'm still wondering what attracts you to the site and to post, especially since you appear to not like it or the people here. I apologize if I'm wrong about that.

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This answer is driving up my post count.

I'd have to care a lot more to be upset. I just like to type in the AM.

I answered your question twice more or less. You can check post #18 and post #32.

Your wrong, but no need to apologize to me.

I would like to apologize to the membership here for every time I have commented on a post with unsolicited advice. It makes me a hypocrite doing it. I won't be doing it anymore. Still not upset. Just taking some corrective action for my own sanity.

Schwany said:

This answer is driving up my post count.

I'd have to care a lot more to be upset. I just like to type in the AM.

I answered your question twice more or less. You can check post #18 and post #32.

Your wrong, but no need to apologize to me.

I would like to apologize to the membership here for every time I have commented on a post with unsolicited advice. It makes me a hypocrite doing it. I won't be doing it anymore. Still not upset. Just taking some corrective action for my own sanity.

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As is common for young people - whatever.

Post #18 does not answer my question in any way. You edited post #32 after I read it, and it doesn't answer the question I asked either. I'm left with you just liking to antagonize others - fair enough - whatever makes you happy. Bye.