My great friend, who goes by the screen name of "randye"--what a joker--really had me going with this one. What an amazing guy. It's like every day is April Fool's Day with this dude. Just one gag after another. He wanted me to think he was going after me, so he came up with this:

quote Originally posted by randye Just stop it Ronald. Nobody is going to let you get away with trying to play the usual [politically left-leaning] "victim" game [anymore]. As far as your "participation" in other sections of this forum, you probably shouldn't be crowing about that too much. A quick search shows that you have only made about 30 or so posts [outside of Off Topic] since you arrived here in 2010, so approximately 99.58% of your activity here over the past 7 years (7,070 posts) is confined to things having nothing to do with Fieros. Taking into account that several of your posts in the other sections also didn't have a damn thing to do with Fieros, you're at about 99.99 percent [nothing to do with Fieros.] It's manifestly clear that you are here for only one reason--to keep poking your finger in the eye of the majority in Off Topic. You made yourself what you are here, and you can't even be honest about what you do here. You did the same thing on optiBOARD, a forum for Eye Care Professionals.....which [you are not.] You made a few inane, pointless posts in their General Topics section, and then [you] proceeded to make a constant jerk out of yourself in their "Off Topic" section [and they told you were a jerk.]

And I'm thinking to myself, wow, what did I do to get my longtime bud "randye" so effing pissed off at me? So I sat down wtih a fresh mug of coffee and started pounding away at my keyboard, and what do you think happens next? I was so mad. This is what I typed:

quote What kind of effing moron whips out his calculator or his slide rule or his who knows what, just so he can perform a statistical analysis of my online messages or "posts"..? I don't give a lyingFay uckFay about these numbers, or anything else that he said, until he got to that last part, about optiBoard.

So I sipped some of that coffee and continued with this:

The optiBOARD is an online discussion forum for Eye Care Professionals or ECPs--mostly. When I registered, and this was some years ago, it wasn't strictly limited to ECPs. The forum leader was not asking that someone had to be an ECP to participate in this forum. I went there because I had some questions about progressive lenses, which are commonly prescribed for eye patients with presbyopia--like me. I wasn't the only non-ECP that came to that forum, asking questions related to their eye care needs. I asked my questions in the section called General Optics. That section was open to anyone at that time, ECPs and non-ECPs alike. I never misrepresented myself as an ECP. I was not the only non-ECP that had some activity in the General Optics section.

There was also a section, Just Conversation. Same as our Off Topic section. I didn't go in there at first, but for whatever reason one day, I had a look, and there were some very lively and even contentious discussions taking place about a range of topics, including some political topics. I kind of got "hooked." So I was active in their version of "Off Topic", and I remained active, to a certain extent, in the General Optics section, because I wanted to keep up with certain developments in the design and manufacture of prescription eyeglass lenses and frames. It's not a StaysTheSameEveryYear for UmpteenYears kind of enterprise. I was not the only non-ECP that was doing that. There were kind of a "handful" of 'em, besides me. Active in both Just Conversation and General Optics.

Some time went by, and then the optiBOARD forum leader made some changes. The new "ask" was that if you were not an ECP when you registered, you would be confined to the Just Conversation section, and you were not supposed to use your non-ECP access to ask questions online that would otherwise be directed towards your own personal eye care professionals--eye doctors, opticians; etc. It would be set in your User Profile, and you would not be able to go into any of the other sections, like General Optics. Basically, an honor system. I don't think the forum leader was really verifying the credentials of people who registered as ECPs.

The change came about--and I think you can already see this coming--because of Liability concerns.

But guess what? I was kind of "grandfathered" in, with the same access as the ECPs. No one was having any serious problems with me. The forum leader did not find it necessary to downgrade my status to non-ECP. Which of course contradicts this completely stupid story from "randye" that they thought I was some kind of jerk.

Now, I will say, that I remember two instances where I bumped up against someone over there in a wrong kind of way.

One was in the Just Conversation section. Someone took a dislike to my attitude about something. Kind of an objection on her part to the brashness and politicized character of some of my commentary. They were political topics. So that person called me out. Called me a "jerk", in so many words. I was still active there, long after that person faded away. It was kind of a one-off, in terms of my "record" over there.

So guess what? That joker "randye" found that interaction--anyone can go look at what's on that forum--and he cherry picks it. He has it in his mind already that I was considered a jerk over there, and when he found this one-off (basically) he thinks he's onto something. Bulls**t. Can you imagine someone crazy enough to go looking through my "record" on another online forum? Like some Private Investigator. Whoop-de-do. I hope he enjoyed it.

Now I could be a "little" eccentric. I have created an unlikely number of online messages, over the years, between optiBOARD and then here--which came later. But who is really more uckingFay utsNay? The lunatic himself, or the guy who thinks it's his mission in life (or something) to guard this forum against lunatics. Private Eye "randye". What a guy.

There was another time I got called out. That was in General Optics. I deserved it. It wasn't because I was misrepresenting myself as an ECP. It was just some silly thing I was trying to nail down with Google. About some obscure company in the optical field. Something that was really outside of the scope of that discussion. Big deal. Basically, another one-off. The ECPs were calling each other out about certain issues. I took it as a well-deserved slap on my wrist and tried not to repeat the same mistake. And I didn't.

Then the forum leader made another change. He made an "ask" that people refrain from any political topics in the Just Conversation section. It wasn't just because of me. He didn't like the contentiousness of those discussions on his forum, because in his mind, it was bringing down the professional aspect or character of the forum. He also didn't like some of the political leanings that were on display.

After that, the activity in the Just Conversation dropped off to only a small fraction of what it had been. I mostly moved on from optiBoard, after that change. But I am still registered.

Let me put another coffin nail in this attempt at "framing me" (ha-ha, like an eyeglass frame) from our intrepid Private Investigator "randye".

After some years of inactivity over there on my part--at the end of last year--I surfaced again in the General Optics section. I had had my eyes refracted, and got new lenses and a new frame. The frame is kind of unusual, so I "posted" about it.

There were only two replies. This is how the two guys, both old-timers on optiBoard, responded to my "reincarnation."

ECP rbaker said "Welcome back !" And ECP Uncle Fester started with "Dawg ! Welcome back !!" Then he said some things about this new eyeglass frame that I had come in with, as a new topic. He finished with "Keep the faith !!!"

Now to tell the truth, they may or may not remember that I am not an ECP. But it does raise some questions about the results of the Special Counsel--I mean the Private Eye "randye" investigation of my previous or parallel activity online. Like if I was known to be such a jerk over there, then why was I greeted in such a cordial way by two optiBoard members who clearly recognized my screen name. It just happened to be Like A Jerk day over there? Really?

I haven't been active in any way since that one, which is from December 1, 2017. And if anyone does not believe me, and really wants to look, well here you go:
https://www.optiboard.com/f...-Flex-Action-temples

So I don't know how "plugged" any of you are into the so-called RussiaGate investigation--and I know, it's not what people who are behind President Trump want to be looking at, but think of it this way. I'm like Carter Page. Eccentric. Even weird. MSNBC's Chris Matthews calls Carter Page the "Kato Kaelin" of the Trump entourage. That's a reference to a sort of goofy witness that became a kind of mini-celebrity during the O.J. Simpson trial.

What role do we assign, in this allegory, to Pennock's screen name "randye"..? Michael Flynn? Paul Manafort? No. I got it. He's one of those Russian social media trolls that just got indicted by the Special Counsel, "Herr" Mueller. A Russian troll from a Russian troll farm. Isn't that about the size of it?

So I bang out all this on my keyboard, and then it hits me: He's putting me on. The "randye" is putting me on again. What a character. Everyone should be more acquainted with him.

One final remark. This is a--gasp--thread about another thread. I wasn't going to tell this story--and I wanted it to be brief and summary, but it is kind of a long story, to put all the pieces together this way. I wasn't going to tell this story without having it on the front page of Totally O/T or Off Topic, and without being able to have my own Title or Topic for it. I don't fault myself for that.

HAGO.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 03-03-2018).]

quote Originally posted by rinselberg: it will be brief and to the point.

quote Originally posted by randye: Coming from you Ronald? Never. ...... another one of your garbled "War & Peace" sized attempts at pettifogging.......

That sure wasn't hard to predict.

"posted at 06:55AM" ....MY GOD! You actually stayed up all night banging out that mess !

Were tears rolling down your cheeks the whole time?

You seriously need help Ronald. Don't you have any family or friends that care enough about you to help you get treatment ?

[This message has been edited by randye (edited 03-03-2018).]

Because the story itself, about optiBoard, unfolded over a period of several years and involved two or three "moving parts", I did not think that Brief and Summary was the way to go. I hoped I have pulled in some other readers, even if they didn't leave a mark here with any kind of Reply.

Since it was important enough for someone else to publish misleading statements about it, on this forum, it became important enough for me to publish my version of it.

If my optiBoard posts were subjected to a statistical analysis (there's someone here who can obviously handle that task), I suspect that Politics would not have been my most frequent agenda over there. I think it was likely Science and Technology. Or it could have been close. I did a lot of "not Politics", for sure.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 03-04-2018).]

quote Originally posted by rinselberg: When I was active on the OptiBoard forum..... That one came to an end for me (and many others) when the owner of it decided to ban all further discussions of a political or contentious nature

Is there some point you are trying to make?

I actually do not have a perfect recollection of everything that happened, and the exact sequence of the events or changes on optiBoard, as far as why I look back on it and think that there was an inflection point when the level of activity in the Just Conversation section declined.

The main outline of what I presented, about the forum leader's Asks in terms of eligibility and forum access are either dead accurate, or so close to dead accurate that any discrepancies with the actual history of it are immaterial to his discussion.

Your interest in my history with optiBoard is very bizarre--and clearly, some kind of online or Internet-related Obsessive Compulsion Disorder-like thread that is active in your head when you come here.

If you were to review that other thread that's been active, from the very beginning of it (post #1), there is clear evidence that even among Off Topic's more reliably conservative-leaning political minds, your real popularity is less than universal. You are not "polling 100 percent" in the Approval category among that particular Pennock's Totally Off Topic demographic.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 03-04-2018).]

quote Originally posted by rinselberg: Is there some point you are trying to make?

quote Originally posted by rinselberg: When I was active on the OptiBoard forum..... That one came to an end for me (and many others) when the owner of it decided to ban all further discussions of a political or contentious nature

[This message has been edited by randye (edited 03-06-2018).]

You guys should get a room, or something.

quote Do not start threads about other threads. So you get in a heated discussion in one of the threads. You get the feeling you are not getting your point across. So you feel the need to start a new thread explaining what you meant in the first thread. Don't. Since there's already a thread on the subject, say it there.

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 03-05-2018).]

quote Originally posted by Blacktree: You guys should get a room, or something.

I don't SEE the point in that.

No shat, ANOTHER thread by Ronald calling out Randye. This is a first for Pennocks. Two or more allowable threads of this nature is a first in itself, but adding in the same post author, and we have ourselves the perfect storm.

Forum rules indeed. Diddly, diddly.

#stopsendingmembersshit

[This message has been edited by Tony Kania (edited 03-05-2018).]