seanf

Hi all-- I joined RWG and The-Other-Forum-Site-That-Dare-Not-Bare-Its-Name back in November of 2006, but only recently began posting. Wanted to gather enough information so that I could post something without sounding like a complete idiot. Today, I took the plunge and donated to both forums. After everything that has happened with the trading forums today, I realized I needed to support a place I've come to really love. I would suspect there are some changes coming here soon, and I think that the mods and admins may need our financial help now, more than ever. So if anyone is in the same boat as I was, I'd encourage you to think real seriously about making a donation. Don't mean to overstep my bounds here, but if you're checking this site at least once every day or two, you're clearly getting some use and enjoyment out of it. And if you've ever purchased from dealer here, you've probably saved yourself hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars that you would have wasted at some place like swissreplica.com. So, isn't it worth giving just a few bucks to support this place? This, along with The-Other-Forum-Site-That-Dare-Not-Bare-Its-Name are the two most vibrant, exciting, and friendly forums I've ever joined. I think it's our responsibility, as forum members, to support the forums and ensure they remain the same places we all know and love.

I agree with TeeJay that VIP membership should NOT be mandatory. I made the decision to donate today because I think it's the right thing to do, given everything that's going on, but it took me five months to reach this decision. If someone had told me five months ago that I wouldn't even be able to view the forum without paying, I would have said thanks, but no thanks. I think this hobby of ours is not something for the feint of heart, and it has one helluva steep learning curve. I think it takes time and patience to get to a point that you realize that these forums provide a valuable and useful service. But I think this is a personal decision.

OK, I have taken the hint, and I have just made a VIP donation. What prevented me from doing so before is that I, personally, am very uncomfortable with recurring deductions. But I've swallowed this, and made a yearly donation, because I think the mods and admin of both rwg and the-other-site-that-dare-not-bare-its-name are going to need our financial help now, more than ever. I'd encourage everyone else who has not yet made a contribution to consider doing the same.

I prefer the Russian nuclear powered subs. Those things are beautiful. Would be much better if they could put a leopard print on them, though. Maybe a diamond encrusted rotor. THAT would rock.

Agree that we should all just chill and change the topic. So, um, anyone have any ideas on who has the best Sub?

I agree that we should let this up to the admin and mods. But I would suggest that maybe they should take a look at the thread over at the other-site-that-dare-not-bare-its-name. There have been quite a few good suggestions over there, imo.

I agree that as long as there are gens, there will be reps. They may become more difficult to get, and we may see a return to the bad old days of crappy quality reps, but you're talking about a multi-million--if not billion-- dollar industry. I mean, just take a look at Andrew's or Josh's website. They have literally hundreds and hundreds of models of reps on there, and they're just two suppliers. I view rep trading and buying in much the same way as torrent downloading. As soon as you knock down one site, three more will spring up to replace it.

If it's not too late, I really think an invite-only policy would be a good idea at least on a going forward basis. Not sure what could be done about existing members. Coop has suggested some kind of verification and/or posting requirement. That is, if you have a certain number of posts, you're fine. If you have a zero or low posting number, you'd have to provide some kind of reference in order to keep your membership. Just an idea, but I think it's a good one. Again, it may be too late to do any good, but I think it's worth discussing.

Don't know about the rest of you, but I think I'm going to go ahead and place my order today for that Sub I've had my eye on for a while.

I agree with Coop about the flushing. I joined rwg and the-other-site-that-dare-not-bare-its-name back in November of last year, but only recently began posting. For me, it's more important to preserve the safety and stability of the forum. The way I look at it is if I get flushed out now, I won't be happy about it, but I'd much prefer losing my membership temporarily and having a forum to come back to.

For those interested, there's a thread discussing this on one of the other boards (forgive me if I don't provide a link). No admins have weighed in yet, but there has been a proposal to take the board private, restrict access to members only, and possibly flush out all people who have zero posts. Just a proposal, but I think it makes a lot of sense. I think the boards could take a lesson from some of the torrent sites out there, which have similar restrictions.

What about taking rwg private? Registered users only, no guests, and a "no linking" policy. Or is it too late for this to be helpful at this point?

Anyone heard from any of our dealers about this? I'd imagine it would be of somewhat less concern to people like Andrew, Josh, etc. who have their own websites, but more troubling for people like River, Ruby, and Neil.

Seems to be a heckuva coincidence that this happened a week after the Hublot CEO makes public statements about shutting down the forums after seeing a new Big Bang rep on TZ.

I know this topic comes up every few months, but I thought I'd test the waters and see if anyone had any new information on a good no-date sub. The only no-dates I've seen are from Trusty and Paul, neither of which I'm crazy about. Plus, I'm really hesitant to spend more than $150 on a watch with that many flaws, particularly in light of so many better (and cheaper) date Subs. Has anyone had any luck finding a good, reasonably priced, no-date (preferably with ETA)? If I could get something like the Silix $115 Sub but with no-date, that would be ideal. But the last time I checked, Silix doesn't carry modern no-dates.

I appreciate your post, Blackrain. And I've heard from probably 10 people across this board and Dark Side about how much they hated PAMs when they first saw them, then they got one, and now they have 27 of the things. Man, I don't get it. I feel like the lone voice in the wilderness. Even my family is turning against me! I showed my Dad a couple of Sub reps the other day, and he asked, "Say, you don't think they make replicas of a watch called Panerai, do you?" I just can't win.

Deltahoe-- thanks for the suggestion. And this is what many other members have suggested to me--almost verbatim--over the last few months. Which makes me really wonder if there's something I'm missing about Panerai. The only thing I can think of is that each Panerai has a special secret surprise inside each one of them. Like a Buick. Or illegal recreational pharmaceuticals. Or nekkid pictures of Christina Ricci. Because I can

OK, I've finally run out of excuses for not posting (despite lurking on the Board quite happily since November of last year). I figure that as I'm now checking this and the