Where did all the oldtimers go.

[hamhanded]

I am still waiting to hear how to order my Thor mod kit.

*shrugs*

I'm still waiting on my chance to order a milky mod. Any day now!

 

[Falcon9h]

I'll never forget the day I received my custom modded SureFire L1 "Extreme." Scott (A.K.A. ~ MilkySpit) had found a way to get legit 200 lumens from one CR123A battery.... Literally 9 months before SureFire brought their equivalent onto the market. He achieved it! Absolutely.

It was my idea to have a light that could do double-duty. A general use flashlight with a low of 40 lumens. But then push harder on the tailcap switch to instantly transition into a legit tactical light with a then unheard of 200 lumens from a single CR123A cell. And, I don't mean just for a few seconds until it kicked down by itself to a lower setting. Scott pulled it off with runtime to boot on the higher setting. I wanted to name it The Gemini. Scott chose "Extreme" for the name. That light ironically generated a pretty big wave of orders back in the day for Scott. Seemed almost everyone wanted one. Scott beat out SureFire to the market.

Yeah, obviously this was before that whole sordid scandal with Scott.

As far as those tinkerers go, it actually happened a lot! Scott wasn't the first, nor the last who eventually ended up keeping customers' money and not delivering the goods. Though I'd say he was the last person the community expected would follow that trend. Start off great, then eventually decide to just keep the money and deflect regarding why no one was getting what they ordered; then eventually just stop replying. Scott used to invite fellow CPFers to his house for meet-ups!

No one openly talks about it. But one of the reasons why Gene (Malkoff) is still so incredibly popular on CPF is because back in the day before his full-fledged business was up and running, Gene never cheated anyone. He didn't follow the trend that so many other tinkerers did. The sad reality is, Gene is the exception to the rule! Start out great, fall behind a bit, decide to be a scumbag and just keep the money your customers sent you so you could buy parts needed to complete their orders, make excuses, eventually stop making excuses and try to quietly fad away. Hope one of the CPF Admins. would ban their account outright so they could fade away faster.

I mean, what are we supposed to say?
"Thank you, Gene for not turning into a scumbag.
Thank you for actually having morals, and not throwing them away."

Truth is, considering just how many of those tinkerers cheated other members, or eventually ended up cheating members; maybe it's a good thing there's very few of them left on CPF.

I never did figure out what happened with Scott. Inquiring minds want to know. The very first Photonfest was at his house and it was a nice gathering. Especially the night walk to the quarry. HID's were the rage and LED's were just coming in. I think there were 2-3 more meets at his place but by then I had moved to Pa. in 2004.
I used to work in defense electronics. I was the one who helped Scott learn to solder, hope he learned it well.

 

[Monocrom]

I never did figure out what happened with Scott. Inquiring minds want to know. The very first Photonfest was at his house and it was a nice gathering. Especially the night walk to the quarry. HID's were the rage and LED's were just coming in. I think there were 2-3 more meets at his place but by then I had moved to Pa. in 2004.
I used to work in defense electronics. I was the one who helped Scott learn to solder, hope he learned it well.

I'd say he did. Besides my SF L1 that he modded, I picked up a couple more of his creations off of the CPF Marketplace back in the day. All three, not a single issue with reliability. Honestly, it ticks me off to a HUGE degree. Even now! If back then you asked the regulars who was least likely to screw over fellow members, guaranteed almost everyone would have said Scott.

 

[MatthewMurdock]

I remember JohnSidneyB from over at EDCforums. What ever happened to him? I vaguely recall some health issues.

 

[Frenchyled]

Just checking in and saying hello.

I hope that all my old friends here are in good health.

👋