Where did all the oldtimers go.

[TedTheLed]

...reminisce.

#14 former.

:welcome:

yep, after all these years, they now make a flashlight prettty much the way I always wanted it.

thanks Brock.

 

[js]

Another blast from the past! LOL! This was an enjoyable read. I had forgotten that I posted to this thread.

I also noticed along the way this little bit from the man himself:

. . .

I saw JS's post on searching on the A2. I remember meeting PK for the first time and not long after, he let me mess around with a A2 well before they finally came out. I wrote a review that took a fair amount of key strokes and time and I doubt JS even found it!

. . .

In point of fact I did find Don's wonderful thread, I just hadn't finished with my A2 review at this point, I don't think.

But, the thing is that because the forum has gone through some migrations and transformations, all the old threads from the "old timers" are inaccessible from the search function. Or at least that used to be the case. Hence the reason Don doubted I would find his thread.

So, in a practical vein, let me mention that for those new members who want to pan for gold in the waters of the past, one of the best ways to do it is to search for threads started by, or posted to by, an old timer. Fire up the advanced search, set the poster to McGizmo, narrow down the forum, select the radial button that gives your results as threads, and let 'er rip. You will get an amazing list of threads! This is how I started my research for my A2 review. This exact way. I figured that if Don didn't post to an A2 thread back then, I didn't much care about it for that first iteration. And that was a good assumption. So many great threads in a manageable number of search results pages.

Later I went through and went back in time to really manually search the forums for the times when the A2 was new and exciting and controversial.

There are a lot of gold nuggets out there in that river of the past. So many. Searching on a poster like "McGizmo" or "Ginseng" or "Doug S" and etc. is the very best way I know how to pan for that gold. And after that, painfully, manually searching, forum page after forum page, back in time. It's an amazing thing to do if you have the time and patience for it.

 

[Frenchyled]

Hi oldtimers

I am still here and there, and it's a pleasure to read about oldtimers :welcome:

How many oldtimers will post now in this thread, let me see

:wave:

 

[B@rt]

#911 originally, and obviously still here.

 

[Phaserburn]

I've been here almost 6.5 years; does that qualify as an old-timer?

lovecpf

 

[js]

I've been here almost 6.5 years; does that qualify as an old-timer?

lovecpf

Well I think so!

I remember buying my first B/S/T light from you, Phaserburn! A TigerLight Gold FBOP. Little did I know where THAT would lead!

:bow: :bow: :bow:

Thank you, ye Oldye Tymer you!

 

[greenLED]

There are a lot of gold nuggets out there in that river of the past. So many. Searching on a poster like "McGizmo" or "Ginseng" or "Doug S" and etc. is the very best way I know how to pan for that gold. And after that, painfully, manually searching, forum page after forum page, back in time. It's an amazing thing to do if you have the time and patience for it.

I've done that several times. On the last forum migration (yes, there was one a couple of years back), we lost the indexing for those old threads, so browsing each page of the archives is the only way to find those gold nuggets (assuming you know what you're looking for and the thread title is informative enough. It's actually kinda fun to do.

Does 5 yrs on CPF qualify me as an old-timer? Hope not!

 

[Badbeams3]

I've been here almost 6.5 years; does that qualify as an old-timer?

lovecpf

You bet! Pull up your wheelchair. Nurse! Get this man an IV drip...on me

 

[js]

greenLED,

Indeed! Although, while the indexing might not work, thus meaning you can't search on title or post words, you can still search on poster username. That information is necessarily indexed, regardless. When a migration is done, that information MUST be preserved and passed on from one software package to the other. So, it's still viable. Hence my confusing talk of the search not working after a certain way back in time, and my suggestion to search on username!

 

[roguesw]

Old timer checking in.
I was away from the forum twice since I have been a member, first time for a year and the second time, for a few months.
Some classic threads I remember always involved controversy. aka ARC, MrBulk etc
good times.
I feel the forum now has changed a lot, with a lot more commercial things, but on the flipside
there are more modders out there and the modding level is now in the stratosphere.
I remember a popular mod was just changing bulbs,
now modders are creating entire new flashlights and releasing them in limited runs, <200 pieces. And the quality of work is up too,
I remember articles discussing aluminum foil as fixits, now we are dissassembing the parts and engineering them to be better and last a long time.
If you see some of the builds out there, they no doubt will last at least a decade's worth of use.

 

[BVH]

I keep thinking I'm fairly new around here but my goodness, its been just about 5 years now and I enjoy it here today just as much as back when I joined.

 

[qip]

i would love to hear how much the old timers have invested into silly flashlights including batteries, accessories ,parts etc. lovecpf maybe a good down payment on a house or at least enough to buy a brand new car

 

[Beretta1526]

CPF is one of the first forums I had joined. I joined (in a fit of disgust with eBay) as JoeCool, I think, which it was but it was early 2001. I think my reasoning was because I was sick of the lousy performance of my Mini-Mag and wanted a brighter, more consistent beam. Dat2zip's Sandwiches cured that eventually.

I was a lurker because I was heavily into restoring 80's video games and the like and was still spending way too much time on eBay buying and selling parts and such. I joined to look for info and contact a couple people. Later that year, I moved to another state and things were a little nutty for a couple years and my account got deleted in a consolidation.

In '03, I just started over since I couldn't get into my old account. I picked this user ID and it's been nuts ever since. IIRC, I re-joined because use of the Luxeon was getting a little more common and I wanted something different/new. The Luxeon was still being improved and developed, what seemed to be on the fly, and the LED lighting market was starting to get exciting. Before I knew it, I was hip-deep in it.

Call me "busy" now, I suppose. I'm on here and there, mostly lurking. Most days, I don't even have time for much other than work.

.

 

[cy]

first few posts on cpf proper in sometime.... been visiting UG more.

amazing how much time I used to spend on modding lights vs now days almost none. burned out ...

Amazing how much Arc Flashlight parts I've still got laying around. enough to make up a few thousand Arc Flashlights

 

[BentHeadTX]

cy,
It has been awhile. Just for fun I dug up my dat2zip BB400 Q4 light with a mighty Luxeon Q bin screaming at 416mA. The minimag has a Kroll tail clicky and a custom made bezel extension to hold a longer reflector. AR glass lens finishes it off and it still works great. That minimag served me well from 2002 to 2005 and the 35 lumens it generates are decent for basic things. Total cost for the light was around $85 but it is a classic and served me well.
Once the Crees came out, my modding requirements fell off steeply. Still want an XR-G to mod a bike light I have but not in a hurry.

 

[nekomane]

I did not consider myeslf an oldtimer when the OP started this thread,
but have hanged around long enough to be a mid timer now.

Lurked for a few months before joining and remember very fondly
of the friendly, intimate atmosphere of that time.

There were not as many lights as now, and interests were not as
diversified.
It was easy to recoginize most members. Off topic banter and fluff
posts were enjoyable and even welcomed.

Still lurk daily and post what I can though!

cy, you posted feeling burnt out years ago but are still sticking around.
I know where you are coming from, but it is good to see you posting
Cheers!

 

[Icebreak]

Back in the old days things were a little different. You could get free shipping to anywhere in the world. SureFire sent all new members a brand new 6P within a week after joining. Everyone could spell Darell's name and we all did pretty much what he said so it worked out well. DavidW. was a little bit flirty. Sasha had a huge crush on me.

The board was much smaller and intimate. If you liked somebody's post you sent 'em a six pack of beer. If you acted up Empath would actually come to your house and give you a proper moderating for a good 20 to 30 minutes. And nobody fibbed about anything.

 

[geepondy]

Well as I have posted either in this thread or some other, when I first joined, there were far more incandescent flashlight posts then LED. Back then before Surefire started enforcing MAP, you could get some (for Surefire) good deals and I bought a few E2's for about $55 and a couple E1s for about $40. A couple are still in use by family members, still in incandescent form. Texas Tactical Supply saw a lot of my business.

 

[Size15's]

Back in the old days things were a little different. You could get free shipping to anywhere in the world. SureFire sent all new members a brand new 6P within a week after joining. Everyone could spell Darell's name and we all did pretty much what he said so it worked out well. DavidW. was a little bit flirty. Sasha had a huge crush on me.

The board was much smaller and intimate. If you liked somebody's post you sent 'em a six pack of beer. If you acted up Empath would actually come to your house and give you a proper moderating for a good 20 to 30 minutes. And nobody fibbed about anything.

We took it in turns to be Empath... Those were the days... :devil:

 

[greenLED]

cy,
It has been awhile. Just for fun I dug up my dat2zip BB400 Q4 light with a mighty Luxeon Q bin screaming at 416mA. The minimag has a Kroll tail clicky ...

I still have one of those! I took the sammie out the other day thinking I could swap it out for a P4, but why would I do that? It works just great and there's a bit of history attached to it.