for the most part all those types love the game, and whether they're in it for the restoration or the competition, who am i to judge. more power to em all.

the only kind of hobbyist i disdain are the ones who don't want their games to get played by friends, family, and children. yes, kids double-flip. yes, sometimes they leave the game running with a 2 balls left to play. yes, sometimes they start a 4-player game on every machine and walk away. big deal. none of those things will hurt a pinball machine, and it takes like one minute to reset a half dozen pins. i'm happy to do it. you know why? because also, sometimes, they get really into it and a girl might spend all night trying to get to the Final Frontier or Black Hole Multiball or rescue Dorothy, and have to be dragged away at the end of the evening by her parents, and even as they're walking out the door, she wants to know when they can come back...

I really don't understand why the OP started taking things personally here. Editing the thread title and editing out his posts is a real toddler tantrum move.

i notice the original thread title has been restored, and some of the posts the OP blanked out by editing have been restored. was that a moderator move? edit: never mind, just noticed the moderator comment! definitely appropriate in this case.

He made himself inactive when he wiped the thread title and his posts, before the mods restored them. He didn't quit as a result of mod action, he quit as part of his weird meltdown.