I think even a single ball would suffice.

Amen-

Things shifted from equal opportunity to equal results and I see it everyday in the classroom.

Back to the point of the thread, everybody is out to get the A**hat, and probably desirably so, yet the first question I wondered about is what exactly was said.

Nope...Twitter is for the narcasistc (ducking)

I probably sound like grandpa yelling to turn off that infernal rock and roll music, but I have very personal reasons to avoid most all social media...Pinside is one of my few indulgences

I just can't get into twitter. I'm on facebook all day, but twitter just doesn't do it for me.

Stu, no one doubts your commitment to the pin community but your measure sounds a little extreme. There is a dickhead in every crowd; don't let one person change the way you engage with an entire pinball community that respects your work, dedication and support of this hobby. Presumably the reason you provided updates was because it helped so many of us, and to be fair probably CPR too.

Don't stop talking to all your friends on Pinside just because one person out here is an idiot. Wipe him and get on doing what you have always done.

Hope to see you back again giving us snippets of the goodies in the pipeline....

Stu, I am sorry to hear. I really look forward to your CPR updates as they seem to be the only updates coming from CPR. Thanks to your posts I have manage to secure some much needed parts for my restorations.

That being said I also understand the time/manpower/energy that needs to be directed to/at responding to "customer service emails" because one or two folks have far too much time on their hands. It's not like you guys don't have enough going on over there.

Perhaps y'all could consider doing a Twitter account for updates as others have mentioned-that way you could just throw up and update and walk away. No one trashing on your thread/page and no need to respond unless you want to.

Stu's mom says:

Stewey, you've been locked in your room for 20 hours and we are out of deli meats and Shasta. Your friends are all waiting in the yard. Go play with them before they get into something.

I for one say "Good for Stu!"

He never had to come on here and tell us what was going on. He took the heat on the forums for much of what CPR does (and doesn't do). He is an art director, yes, but it is not his company; At least not that I know of.

The sense of entitlement in forums astounds me. He told you what was going on, but because he did so we somehow feel we were entitled to know everything.

I know he said there was one single person that caused this, but I am much more inclined to believe that the one person was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

Stu - keep up the good work at CPR. I can remember to check the website for new information

Just my opinions,

Chris

This whole thing is so stupid. All around.

My opinion is Stu can do what Stu wants to do. Stu isn't the first person to bow out from providing updates or services to the people on the forum because of nastiness.

Stu isn't obligated to do anything.

I'll still be buying a playfield shortly so I'll see you elsewhere, Stu.

CPR products are great and I have enjoyed Stu's update. I especially appreciated when Stu explained the business model and why they could not stockpile playfields and how the limited runs are dictated by the fact that licensing costs increase with higher numbers produced.

Thanks for the hard work. I hope you will take some time off and then return to posting.

I think the guy in question is a Hero to most of you. Love the comments . It is funny how one side of the story gets the guy hung?

I don't care either way, I just find the community amusing .

Chesley sullenberger?

While I hear those saying just ignore it, I also feel for Stu. I'm tired of the crap here. The ignore feature is good, but threads become too tainted too quick.

I've limited my time here after all the woz nonsense. This sounds so cliche, but there are just too many people who simple have nothing better to do than to start crap everywhere, and basically shit where they eat, destroying the forums in the hobby they supposedly love.

The original pinside vision is gone in my opinion, the pieces of crap that made RGP hard to stomach have moved here because everyone else moved here, before them - to escape them. The swings against Keefer for no reason, and without any ban, were the breaking point for me.

Stu, thanks for all you have done, my shadow has benefitted from you.

The Jersey Jack WOZ forums are 20 times worse than pinside.

The problem in my opinion is honestly the "maturing" of the hobby. This isn't meant as an insult to anyone in particular, so if anyone takes offense to this, I think it's more your problem than mine, but...

For years, the people that were into pinball were highly technical people. The majority of the talk was about ways to fix the machines, get them going again, where to find them, where to find parts for them, and so on. People expected that their machines would lose value when they had them. If you put in $1000 worth of parts, it was expected to raise the value of your machine $400 or so, not $1400 or so. When new parts showed up, people were extremely grateful if they could get them. When Big Bang Bar went through TONS of delays, no one went nuts.

If you showed up on RGP and didn't have some sort of idea about what was going on, you'd be either ignored or shouted down until you watched and learned what was going on. I read RGP for over a year, just sucking up the information, before I worked up the nerve to post anything.

What has changed is that the hobby became flush with 'new blood' that has a different expectation. It is not hard to find people posting on these boards that Stern is a failure because most NIB machines have not gone up in price, or quoting the highest of the high end prices for machines, and then demanding that games are ridiculously perfect when they get them. No one 10 years ago complained that a playfield got dimples, and we have that conversation seemingly weekly now. I would bet the vast majority of people on here do not know how to repair things on their machines beyond the most minimal tweaks.

The new dogs outnumber the old dogs by probably 10 to 1 or more, and the level of conversation has been brought down because of it.

I miss that segment of the hobby. I wish there was still a place where you could go to and get the same sort of help that you could on RGP ten years ago, but I fear that time has passed. I still stop by to try to lend some help to people, but I have slowly discovered that a lot of them don't want it.

It seems like Stu has discovered the same thing. And that sucks. I was hoping to hear that Space Station backglass was up next, but it looks like at least for today, that isn't going to happen

Goatdan: Having read many old posts on rgp in trying to figure things out or what have you, I completely agree with everything you have said.

I think the ra ra posts are ok, nothing wrong with celebrating stuff, but there is always a point where comments go south, and the asshats start piling on the shit. Anyway, these are the types of things I didn't want to get into anymore, so I'll just end my thoughts on this here.

Big +1 to you sir. C&R Rock.

I do too. So much noise on Pinside about inane things. I read and participated on RGP for nearly 10 years and every so often you would have some drama, nothing like it is here and sadly RGP is mostly a ghost town. Maybe I just need to filter more here and not have the forum lumped into one view. Just get back to the Tech Talk.

THANKS !!

There are two things that I find very telling about this site - the first is the karma crap definitely makes people build it up stupidly for no reason. I don't care if you've made 5,000 posts if they were all "GLWS!" or "Wish I was closer!" If that's what is going on, you're ultimately just wasting my time. But it seems that a lot of people take that to heart, and it creates a TON of junk posts. And, if you tell people to post something of substance, they blame you of being all uptight like RGP.

The second thing is that according to this site, I only "own" two pinball machines. You "own" zero. I know of multiple other collectors on here that won't list them because listing the stuff that you *own* leads to drama and people accusing you of stuff. It's downright silly.

People who know me know that I don't own two pinball machines.

RGP unfortunately had two major issues, the first was that Google changed Groups to suck big time which was the way SO many people accessed it, and the second was that with the new blood pouring in you had some GIANT idiots who were completely unmoderated, and sadly you couldn't shout them down enough to leave or ignore them enough for them to lose interest. The unmoderated nature that made RGP so awesome also led to it's downfall. I almost never check in there any more.

I don't claim to know how to fix it, but I wish that there was a way to section off the people that wanted a higher level of conversation into one part. If I never hear about playfield dimples again, it will be too soon.

I actually like the positive effects of the collection listings. I purposely list all my previously owned machines (well, I am forgetting a few for sure), and current machines (don't care about the wishlist)..... I get A LOT of requests/questions from people that currently own the games and need photos, have questions, etc.... It is nice to be able to help them out when the opportunity presents itself.

Wow, I actually had to look up to see what this post was about again....LOL.... Continue on Stu, keep up the good work with CPR....

I couldn't agree more. My experience is a mirror image of yours. Thanks for sharing.

I think it is a shame that everyone jumps on the band wagon to cut down the mystery person based on one person's writings.

I don't know who it is but have watched the community turn on people here and other forum's because of one or 2 people's opinions before. There is always 2 sides to the story.

Certainly hope you change your mind Stu.

Pinside is the only site I go to for news, seems like the company would do better to keep you and your updates flowing on here despite the occasional pinched panties.

I won't know when Skateball is up unless it comes across the front page on here

Honestly CPR never made anything I would consider using so meh. Whatev's

Have I missed anything? Any updates on the Fireball playfield?

Funny, I was working on your ex-unlisted Pinbot last night Good to know that you are having a positive experience with it and maybe I'll try it, but. I've both had people comment in threads that my opinions aren't valid because look at your puny collection and people make me unsolicited offers on just the machines I have up regularly.

I'm not selling. If I was, there is this "marketplace" for such a thing. Besides, I like not having enough machines to have developed "good taste", so I have an excuse for liking things like Viper as much as I do

Nov & Dec 2012

- New releases for last 60 days: SKATEBALL Plastics, BLACKOUT Plastics, GUNS & ROSES Plastics, SPECTRUM Plastics, FLASH Plastics, SEXY GIRL Playfields, JOKER POKER Backglasses, SOLAR CITY Backglasses, EARTHSHAKER Backglasses, SPACE ODYSSEY Backglasses, MEDUSA Backglasses

KEEP WATCH IN THE NEW YEAR FOR CONTINUING RELEASES - HAPPY 2013 !!

Oct 2012

- Just a quick review, over the summer which was admittedly very slow for us, we managed to do a small rerun of Flash Gordon, and Firepower and of course the Big Juicy Melons Second Edition. We completed a new run of Silverballmania and Sexy Girl. As for backglasses we just finished rerunning Flight 2000 and did very small runs of Miss World, and Sexy Girl and early in the spring we did a run of EarthShaker plastics.

- So what's next?? Well, lets see.... we are finishing up cutting Mata Hari playfields and will then start cutting Whirlwind right away and then follow on with probably Strikes and Spares. Stu has 15 backglasses ready for us to add into the production queue... these include some really cool ones.... Star Trek prototype glass, well lets see.... and there are quite a few more!

Wonder when the next update will be? My guess is Christmas 2013.

The point I made earlier. It would just be nice if CPR was more up front about info then Stu's decision wouldn't really impact anyone.

And as far as customers, or prospective customers, or just anyone, wanting to know what's up - it's not a right, but it is a desire and setting a trend of giving info just feeds that desire. To remove it suddenly has expected results.

So, Goatdan, are you saying you're treated differently based on you're collection status.

I didn't want to rub anything in anybody's face, so I didn't list my raven. If it's going to help me get some clout around here I just might.

Well said +1.

I strongly disagree. RGP was bickering, bickering and more bickering. Pinside was the alternative to the constant political and personal crap that was going on RGP.

Gary, Mars Needs Women (RIP), Frankfurter, and countless others ran amok with no moderators. All of a sudden RGP goes slow and Pinside traffic picks up then starts to morph into what it was an alternative to. Most of the RGP people who were making fun of the Pinsiders on RGP don't even post on RGP anymore. They have migrated here and brought the best/worst of RGP with them.

I'm guessing that you started reading RGP maybe two years ago, as that would be true of RGP two years ago. Three, four, five years ago there was almost no political or personal crap on there.

One of the people who you name were there before that, but you could ignore his posts just as easily as you can ignore the "GLWS! Wish you were closer!" garbage that shows up every three seconds here. Two years ago was when that started to be harder and harder to ignore.

I agree with a lot of what you say. But RGP was far from perfect. It turned into something different a few years ago. Believe me, I've been there since 1996.

There are still plenty of those RGP old timers here that are willing to help. I've never been much of a technical person but I know my way around a pinball machine, done several playfield swaps and total restorations. I should probably help more and In the future I will.

pappy

I started in pinball 10 years ago and quickly discovered RGP. It was and is a fantastic repository of information and opinions on playing and repairing pinball machines. Before google groups was changed, you could easily search out help on any problem and someone had posted something helpful. I found it invaluable in troubleshooting the many pins I've had over since then.

Unfortunately, the search on pinside doesn't work as well (I'd be happy to be corrected if someone tells me how it works). I like pinside but there is way to much noise that I believe comes from karma. Threads become unwieldy and catching up is a chore when so many posts are useless. Cheering and good luck posts are fine but does everyone have to do it on every thread?

Since 2003 RGP has had its share of drama and loud, obnoxious posters. It had its share of politics and personal attacks and endless don't feed the trolls posts but you learned to avoid the crap...if you wanted to.

But until the last year or so, there remained a core of pinball people talking, advising, and arguing (in a good way). Now it's pretty quiet. I still read it and use the database that's built up for the last 20 years. But I miss the way it was.

Me either. However I think Pinside is much much better than RGP. Here are my favorite reasons in not particular order:

1) You can post pictures
2) You can ignore the idiots
3) You can much more easily skip past all the junk by using the green new posts. It makes it easier to find the topics that interest you more. I usually just pan through the first page and if nothing interest me I skip to all the new posts.
4) I love mods
5) you can see others collections and pin ratings. I like to see who is bullshitting who. Sometimes I'm wrong.

pappy

Are you kidding me...of the ones mentioned only Frank is a newer member. 2 of my examples were 5 years ago and longer.

My MM remake from Wayne is over 5 years. Do you remember those threads? Didn't Mars need Women die after arguments on there? Gary was posting in 2004- almost 10 years ago and those were some whooper arguments that would be shut down on here after 5-10 posts.

Seriously, do you really want me to bring out old RGP crap to show/prove that the more things change the more that they stay the same. It is not hard to Google some of those threads.

Bottom line- RGP was really the only forum. It intimidated a lot of people because of the crap that was being spewed on it. More lurkers than posters. When Pinside came along, it was a different attitude as there are moderators and new people to the hobby weren't here to look for drama.

Yes, there were/are some great people on there, but to act like the drama is only recent means time has clouded your memory.

2001 on is when things started to shift over there.

Yes, and both of those were easily ignorable back then. There was FAR more actual talk going on and less noise, and it was FAR easier to ignore the garbage threads. A lot of that garbage was limited to certain topics that once you figured them out, you would just avoid them.

If you could snapshot an actual day from, say, 2007 and list the thread topics and look at the replies, unless you go cherry picking, there would be WAY less drama posted there then. I managed to be there for all of those people, and while I remember Gary and Mars Needs Women, I very VERY rarely read threads they posted in. Frank on the other hand was impossible to ignore, but was recent.

You'd have to define drama (for instance, I don't think price policing equates to "drama" but some would disagree), but we've been constantly losing the signal for the noise it seems.

"Drama" to me is when it gets personal.

I can think of some big ones, but I really don't want to stir stuff up. I can PM you some later if you want, but bringing up bad stuff here is not right and no good can come of it.

I just wanted to point out that the "Good Ole Days" weren't always good.

Frank being impossible to ignore is because the traffic is so slow there. It was easier to avoid posts/posters 10 years ago because there was so much content. Now that there are only about 20 posts a day there, you can't circumnavigate around the drama posts as there is nothing else to read there. Frank can hit every post if he wants, multiple, multiple times, 10 years ago that would not be doable.

you can post pics to RGP as well as ignore people. its all about how you read RGP.

You're 50% right on that.

Great just great.
I finally have a pin worthy of a new CPR PF and now I've got less chance of knowing when it's in the pipeline. Like others I don't have much interest in FB or Twitter.

This place has been my #1 resource.

Anyways - Stu I'll gladly paypal you a deposit on an EATPM PF and if it ever gets done please be in touch.

Five years is the short term for a lot of the old RGP era collectors. This is not a new hobby.

I am sorry to hear this Stu, I just wish this announcement was coupled with "subscribe to the CPR email list" or whatever to find out about new releases...

It seems unfortunate to let a bad egg "win" and to set up a business to "lose" with no way to replace a way that was used to communicate new products and at the end of the day make sales.

Is this part of the new Google? Because posting pictures on RGP used to be a noob thing to do. Never could ignore people either unless you used some other software.

pappy

Don't use Google for RGP.

Use RGP Archive: http://rgparchive-removed.com

You can post pictures that even regular newsreaders can see, check CL classifieds, ignore users, spam get deleted (not instantly).

I use to use Agent to read the newsgroups (and still do for binaries) but RGP Archive rocks big time.

I think the part that bothers me the most is I sometimes will buy a totally beat up game if I know the parts will become available in the future. Now I don't know the inside scoop so I will have a harder time pulling the trigger on a beat down game. I did have the pleasure of checking out Stu's setup and pins and got some dirt on things he is working on and finished with so I at least have an idea of whats in the pipeline now. I agree with most though, its too bad Stu is going to let one jackass ruin it for everyone.