Whats the haps?

[Goblin Shark]

Motorists who harass bicyclists are bullies.  They seem to forget that we are human too, which is why making eye contact with a smile is an important tool in the cyclists' arsenal.  Makes a noticeable difference.  I remember one time I was nicely in the shoulder and some motorist tried to bully/intimidate me by getting into my space.  I just pedaled on unfazed, caught up to him at a stoplight and made the following exchange:

Me (with a big grin): "Tag, you're it!"

Him: "How you catch up to me so fast?"

Me: "Ride your bike with me and I'll show ya!  And don't worry about crazy Jersey drivers.  I'll teach you how to tame the dragon.  Well, see ya!" 

And I pedaled off.  Dude was probably all shell shocked like "WTF just happened?!?!?!"

And if I have to get tough, I'm someone who would pull the reasoning of, "Look, you have two tons of steel protecting you.  I only have these shorts.  If I hit you, it will be nothing, but if you hit me, I could end up in the hospital or possibly die.  Do you really want that on your conscience?" 

---

I've had to purge a whole bunch of stuff lately (for reasons I'd rather not reveal publicly on the Internet) and I wish I had wizard magic where I could just point to stuff and it would disintegrate. 

---

As for haps... I don't know if it's stress, depression, a lack of restful sleep, or a vitamin deficiency, but I've been supremely drained of late.  It all came to a head today when I could barely do my current workout at even HALF my capacity.  Like how did I become such a scattered, unfocused, unmotivated, weakling all of a sudden?  This isn't like me at all. 

[Agent D.]

So took my bike in to get fixed up. Back wheel had to be replaced, but most of the damage was aesthetic, which I give 0 fucks about. Cost me 220 bucks to replace the wheel, and I still need to buy a new front reflector, but I'll order one and put it on myself.

Hope this isn't a precursor of a ton of bullshit to come my way.

[Eusis]

Glad it sounds like you can get it fixed up at least. That sucked. :(

[Annubis]

I just watched the Japan VS US giant robot fight.

If you were interested in any way about this and have not seen it, do yourself a favor and DO NOT WATCH IT.
Pretend it never happened and stay ignorant of the trainwreck that this was.

I can't recall the last time I was this disappointed about something (and yes, this is way more disappointing than Aldnoah.Zero season 2)

Oh man, it's just like when you get Big Brothers to fight in Bioshock, isn't it? You'd think it'd be something awesome but no, it's just two big guys in suits smacking each other for what seems like hours?

See, your expectations are already too high. Do not watch it. You can only be disappointed.

[Eusis]

Oh man, it's just like when you get Big Brothers to fight in Bioshock, isn't it? You'd think it'd be something awesome but no, it's just two big guys in suits smacking each other for what seems like hours?

... Oh, hey, do we have a Discord?

[Starmongoose]

RE: Discord. I can set one up, if it's something people are interested in.

[Rucks]

going to need someone to explain to me what Discord is

[Eusis]

Check this out. It's a messaging/chat service that's free of use that's gaming focused. Kind of like a newer version of IRC, and is on my mind owing to the NeoGAF collapse where most of the members who care enough are using that to communicate instead.

[Chronix112]

I used to use discord all the time for MMOs. I actually prefer it to Vent, or Teamspeak because of how brain dead easy it is to setup and use.

[Agent D.]

The next evolution of ventrillo/mumble/teamspeak/etc.

[Eusis]

I used to use discord all the time for MMOs. I actually prefer it to Vent, or Teamspeak because of how brain dead easy it is to setup and use.

Oh cool, now I remember where I added you from on other services.

[Kevadu]

I've been using Discord for a while now in a few places.  I absolutely love it.  Yeah online chat/voice communication systems aren't anything new, but somehow everything about how Discord does it is more polished and well designed.  It's great for just hanging out or finding people online to play with and then seamlessly switching over to voice chat for in-game communication.

I just watched the Japan VS US giant robot fight.

If you were interested in any way about this and have not seen it, do yourself a favor and DO NOT WATCH IT.
Pretend it never happened and stay ignorant of the trainwreck that this was.

Watched it when it was new-ish (not 'live' though, thank god).  It's pretty bad...I mean, I'm not even sure what I was expecting because these 'robot's are basically underpowered cars with arms stuck to their roofs.  I can sort of appreciate what they were trying to do, but the whole thing is somehow simultaneously cheesy, heavily scripted, and yet also boring as heck.

[Klutz64]

My only issue with having a discord is ever since I've been hanging out on a couple gaming channels, I've been posting here less because I'd feel like I was just repeating myself. With an official discord for RPGFan, I'd probably barely post in the forums at all.

[Arvis]

I, too, would prefer we not divert traffic away from the forums.  Another forum I frequent started a Facebook chat and ever since the forums are MUCH quieter.

Haps: my company got hit by a cyberattack; specifically, our whole server got hit with ransomware.  For a while there I thought I'd be out of a job, but our chances of recovery seem to be improving.

[Starmongoose]

Well, I don't think it's a secret the forums are getting quieter, and I think it's just because of a more global trend of communites moving away from old fashioned forums like this. I love this forum (check out how many hours I've spent on here), but I do care more about keeping our community together. The forums are getting quieter, and well known faces are leaving.

I'm not saying that I want to close the forum down or anything, but if we have an RPGfan Discord server, and it proves to be so popular that no one wants to  post on the forum any more, then I don't think that's such a bad thing. It just means we found a more engaging alternative, and we all stay together.

The way I see it going unless we get with the times is, the forum will continue to dwindle in popularity and we'll all end up on different Discord servers anyway. But I'll happily moderate both for as long as they are both popular and have regulars.

There are plans for a Discord "beta test" for RPGfan in the next few days, and I'd like it if everyone gave it a try. The plan is that we make it available to people who visit the forums first, and we all get a good feel for it. We're very open to suggestions and you guys' imput. It truly is just an experiment, if it proves too unpopular then we'll think of other ways to get more people to engage with the site.