Betsy, Kevin and Frank,

I’m cool with all of you. I’m afraid I kinda burst onto the scene without giving people a chance to catch their breath, so that’s my bad. You may find this hard to believe, but I tend to alternate between lengthy periods of quiet followed by huge bursts of activity that manifest themselves as “brain dumps” for lack of a better term. Sometimes I have SO MANY thoughts running through my head I simply can’t contain them all. It’s something I have little control over. It’s just how my mind works. If it’s any comfort to anyone, it drives my wife crazy sometimes. She worries when I’m quiet for too long and then I suddenly unleash a torrent of thoughts on her that leaves her dizzy trying to keep up. So anyway, if you DON’T hear from me for a while chances are it’s because I’m lost deep in thought or obsessing about some idea I’ve latched onto. You know what’s really funny? I’ve often been asked by people where I come up with some of my ideas. They tell me that they could never see themselves as an inventor because they just don’t seem to have those kinds of ideas. God I WISH I could do that Mr. Spock mind meld thing so I could give them some of mine! Maybe then I could clear a little room inside my head…

Hmmm…reading over my shoulder, it now appears that my dog has been offended.

Ouch. Croooonkeee. That marriage counselor my ex wife took me to a couple decades ago warned me about unsolicited advice. Yet I just can’t resist. And results are always the same. hahahahaha I just kill me sometimes…hahahaha Thanks for having my back gang…

Beadle, just so you know….Biskit and Frank are really 2 of the very dearest people in this community. So welcome again to EN, I just think sometimes words aren’t read the same way they would sound in person. Plus, in person we can see someone’s smile or hear the tone of their words. Reading posts can really be misconstrued. So, you’re good people and so are almost all the people here in the forums. We really are here because of—-not only the EN opportunities, but also because of each other. ;-)

Sherri

Glad you liked the test! According to the type relationships at the bottom of the page the INTJ/INFJ is a “Companion” relationship so I guess that’s pretty cool!

I’m also running IE 8 with Windows XP and I’m going to have to replace this machine soon and I DREAD the thought of it! Ever since Windows Vista came out I can’t stand the way they changed all the tool bars! I just can’t navigate the damn things! At my last “real job” I had to have the IT guy DOWNGRADE me back to XP because I couldn’t get any work done since it was taking me FOREVER to figure out how to do the most BASIC functions with those toolbars! I get that Microsoft and everyone else wants to keep innovating, but why in God’s name can’t they keep the “look” of the previous versions as an option (for those of us who AREN’T computer whizzes!) while maintaining the FUNCTIONALITY of the new software?? Oy! Don’t get me started, I can feel my pressure rising!

Honestly, the whole insider/outsider thing is really just an amusement to me. Look at my avatar of the kitty on the outside looking in. It was supposed to be a joke and guess what; I plan to keep making that joke! I think it’s great for the reasons you specified. And I understand (kinda) the issue of posting links, but that’s an easy work-around anyway: [dot] = . Not too much to remember there. I think not being able to post pictures absolutely blows though. I’ve always been a firm believer in the old adage of a picture being worth a thousand words. It all comes back to that INTJ thing. I like things to work EFFICIENTLY and EFFECTIVELY. I used to do a lot of technical writing back in the real world and I found that when you’re trying to write a procedure for working with a complicated electronic document system it was SO MUCH EASIER and more EFFECTIVE to take screen shots of GUI interface to augment the text in the procedure being written. It would allow the user following the document to look at it and have it match EXACTLY what they were seeing on their computer screen! I use a screen capture program form Creative Softworx and I LOVE it. I use it just about every single day! Posting pictures can be a great, easy and EFFECTIVE way to augment a discussion thread. Okay, so I can’t post pics (shrug), what are ya gonna do?

Okay so Kevin is a “card’ as you say. Alright, but when you start your post with:

“Eazzzzzy does it Ol’ Beadle Boy.” It sounds just a tad condescending, kinda the way you would address a dog…

Okay, it’s late and my little kitty is whining for some attention, so I’m off for a little snuggle time… ;)

P.S. There’s something about an all black cat that’s really cool…

My personality quiz answer came up that I’m an INJF..pretty neat quiz, Beadle!

If I’m not mistaken, Frank was the first person to openly complain to EN about non-Insider’s not being able to post pics/links..that’s when it all came about what was going on with those spammer-bots. He honestly fought for that not to be taken away…but those spammers messed the whole forum up and discombobulated all the threads to where it is still difficult to navigate/find things when searching.

I am running AOL with Windows XP/IE 8 and I know I probably need to do some serious upgrading as weird stuff has been happening to my account here since the get-go…having to do with much of my e-mails from EN’s site getting blocked by some type of servers (on my end) seeing that as spam or something? (sorry not very tech savvy). I still never received my 25,000 bonus points from that checklist of tasks to complete and also had to set up a g-mail account to get other updates/friend requests. Somewhere I even started a thread about not receiving certain things from EN and found that others were having the same type of issues as well. Hard for me to look for these past threads now because as I mentioned, those spammers made a mess of things in here.

The Insider/non-Insider thing is really all about how you plan on submitting here. Regular submitters who eagerly await each new live product search in hopes of coming up with a great idea (or 2,3+) truly benefit from having this Insider membership, while those who submit only to specific searches or only on occasion with one/two inventions that they are seriously committed to…It might be more feasible for them not to upgrade the membership.

You’ve stated that you’ve read through these forums awhile before posting…surely you know that Biskit is a “card”, and a good guy who funs around often and never would intentionally insult anyone? He’s pretty mean to those cute little squirrels, though.

Sorry if you even feel that you got off to the wrong start here…and wish you much success with your innovations!!! Wish Pasquale hadn’t even started all this Insider/Outsider nonsense with all the other stuff he flung at the forum members that day. It says on the EN welcome page to perhaps come in the forums and “stir the pot” but that was going way overboard!!

Honestly Jane, it’s REALLY not the big deal that OTHERS THINK I think it is. And besides, with friends like you (and Betsy), what more could a guy want? ;)

LOL!!!
nope. I’m good. lol lol

And Jane, I’m still at R4 in that search. Glitch? I’ll trade ya! :-D

Hi Beadle, my friend.
Sometimes it gets bumpy. It will get better when you join in a few more threads.
Trust me when I say that biskit is clever… he’s not really giving you grief. Re-read it. ;-)
We’ve heard a lot of issues about friends not showing up when they were already friended. The system has glitches. I’m still G6 in ASOTV and the presentation was today!

Wow Kevin, I don’t even know where to begin. If you REALLY knew me you’d know just how far off base you are. But I learned a long time ago that people are going to think whatever they want to think and there’s little that anyone else can do to change that. Did you even check out that personality test? If you did then you may have gleaned that us INTJ types tend to be perfectionists. We HATE things that don’t make sense and aren’t logical. The ONLY thing that bothers me (PLEASE believe me when I say “bothers” is WAY too strong a word) is that when people who you’ve sent friend requests to keep popping up, it APPEARS as though they’re just sitting on the request rather than simply rejecting it. I really kinda hate being left twisting in the wind like that. Doesn’t that sort of thing bother you? Wouldn’t it bother anyone? It makes it APPEAR as though they’re spending all this time slowly deliberating over whether you’re WORTHY of becoming their “friend”. Again, PLEASE believe me when I tell you I’m NOT desperate for friends, I have plenty of them right here as a matter of fact. And it may surprise you to know that MOST of those people do NOT show up on my friends list! I could start calling them out by name, but I would NEVER be that indiscreet! I stand by what I said before: The "friend” moniker simply doesn’t make a lot of sense when all a person trying to do is initiate a discussion with someone that they MIGHT not want to carry out in a public forum. I’ve participated in other forums where there’s a button that allows a person to send a private message. If you want the system to allow people to decide for themselves if they want to RECEIVE that message all you need are two buttons: Yes and No. But instead, EN gives you a button that says “e-mail so-and so”. But when you click it, it says you have to send them the friend request first! WHY?? And then if they accept that request they get to have their mug shot plastered on your friends list for all to see. Suddenly you find yourself being judged by the friends you keep. Like I said, it’s like junior high all over again. Really?? All this just to send a message you may not want to make public?? I guess if you don’t get my point by now you never will…

The same could be said for the “insider” thing. Again, I stand by what I said earlier. It’s a BRILLIANT bit of marketing by EN to make people feel “special” and I offer my kudos to them for it. But perhaps you’ve been hanging around here a bit too long to be able to see how that might make some newer members feel. Perhaps you have difficulty putting yourself in the other person’s shoes? I was told by another member that those used to be called Gold Memberships but I guess someone thought “insider” had more cachet. I totally get it and the fact that it comes with a few extra perks. But should being able to post a link now and then or a picture to help clarify a discussion of maybe get a laugh have to qualify as a “perk”. Oh well, if it makes people feel special… Both are only minor, albeit annoying, inconveniences to me because as you can see, I found a way to work around that. I even had an insider offer to post links for me. Should that REALLY be necessary??

I have NOTHING against Frank nor am I bothered by anything he said. And here’ a little tidbit for you (and your condescending tone): I HAVE invented something. In fact, it’s even on the market and selling right now. If there’s anything else you’d like to know about me please feel free to send that friend request. Not because I need YOU as a friend, but because I may not want to discuss my life in an open forum. The same goes for anyone else who wants to know what makes Beadle tick! But rest assured, I may not accept that request but I sure as hell won’t leave you twisting in the wind waiting for a response.

Eazzzzzy does it Ol’ Beadle Boy.

My (unsolicited) advice is that you just keep inventing. That’s the primary purpose here…we are inventor-people. You are on the verge of taking the nonsense to a spot that has darkened many a day for many a folk. And the bottom line is that there ARE no “haters” here. The Insider Schminsider argument is childish and silly. Either be one (benefits listed) or don’t. NO ONE REALLY cares whether you are or not. That is your very own $9.25/month choice. Period.

I am quite certain that no one around here (oh, Insider or not) spends a fraction of the time that you are with all your “thinking” about YOU. If there is a technical glitch regarding “friending” contact support.

Frank had some very simple reasonings and explanations for some of your concerns re: nontechnical “friending” probs.

Don’t take it personally if you don’t get friended; you say you don’t but you obviously do.

Most likely your explanation is we are inventor-types. We are weird. We are happy. We like you. Now invent something.

Oh. Happy New Year.

now….back to the squirrel hunt. i got two pistols for xmas..but no holster.

Okay, let me ask this then: Is there any way to WITHDRAW a friend request? Honestly, when I joined I NEVER expected things like this to be such an issue. I’ve asked support why people who haven’t accepted the requests keep showing up on my list but, I still haven’t heard back on the subject. Has anyone else ever had this problem? If ANYONE can shed light on this it would be MOST appreciated…

Are you sure about that Karl? I didn’t get anything saying you accepted, yet you’re still showing up on the list when I log in. If you’re rejecting, I promise I won’t take it personally if you change you mind…

Ok, I’m off the pot…

Boy, I wish I hadn’t misspelled the word “friends” in the title of this thread; I hate that I can’t go back and edit it…

Frank, I recently had a rather lengthy e-mail exchange with someone who is a prominent member on this site. This happened after I accepted THEIR friend request as opposed to the other way around. I’m guessing that if you look at my rather short list of friends thus far you’ll be able to deduce who that person is.

I don’t blame you for your wariness at all, but in my e-mail exchange with the afore-mentioned individual, we both agreed that the term “friend” as it applies to this forum is a moniker that’s just a bit too connotive of a junior high school environment where people are routinely judged by those they call “friends”. But unfortunately, that’s the term EN uses and they provide no other means of contacting other forum members in a more discreet and private manner since not EVERYTHING belongs in a public forum. Wouldn’t you agree? And might not that same thinking apply to the use of one’s real name in cyberspace?

This is compounded by the notion of EN “insiders” vs. “outsiders”. In my e-mail exchange with the member to whom I referred, there was also general agreement that the “insider” label has a definite (and deliberate) connotation to it. I believe this was nothing less than a stroke of genius on the part of the people who run this site. What great way to make someone feel “special” somehow? You charge them a modest fee and in exchange they get a whole list of “perks” not available to others. I can’t currently think of a better example of marketing savvy.

Both of these terms played a big role in Pasquale’s recent meltdown. It’s obvious from his rant that he clearly felt like an outsider here. In an effort to try and reason with him, I reached out to him. But in order to do this, I had no choice under EN’s rules but to “friend” him first. I did the same with Alvin because he was the one who initiated the incendiary “Last Straw” thread. Oh but there’s a big problem that approach now isn’t there? Suddenly someone who had nothing but the best of intentions is friends with that ***hole Pasquale! And it’s as though we’ve all been catapulted back into junior high where people often succeed or fail based on the friends they keep. There are the insiders – the jocks, the cool kids, the rich kids – and then there are the outsiders – the nerds, the Goth kids, the so-called geeks, etc. Suddenly, if I didn’t know better, I’d think I was trapped in an episode of Glee! But there’s little doubt in my mind that my as yet unrequited friend requests have probably not been accepted because I’m now somehow guilty by association with the “wrong” people. You yourself referred to him as my “#1 friend” did you not? I guess it’s true what they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same…

None of this causes me any concern because anyone who has ever gotten to know me knows the type of person I am. This is certainly true of the EN member I referred to at the start of this post. I’m not concerned about whether my friend requests are ever accepted, but I won’t be issuing any more of them. If on the other hand, anyone wants to send me a request, I’ll undoubtedly accept it. I do this because I learned a long time ago that it although it can get you hurt sometimes, it’s better to start off trusting people’s motives unless or until they give you reason no to. I mean really Frank, you just said that you recently had someone banned who apparently violated your trust, so if that’s the worst case scenario for accepting a friend request that didn’t work out, is that REALLY so bad? Did it take that much time out of your life? Did it cause you to lose sleep? Regardless, you’re certainly entitled to feel as guarded as you need to be. But for the record, I’ll continue to think of you as friend because you haven’t given me any reason not to…

Love the avatar Beadle! It’s all good. Frank is one of the most gracious guys on EN. And from emailing you privately, I know you’ve got a great heart yourself. Welcome aboard! ;-)

Okay Frank, I’m good with all that. Just been a little tied up of late so I haven’t gotten around to fleshing out the profile. Still getting caught up from school vacation, getting the kid back into the groove, brow beating her into going out for the ski team, doing major home renovations that include jumping through the myriad hoops held out by the building inspector, etc, etc. I feel like I haven’t even had a chance to catch my breath from 2011 and 2012 is already here! Oh yeah, then there’s the product development and all the fun stuff that goes with inventing. You can keep me at arms length for now but I’ll win you over, I always do!

Beadle… allow me to pass along a bit of advice that may make your “friending” and “EN” experience a bit more fulfilling;

(1) Open a thread, create a Micro Blog on your profile, or go to the Introduce Yourself thread and introduce yourself!
Cover things like:
    a) People call me _____?
    b) I work ___________?
    c) I have a wife & 2 kids/single no kids/wife no kids/husband no kids/etc
    d) I enjoy _______?
    e) My background is____________?
    f) I live in the great state of____________.

You exhibit several traits that people are leary of, and that may be the reason most are
keeping you at arms length (I know it’s why I am)
(1) Most of the spammers that have attacked this site use the same name combinations;
ie: real name – Jar Head, username – jarhead

(2) Seemingly desperate for friends to send “private messages” to (just recently had
a newbie get banned for propagating their cause via private messages)

(3) Main interest is how to post links in threads and how to send private messages to members… along with making repeated disparaging insinuations about “Insiders” in an attempt to make the Admin feel guilty about THEIR rules. (which is suprisingly/not-surprisingly similar to the actions your #1 “friend” exhibited)

(4) You start a thread (this one) where you pressure people to accept your friend request; again, why are you so desperate
to establish communication with certain people? None of my business? That’s cool, I agree, but you must understand
THAT IS THE SAME QUESTION THEY ARE ASKING THEMSELVES… “Why does he want to privately communicate with me?”

If you’re on the level, by all means, welcome here and accept all my best wishes for success, but to come blind into the forums
and expect all the extablished rules and protocol to be altered to suit you is asking a bit much, wouldn’t you say?
Introduce yourself, make some submissions, get to know people PUBLICALLY first, and shoot for the stars like the
rest of us! <:-)