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[slidemansailor]

TMM is quieting down. The stalwarts are dying or moving on in other ways. I don't think it is unique to your Online Jewelry thread.

[jamie]

I just read over this whole thread.
I'm really embarrassed that i've not been able to inspire even one TMMer here to make a purchase -- but worse, only Bill and casca-503 even bothered to post to this thread.
I'm sure it's my fault,  but no matter. If I feel sorta "shunned", that's okay too. Any way anyone looks at it, I'm the guy who named this forum and the first forum way back in 1999. Shunning me at my own danged place will not bother me, but it does surprise me. But I'm filled with love for all who have ever supported TMM, and am glad that over the years many thousands of folks have left their tracks on the thread trails around this old place. Not too bad for an old fool who no one seems to like.
Come this December 2019, I will celebrate with Bill, Tahn, Medicine Hawk, mouse, and a few others here, the 20th anniversary of The Mental Militia. Yep, it's been online in one format or another for dang near 20 years. By the time December 2019 rolls around, I will have a cash flow from Silver Seeds of Liberty with which to develop The Mental Militia more fully. I'm a goddam ol' Marine war veteran. Did anyone here really think I'd just give up and go away?

Peace and Liberty to all of Ye,
Salute!
Elias

I don't believe it's as you say.  TMM has been dying  for a long time.  I don't know why. I could guess, egos, differences in how and what to think about the future of liberty, some flounced off,  a lot of people are just gone, some are dead and some who knows?

 One reason is people almost never reply when someone makes a post. I have watched the forum and that was true of a couple of  posters (this isn't about me) after a while people get tired of no feedback. Or the original poster won't reply to his own post.   Or if they do it won't be to actually answer. 

 Certain people have tried to revitalize TMM, Mouse, You, Tahn, a couple of others. Mouse got slammed for posting news items. She heroically drives on and has made the majority of the posts in the recent past. I have tried in my own small way.   It hasn't worked. I too have been here since the Clair files and it's sad to see this.

There is also a group that hates anything military and oath keeper.  Or was anyway.

I don't buy the jewelry because I'm not interested in marijuana seeds cast as earrings and neither is my S.O.  And also because I have no interest in jewelry. For me a timex is just as good as a rolex. That doesn't mean that I don't support marijuana, I do.   I just never cared for what  people call marijuana for recreational use. Or any other drug. Although I did have a great time on mushrooms once.  I have never really used alcohol either.

I am much less of an ancap/voluntaryist than I used to be. I finally realized that what a friend told me when he was studying at seminary was true.  He said that his mentor, an aged minister, told him "people will always disappoint you" And for all the Christian haters out there this isn't about religion. This anecdote applies to the situation here in my mind.

And the truth is there are so many good voices of freedom and liberty and they all need support. I must thank you for  taking over TCF and for what you tried to do and are still trying to do.



 

[Elias Alias]

The first post in this forum, back before I converted it from another BBS system, IIRC, was in 2003, by "Walter", aka Bark. Elias chimed in shortly thereafter.

https://secure.thementalmilitia.com/forums/index.php?topic=2.0

I've been maintaining thementalmilitia.com since 2007:

Code: [Select]

Domain Name: THEMENTALMILITIA.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1208780802_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.publicdomainregistry.com
Registrar URL: www.publicdomainregistry.com
Updated Date: 2018-09-04T09:04:07Z
Creation Date: 2007-09-10T14:48:39Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2019-09-10T14:48:39Z

Yes you have, Bill, and you've been marvelous, all the time, every time, in whatever way was needed.
I'd like to thank you for digging up that link. Awesome!
Bark was the first dude I met when I moved to Montana in July 2001. Met him at a saloon in Three Forks, west of Bozeman. At that time Bark was webmaster for "Rockin The Rivers" --  https://www.rockintherivers.com/

He took me out of that saloon and over to one of the owners' home -- there were two brothers and a pal from Billings who owned Rockin The Rivers, the property and the annual show. So Bark got me in with the wrong crowd right off the bat, lol!

But Rockin The Rivers did not pay him so well, and he ended up crashing at my house in Willow Creek. Having just moved to Montana I was glad to run into a dope smokin' Amigo who would build a national website for TMM, which Bark was and did. It was a beautiful php site, cutting edge for back in 2003. That site was launched and running when I chanced across Debra Ricketts' "Claire Files" website and noticed that Claire was lamenting that she and Debra would like to get a decent forum.  Reading that, I then asked Bark if TMM had enough bandwidth to offer Claire a forum of her on, using TMM's space. He said yes, so I paid him to create this forum. He had built the TMM national site back in 2002, and he started on this forum in early 2003.
About that time I learned that Claire Wolfe was going to speak "live" and in public at the Free State Project's "Western States" conference at Missoula, Montana. I drove the two hundred miles to see her and meet her in person. That was awesome.
I had already emailed her and offered a forum at TMM's grace and she had accepted and Bark had already got it mostly ready by the time I met Claire in Missoula. It was very shortly after that conference in March 2003 that Claire and Debra were able to open their new forum, and of course the first post-maker here was Bark himself, as he had a lot of tinkering to do with this place.  Well, in no time at all, Claire Wolfe drew quite a crowd. Soon enough there were thousands of members. But then along came the infamous flounce-off by Kirsten and Co., which finally burned Claire out on the whole idea of having a forum.

She announced one day that she wanted to sell the forum. I asked her how much. $1,500.00. I had given it to her for free, no charge, but it had a value four years later when she wanted to get out from under the responsibilities of running the place, 2007.  I told her I'd ask the membership to raise the money with donations, and she said she'd go with that if I promised to re-name this place from Claire Files to The Mental Militia. We all agreed and did give her the fifteen hundred.

But just before all that came down, Bark came down with cancer and I had moved to a four-bedroom house adjacent to the Willow Creek Saloon, and took Bark with me. I'm flooded with memories. His death did not come quickly, so I moved his mom and his daughter into my home with Bark. Then came the hospice people and Bark's passing. And as I'm a dummy, I let the new TMM national site drift away with him. He never gave me the keys to the site, ack! He and I  had some damn good years being outrageous outlaws before he flew away. Claire to this day will tell you that what I wrote the moment of his death will always stay in her memory. Claire loved Bark too.

So after Bark, here you came! Dude, you'll never know how much I value your consistent dedication to making your Internet rounds every day -- look how many years you've got with this place and FIJA and Claire's online archives! Dang!

Thank you Brother Bill. Words can't carry the fullness of my appreciation.
But don't let up, doggone it! We ain't done yet.

Salute!
Elias

[Elias Alias]

TMM is quieting down. The stalwarts are dying or moving on in other ways. I don't think it is unique to your Online Jewelry thread.

Yeah, SMS, it's like we're now just some nice friends who've watched thousands come and go here in the past fifteen years or so. Even Scarmig, who was one of my co-founding members in the first TMM online discussion group back in 1999, which I created before leaving Georgia, has gone. 
I should not take it personal. I've noticed that a lot of forums which were hot items ten years ago are no longer even there. Remember the Liberty Round Table?  Sunni and Lobo had one ass-kickin' operation going for some years, but even that is now gone. Thankfully, Bill has saved Sunni's site, "Doing Freedom" --

https://billstclair.com/DoingFreedom/gen/0803/subind.html

And MamaLiberty is now gone. I met her first time at Lobo's and Sunni's LRT Conclave in 2000, at Utah. Met her again the following year at the LRT conclave in Missouri as I drove out of Memphis on my way to Montana.

So yeah, some stalwarts are now off the planet, and most others have carried on with the changes in their own perceptions and lives in a crazy world.  But jeez, Mon! You're still here, and I'm still here. Tell ya what -- this Spring I'm going to go down to Hamilton to video Jim and Starr's operation. Maybe you'd be up for a visit, yes?

Salute!
Elias

[Elias Alias]

I don't believe it's as you say.  TMM has been dying  for a long time.  I don't know why. I could guess, egos, differences in how and what to think about the future of liberty, some flounced off,  a lot of people are just gone, some are dead and some who knows?

Hi jamie;
There are many reasons, and they're all related to the human condition, the changing circumstances in our society and culture as related to world and local circumstances and events. They are also related to individuals' subjective spiritual paths, educational directions, honing of personalities and preferences for choices in focused attention. I think the biggest reason has to do with so many following Claire to her own blog. But other things as you've mentioned below also play a role in the thinning of our active post-makers here.

One reason is people almost never reply when someone makes a post. I have watched the forum and that was true of a couple of  posters (this isn't about me) after a while people get tired of no feedback. Or the original poster won't reply to his own post.   Or if they do it won't be to actually answer.

 

Replying has always been a major problem for me. Too many irons in the fire. Nobody here would believe the number of communications I must make daily before I can even get to my own forums. I usually never make it at all. I do miss MamaLiberty, who kept things moving along pretty well, so that did not worry me so much. But I think you're right, and I lament that.

 

Certain people have tried to revitalize TMM, Mouse, You, Tahn, a couple of others. Mouse got slammed for posting news items. She heroically drives on and has made the majority of the posts in the recent past. I have tried in my own small way.   It hasn't worked. I too have been here since the Clair files and it's sad to see this.

Yes, mouse is a treasure, and you've been here for more than a decade, so you're dearly appreciated too. I'm glad you're here.

There is also a group that hates anything military and oath keeper.  Or was anyway.

Yes, some regulars just could not grasp the reasoning behind Oath Keepers' efforts to teach cops and soldiers not to turn their forceful "authority" against we the people.  Some people are short-sighted and not of a positive approach to life. I don't mind if those sorts of folks find better places to hang out.

I don't buy the jewelry because I'm not interested in marijuana seeds cast as earrings and neither is my S.O.  And also because I have no interest in jewelry. For me a timex is just as good as a rolex. That doesn't mean that I don't support marijuana, I do.   I just never cared for what  people call marijuana for recreational use. Or any other drug. Although I did have a great time on mushrooms once.  I have never really used alcohol either.

Well you don't have to buy jewelry, lol. Everyone has one's own individual tastes. No problem there. Jewelry is all about the ego anyway.

I am much less of an ancap/voluntaryist than I used to be. I finally realized that what a friend told me when he was studying at seminary was true.  He said that his mentor, an aged minister, told him "people will always disappoint you" And for all the Christian haters out there this isn't about religion. This anecdote applies to the situation here in my mind.
And the truth is there are so many good voices of freedom and liberty and they all need support. I must thank you for  taking over TCF and for what you tried to do and are still trying to do.

People can only disappoint those who are depending on people. Going within oneself is a way to find independence from depending on other people. Going within reveals that one is one's own best authority, one's own best "leader". Seeing and knowing that much, people no longer disappoint. But anyone looking for themselves outside their own inner soul's reality shall always be disappointed by other people.
Life's a trip. I paid to have this forum built way back in 2003, and don't know how to simply let it go down the memory hole. And Claire wanted me to have it, as I was the one who gave it to her in the first place.
Speaking of Claire, I see over at her blog that she's walking away from so much talking on the internet  herself. I say good on her for that.
Thanks again for being here jamie.
Salute!
Elias

[slidemansailor]

this Spring I'm going to go down to Hamilton to video Jim and Starr's operation. Maybe you'd be up for a visit, yes?

Salute!
Elias

Absolutely.  I will be there. Maybe squeeze in a tour of the Bunkhouse.

[Tahn L.]

Elias,

 I just lost a long post on this da* com**ter but will try again to list most of it. I am still here and "usually' check in daily, although I don't often register to post. Not a gabber, I mostly like the philosophical aspects of trying to get a bunch of Freedom Lovers living together. My "Society of Neighbors" is my latest attempt. No government, no rulers, just the Three Pillars of Freedom and Liberty and "The Supreme Commandment of Civilization".

Elias, I should have wished you "Good Luck" online, as I did in spirit on your new business venture. I have no one to buy for and no money to buy it with so.................. Still, GOOD LUCK BRO!!

I love TMM. I became "aware" here and thru MamaLiberty and many others, learned the self discipline to at least "imagine" a Hardyville or "Libertyville", which was where it really came together for me, trying to imagine a comunity where everybody had the same authority, except over other peoples property of course. MamaLiberty and I sure had a great back and forth over that. Couldn't have done it without her brass knuckles,gentle prodding. I sure miss her.

I was actually "offline" for the last 12 days, due to bitter cold, a few nice days and a lethargic attitude.

I wish  I could remember what else I lost in my dropped post.  There have been a few mainstays here on TMM. I am honored to be one.