re: There is this one poster of ours ...

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He thinks we should all hold hands on the rant and be nice to our superiors. It's the Old Carolina way of thinking IMO.

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... and I hate being an a-hole because I have so much fun and so much time on my hands. Hell, even if I am traveling I login to have fun.

I am usually loling at the stuff that goes on ... this place is classic awesome and fun. But when someone tries that old divisive crap it just gets a burr up my wrinkled old bum.

I can tell you exactly when I first noticed Carolina had a problem with it in the early sixties.

Marvin Bass was the HC - I ended-up getting to know him somewhat in later years. But he took over an absolute political mess within the athletic department. Back biting and in-fighting and everybody wanting to have their say about everything. No one was having fun and by '64 it was a total mess. No one could be trusted, Herman Helms had inside sources and he was constantly churning-up the crap. It hurt us in so many ways it was impossible to pinpoint ... even though Coach Bass was working his arse off to make us into something. Brought in some great players and sure as shite some back stabbing alumni or academic or staff person would leak something to The State or the Columbia Record and bam ... everything would fall apart. Internal turmoil constantly.

I started to write a book about it in the early 90s and go so frustrated in doing so that I just quit. Tom Price and I were always good friends - they did an article about me years and years ago when I was involved in something and I insisted they got Tom Price with me in the picture they used in the paper. Matter of fact I ran into Bob Gillespe this past weekend when he stopped by the Cockaboose and we talked about the old days ... he's going to get that picture of Tom and me so I can get it framed and added to my man cave.

Crap never changed through the Pepsodent Paul years but he halfway tried to get control of it.

Then came that bastard Holderman and Coach Carlen and Joe Mo ... and Holderman totally screwed Coach Carlen. I used to speak to Coach Carlen from time to time and he was never bitter - I miss that man. Miss Tom Price too. Was at both their funerals.

Coach Dietzel and I used to talk from time to time - he was a total class act. Total class act. But he used to tell me Carolina would never realize our full potential until the political crap and internal defeatist stuff stopped ... and he was right.

Then came the man that overpowered everyone and we can thank him for where we are today. He absolutely got rid of all the bad blood insiders that were giving away inside information and always out to cause problems for whatever regime was in place. He fired a ton of them and there was no easy doing that because of politics ... but he got rid of all the bad element. They were afraid of him - he could give a crap. He was strong enough to get the job done.

The last think remaining was our fan base. Our fans have always been back biters. The Internet was a major problem when it first caught fire. The usenets were full of us academia types and so many of them were anti athletics it was as if they were trying to tear us down. Some of us back in the 80s would trace them down and expose them for what they were - destructive. Then came the old Matt's Script Archives BBS and The Bailey Bros first board USCCocks.com. Plus we had a massive AOL Gamecock board in the old AOL 3.1 DOS system and a number of us just decided to fight fire with fire against the negative types and the bullshitters.

Before long we had the strongest groups on the Internet - we would circle the wagons by the early 90s and especially when the Tennessee fans would bring the crap - we would just all circle the wagons and rain hell on those bastards crashing their boards like the old VolQuest and the Checkerboard sites.

By the late 90s the board wars started and the shite that went on in those wars was criminal. I'll not even go into it but many of us pledged to never, not ever, support the FGF. It was total pandemonium and again it cost us because parents of recruits had started reading by then and it always looked bad so we, once again, started circling the wagons and demanding a united front in public.

It has worked since then. We'd talk crap to one another all we wanted on the private boards but on the public boards we decided to always, always, circle the wagons if another fan base lit-in on one of us ... and it has worked.

As I got closer to retirement and started to sell-off some businesses I decided hey, between checking my investments online, emailing my kids and grandkids, surfing around and doing whatever, I'd play around on the websites again. Problem is that none of them are really worth a crap ... except this one. This one is a fun mix. It's snarky as hell but well worth the daily visits. I laugh hard some times.

But then here comes the guy, and there is always one, that decides he wants to step in and jump on fellow fans and use the "you make us all look bad" phrase somewhere in his post ... there is always one and always has been since the beginning of the Internet.

They are always the worst because they actually see it as their god given mission to try to make other fans look bad in an effort to make themselves look good ... never fails.

We've got a good group around here. I've jumped in and fought the battles with some I have always agreed with ... but you'll never see me attack a member of the family on the main board. The one time I even came close was in a Cockyboi post where I typed, "He shouldn't have posted this but since he did ... frick all of y'all, he makes a good point in an off sort of way."

If we keep the wagons circled no one will want to frick with Gamecock fans. We're good people, as a whole, by nature. We're not Cocky, just confident and for the most part very respectful to everyone.

We're good fans individually ... as a united group we are untouchable. It's as simple as that and it has been since the mid 80s. Good gosh, some of the old usenet stuff on the GamecockFootball,alt ... it would turn your hair a different color. The taterheads were absolutely the worst because they outnumbered us by a 1000 and they had that asshat Tommy Crumpton I think his name was, the guy that started Tigernet, who knew all the ins and outs of how to cause us problems. It was a constant battle and we were always having to clean up the lies he would put out and then protect and lock down.

We've come a long long ways since then. I just don't want to see us going back to those days.

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The Rant is just a different ballgame.

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Yes it is ... but it is also the best I've ever seen.

For all the trolling and grinding and flagshipping that goes on around here, the bottom line is that if you win, or even if you just halfway know your history and your Xs and Os, then you can exist here pretty much in peace and with a lot of allowances assured.

Plus, the funny stuff is classic. A truly rare place.

You could never, not ever, have a place like this to enjoy in one of the networks.

This place is a treasure. We all need to carve out a serious piece of this place and make it ours and defend it like the treasure that it is ... this place will one day be part of Internet lore.

I've seen him post rarely. I think he actually posted recently in the check in thread when I bumped it. Think that was last week

I actually enjoyed reading the backstory, and helped understand some of where you're coming from. If we had had this conversation first, instead of the barrage of profanity and attacks, we could have avoided a day's worth of Rant meltdown.

I'm not even upset about it; you just take some of this more seriously than I do. I don't begrudge you for that. I'm not one of the "40 Years Wandering The Desert" Carolina fans, though I do understand and have reverence for the history. As long as I've been following football, we've been an SEC school. So in a lot of ways, I've never felt the need to justify our existence in the conference; we belong because we are here. That's part of why I don't buy into the idea of having any superiors.

The Rant is an odd ballgame, to be sure. Like I said, I'm not a big fan of posting in the troll threads.

Anyway, what's done is done. I'll stay outta your way on the main board and let you keep throwing bait, like I had with the exception of this morning. Just don't question my fanhood or devotion just cos I may disagree with you sometimes. 'Merica, and all that.

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hey had that asshat Tommy Crumpton I think his name was, the guy that started Tigernet,

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he hates me. Crump has banned 3 alters I had on tigernet. I'm running out of CockInYour"..." screennames.

The best was after the rock smasher incident, I had free reign for 3 hours over there, and then came the ban hammer.

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I actually enjoyed reading the backstory, and helped understand some of where you're coming from. If we had had this conversation first, instead of the barrage of profanity and attacks, we could have avoided a day's worth of Rant meltdown.

I'm not even upset about it; you just take some of this more seriously than I do. I don't begrudge you for that. I'm not one of the "40 Years Wandering The Desert" Carolina fans, though I do understand and have reverence for the history. As long as I've been following football, we've been an SEC school. So in a lot of ways, I've never felt the need to justify our existence in the conference; we belong because we are here. That's part of why I don't buy into the idea of having any superiors.

The Rant is an odd ballgame, to be sure. Like I said, I'm not a big fan of posting in the troll threads.

Anyway, what's done is done. I'll stay outta your way on the main board and let you keep throwing bait, like I had with the exception of this morning. Just don't question my fanhood or devotion just cos I may disagree with you sometimes. 'Merica, and all that.

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Fair enough ... and no need to intentionally avoid one another. That's not the point. Hell, we don't have to like each other ... just respect the fact that we're both on the same team with everyone else and if you wanna bust my balls over something come here to do it please, rather than out there.

Oh, and I never take any of it seriously until someone claims to speak for all Gamecock fans and someone refers to me as insecure or moronic, of which I am neither ... well, at least not insecure.

We'll be okay. You'll have a whole lot more fun letting some of us have our fun than jumping in and trying to tell us we are an embarrassment to the fan base or morons ... if you'll just stay out of those threads or either join-in and partake in the fun ... you'll have a lot more fun.

We need everyone we can get to join in against some of our rival fan bases.

I registered Cockopotamus over there and somehow had a few days of access before someone started a thread complaining.

That place is definitely an inbred cesspool

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The only Carolina poster I have questions about is wholelottacock, everyone else here is good in my book.

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Yeah, that guy is an idiot, troll, or both.

I agree with others that he's a UT fan.

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Dude, you can't control how or where people post. I don't know the basis of your little spat with this guy, but you're getting way too worked up over how we need to hold hands and sing kumbaya over on the rant. frick that, if you get called out, don't whine like a little girl cause someone ruined your troll.

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Here, let me whine at you as well ... fuccccckkkkk you.

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You really shouldn't give a shite if someone did this. If someone believes an Internet poster speaks for a whole fan base, then they have more problems than just taking a message board too seriously.

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You ever see the movie Kung Foo Hustle ... the metamorphosis? The philosophical tale of how things continue to be bad as long as you allow them to be bad? You should check it out.

You know anything about the Carolina board wars from '98-2005? You know anything about the three men whose lives were almost destroyed on account of those board wars?

No?

Then frick off asshat.

The Internet can be the problem, if it is allowed to be the problem. Regardless, there are consequences for everything in life. Live long enough and you might understand that some day ... although, I doubt it in your case.