Have you noticed something? I revived the thread, which then developed into a discussion about why there are multiple threads and whether we should merge or rename them and then *zoom* swimmer_spe jumps in and instantly makes this a discussion about bringing back daily passenger rail to Western Canada. This is exactly what happens again-and-again in his thread, just that it doesn’t usually take 11 posts and 7 days before he hijacks the topic. And I never said this discussion should not be had, if you had actually bothered reading the post I quoted, you would have seen that I even created a thread entirely dedicated to this topic:
Unfortunately, this highlights the problem I keep having with you and other posters here or in swimmer_spe's "VIA Rail" thread: that they for most of the time can't be bothered to participate in the discussions with and around swimmer_spe, but immediately cry foul when someone dares to doubt the value which his relentless repeating of his long-debunked nonsense brings.
You might see how frustrated I am at this the never-ending back-and-forth in that thread by the fact that I track all posts in a spreadsheet, but this allows me at how much the people who keep criticizing me actually bother to contribute to the discussion. And in your case, your participation has fallen from 42 posts in the last 5 weeks of 2019 (out of 455 posts, thus 9.2%) to a mere 9 posts in the first five months of 2020 (out of 980 posts, thus 0.9%):
And let’s have a look at these 9 posts:
- In post #783, you insist that Edmonton-Calgary should be reinstated (i.e. even before any infrastructure projects can be funded and completed, which would be required to make such a service commercially viable against the existing competition of cars and buses) and that the Canadian should be re-routed between Edmonton and North Battleford (i.e. a route, which is mostly "dark [i.e. unsignalled] territory" hasn't seen a passenger train in a half-century and lacks the track speeds and sidings to operate the Canadian at any comparable service level to the CN mainline).
- In post #888 you side with Swimmer_Spe against my defense of the “remote services” because both of you claim that Western cities along the Trans-Canada Highway deserve daily intercity passenger rail service at least as much as remote communities (i.e. communities without year-round ground transportation access) deserve their three-times-per week essential service.
- In post #890, you respond to milomilo that "You cannot in any way justify the existence of other Via Rail services but not this one [Calgary to Winnipeg or Calgary to Edmonton]."
- In post #993, you respond to Truenorth00 that "Calgary to Winnipeg is a no brainer".
- In post #1157, you attack me in a long rant after I told "jawagord" that I won't reply to his posts for as long as he resorts to the obnoxious over-formatting of a recent Kindergarden graduate and after I reminded swimmer_spe of his promise to leave the discussion, to which swimmer_spe applauds you with "Thank you. Someone gets it."
- In post #1160, you make almost exactly the same claims as in post#783, just with the additional demand that this takes place "as soon as possible" and by repeating the some conspiracy theories ("Keep in mind that the contrary to what Urban Sky says, a lot of the decision making was concerned with politics and the idea that the southern prairies had more bus service alternatives.") about the 1990 cuts.
- In post #1163, you use the quote "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it" on me, even though it was me who repeatedly laid down why none of the conspiracy theories about why the CP route (and other services were cut in 1990) can be sustained with facts.
- In post #1276, you chime into the discussion about the seat arrangements of VIA's new fleet and about possible push-pull scenarios of the Ocean after the Halterm loop becomes unavailable, while noting that "With respect to the locomotives, the Northlander ran for a short time in push/pull configuration".
- Finally, in post #1399, you speculate that "the Liberals could easily get rid of the western services as there is no political fallout for them."
Given that eight out of the 9 posts you wrote this year concerned the existence or absence of VIA services in Western Canada, what is the reason why you don't seem to talk about anything else? And if you find his contributions so valuable, how come you can only be bothered to contribute when someone dares to doubt the value his incessant and ever-repeating posts add to the discussion?
The other posters who defend him here are by no means better, take
Djeffery, for instance:
- In post #754, he wonders why there is no rail service between Calgary and Edmonton.
- In post #1039, he suggests that Onex (a Toronto-based investment manager responsible for more than US$30 billion in assets) should get involved in a Calgary-Edmonton rail project.
- In post #1270, he criticizes me for providing definitions to differentiate between "bidirectional operations" (any form of operations which allows to change direction without physically turning the entire train) and "Push-Pull operations" (a special form of bidirectional operations, in which there is a locomotive at either end of the train) before answering a question.
- In post #1280, he looks back at when the LRC fleet was presented to the public and muses at how modern they still look even in their fourth decade of operations.
- In post #1300, he takes offense by drawing the comparison between continuing to respond to swimmer_spe's posts and to feeding a wild animal, which will always come back for me and never let you in peace.
That's five posts in the last 34 pages, two of which concern Western Canada, two back swimmer_spe by attacking me and only one pertains a different topic.
Then, there is
p_xavier, whose backing of swimmer_spe by attacking me for my wild animal comparison is his only post in the last 21 pages:
Just to provide a sample of the quality of his posts, this was his last post before the one above (i.e. 15 pages before that):
Finally, there is Dengler_Avenue, who also has only posted seven words in the last 21 pages:
Please correct me if I forgot something, but I don't recall anyone else showing any form of appreciation for swimmer_spe's relentless posting.
If you, Djeffery, p_xavier and Dengler_Avenue find swimmer_spe's contributions so valuable that you jump on me every time I doubt his value, then why have all four of you been so absent during the last 10-20 pages of discussions? Just to recall, this is the post count since page 51, i.e. over the last 21 pages of discussion:
- swimmer_spe: 108 posts
- milomilo: 64 posts
- Truenorth00: 52 posts
- Urban_Sky: 43 posts
- roger1818: 40 posts
- j81: 34 posts
- esquire: 23 posts
- ghYHZ: 17 posts
- GoTrans: 5 posts
- Djeffery, Acajack and someone123: 4 posts (each)
[...]
17. Dengler Avenue and p_xavier: 1 post (each)
I don't blame you if you get tired of the endless repetition of the same nonsense, but if you already can't be bothered to contribute anything substantial or constructive to this discussion, then please don't sabotage the efforts of people like Truenorth00, milomilo, Roger1818 or myself (i.e. the people who actually still bother investing time and effort into the discussion) by encouraging him to spam even more as he already does and by pretending that you actually care about the points he's making (your lack of participation clearly shows none of you four does).
And finally, rather than whining around about how unfair your spammer-friend is treated while sabotaging our efforts to contain his compulsive spamming, what about providing constructive suggestions about how we can maintain a discussion about VIA Rail in any thread (existing or new) on Skyscraper Page, which won't get hijacked with the Western-Canada-daily-intercity-rail-garbage your spammer-friend has been dumping on us over 72 pages of discussion by now (and he seems determined to continue here)?
So now, if someone could please tell spammer_moron to go back to his troll thread before he also ruins this thread, we might actually be able to discuss here about something else than whether or not intercity trains nobody wants to pay for should operate all over Western Canada and without being forced to try to argue with a moron who will rather escalate the thread over ten-thousand pages than reconsider his views which are even more entrenched in his head than the religious beliefs of a Scientologist or Yehova’s witness...
Thank you!
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