lets ban the mountain masher!!!!!!!
December 10, 2004
22 posts
15 users
5k+ views
I say we vote his negativity off the island. If we really wanted long ski seasons we'd all move.
Haven't you ever heard xmas eve is better than xmas day? Well we here in the Mid-Atlantic are fortunate enough to have an extremely long xmas eve for our Ski seasons. And three good months is great!
So whoever is in favor of clipping his ticket and throwing him off the mountain say aye
I say we don't ban the mountain masher. First of all, having been a part of numerous message boards, calls to ban a poster never work out well. It's not good to call out another poster in public. Second, we need to hear the good and the bad about skiing and ski areas. The Masher is definitely way too negative, but there is a small kernel of truth to many of his/her posts. I disagree with him/her about the degree of environmental damage at the Knob, but I agree that the skiing conditions in the BK glades generally suck and that no way Whitetail has a consistent three month ski season.
And this opionion is coming from the poster who has borne a lot of the brunt of the Mountain Masher / Steve / ? BK glade skier bashing.
I haven't seen the environmental damage at BK that the Masher see's through his half full glass of water, however, I don't think we ought to treat him like the Republicans treat the French because he looks at things a bit differently than we do. Maybe he needs a little DCSKI love or perhaps some antidepresents.
While the Mountain Masher seams to always have a negative attitude on this board he has done nothing to warrant being banned. Although it would be nice to have a Blue Knob post without having to hear about the destructive logging of the mountain it is nothing to ban the guy over. He has a point he wants to make and has done an great job of getting it out. This board would be a boring place without a little controversy. Besides he is responsible for some of the liveliest discussions this past summer and the sole reason to bring me out of lurking and into the active posting mode. So Mountain Masher I hope to see you keep posting and stirring it up a little here.
OK, I'll see if I can get some recent pictures of BK scanned and loaded onto Webshots (without any editorial, other than providing specifics as to where the pictures were taken) and then you-all can decide for yourselves. I'm going to be in NYC for a long weekend, but I'll try to post some pictures soon after I return. Although I'm a mainstream environmentalist, I've been skiing and racing for over 40 years and I think that I add something to this forum.
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While the Mountain Masher seams to always have a negative attitude on this board he has done nothing to warrant being banned. Although it would be nice to have a Blue Knob post without having to hear about the destructive logging of the mountain it is nothing to ban the guy over. He has a point he wants to make and has done an great job of getting it out. This board would be a boring place without a little controversy. Besides he is responsible for some of the liveliest discussions this past summer and the sole reason to bring me out of lurking and into the active posting mode. So Mountain Masher I hope to see you keep posting and stirring it up a little here.
I agree. Mountain Masher represents the growing disconnection (both here and elsewhere) between local citizens and mountain managment at ski resorts. His views are occasionally pessimistic but he always backs his statements up with facts gleaned from local news stories and firsthand observations. I've personally learned a lot about BK's problems through his posts.
Masher,
I agree with John. For heaven's sake, I thought we had the right to free speech in this country
To be banned over speaking your mind (with a lot of fact backing it up no less), would be inexcusable
Anyway I can't imagine that Scott would ever take this seriously. Keep it up, it's kept the LLLOOOONNNNGGG off season interesting
-Warren-
I agree with the bulk of these posts that masher has done nothing to warrant banning. But as his post here shows, he is relentless in his opinions and agenda. While this can be annoying sometimes, it is not destructive.
Myrto, what prompted your call for his banning? I think this might be the bigger question.
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I say we vote his negativity off the island. If we really wanted long ski seasons we'd all move.
Haven't you ever heard xmas eve is better than xmas day? Well we here in the Mid-Atlantic are fortunate enough to have an extremely long xmas eve for our Ski seasons. And three good months is great!
So whoever is in favor of clipping his ticket and throwing him off the mountain say aye
Jeez, This is tongue-in-cheek right? Right?
Mountain Mashers posts are enlightening.
All skiers are environmentalists whether they know it or not.
No banning, but Mountain Masher sounds an awful lot like Steve V from last year.
One-trick ponies are always tough to listen to. But instead of saying "ban him," I'd say instead that, if you're getting tired of what he's talking about, ask him if he'll talk about something else *in addition to* his comments regarding BK. I'd certainly be interested in hearing MM on other subjects.
You know, it's really no different than Andy with his obsession over raping Mount Porte Crayon....
(just kidding Andy)
Mountain Masher, you remind me of my brother-in-law. His nickname is Eyore after the cute little a$# in Whinney the Pooh. "Eyore" is a pretty bright guy and we love him to death, but the "oh woe is me" bit is what really makes him special. I plan to make my first trip to Blue Knob this season, but I don't know..can't find the Blue Trail, extrovert is soooo icey, I think i saw a rock in the glades, the access road is washed out......
Looking forward to ski season, no matter how long it lasts
jimmy
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While the Mountain Masher seams to always have a negative attitude on this board he has done nothing to warrant being banned. Although it would be nice to have a Blue Knob post without having to hear about the destructive logging of the mountain it is nothing to ban the guy over. He has a point he wants to make and has done an great job of getting it out. This board would be a boring place without a little controversy. Besides he is responsible for some of the liveliest discussions this past summer and the sole reason to bring me out of lurking and into the active posting mode. So Mountain Masher I hope to see you keep posting and stirring it up a little here.
I agree. Mountain Masher represents the growing disconnection (both here and elsewhere) between local citizens and mountain managment at ski resorts. His views are occasionally pessimistic but he always backs his statements up with facts gleaned from local news stories and firsthand observations. I've personally learned a lot about BK's problems through his posts.
Its not just ski resorts, development in general is at least as inherantly descructive as it is constructive. That is why developers need to seek community buyin and that is why we ahve local laws for zoning, environmental protection, etc...
I agree that there is a huge disconnect between development proponents and current local residents. Let me give you an example. As child I grew up in the western rockville / north potomac neighborhood. Accross the street from my house was a 300 acre woods / swampy area that wa sthe headwatter of piney branch. Begining my sophmore year in highschool the area was developed in stages by the addition of University of MD extension, a large housing area and finally a the new Human Genome building. So the area where I spent countless summer nights exploring asa child is no longer there. The effect of havign a place like that on a community is very important and I think the kids gorwing up today can go to the park and play basketball, but there isn't as much adventure in those things so I sort of feel sorry for them. The social aspect and identity of a community can change in very subtle ways when a major development takes place. I think local people have a right to defend their community.
I am not sure why anyone would want to ban anyone. This is an open forum. Everyone here has been more than helpful whenever I have any problems. We all have our opinions, but no one will be convinced with out evidence. Personally I think that the recent criticizm and discussion about BK represent and evolution in the debate from 2003 where the was much more name calling and much less factual discussion.
Frankly, I think Mountain Masher needs to remain. We often forget what irresponsible resort management does to the mountains (well ok, large hills) we love to ski on. Whether its BK, Springs, Snowshoe or whoever, we need to know those resorts that are looking to the building for the future rather than destroying the countryside for a few extra bucks now. I will always chose skiing a resort that is recognized under various conservation initiatives such as Sustainable Slopes (http://www.nsaa.org/nsaa/environment/sustainable_slopes/) over that which doesn't such as BK. Some of the local hills which support NSAA Sustainable Slopes are the Snowtime group(Liberty et.al.), Snowshoe, Timberline and Wisp.
I too am interested in why Myrto seems to think Mountain Masher does not belong on this forum.
Tromano- I'm getting a masters degree in urban and regional planning here at Va Tech and the disconnect you speak of is becoming more apparent with every passing week, but it is often not for adverse reasons. The land UMD had was probably zoned for development (like the woods was behind my house- haven't we all lost a woodlot that we grew up in?) and in many cases developers try to comply with the comprehensive plan: build here, don't build there. But there are several disconnects.
1) local governments have an incentive to underzone their land, so that it *seems* developers are always increasing densities when the local government actually wants them to do that;
2) local residents may have different ideas about what to do with the land than the town does (case in point is a potential in-fill development here in Blacksburg: some locals apparently want to see it as residential and parks but the land is both zoned and priced for retail/commercial. You couldn't build houses alone there and make any money)
3) developers can be completely tone deaf to what a community needs or wants as well.
What you wind up with is the spiral of incohesiveness. I'm a shade defensive about developers because I'm most likely going to end up with a development firm and I believe that since this country is growing, we're going to need more development to go with it- ergo it's extremely important to do it right.
That's where folks like MM are very helpful. SOMEONE has to shine a spotlight on people that screw up. I think he sometimes goes overboard in always bringing the conversation back to how bad things are at BK, no matter what is being discussed about BK, but think about places like WV where they are dumping hillsides into creeks and there's no organized lobby to protest it. For all the criticism and pessimism MM has, isn't it better that PA has someone like him? And aren't we better off hearing his opinion-- even if some of us wished we didn't hear it as vociferously?
Now if MM or anyone else was doing nothing but insulting other posters and/or hijacking message threads, then I think there'd be ground to ban him... or anyone else that engaged in that kind of behavior. But I haven't had any personal problems with his posts and he does confine his criticism of BK to BK threads, so even among some type of informal rule structure, he's done absolutely nothing to be banned. In the future, I think Tromano has the right outlook: feel free to contest what he says (as we all can contest anything we agree/disagree with), and ask him if he can comment on other subjects or say something positive once in a while.
I was Kidding!!!
Haven't you noticed by now that I try not to miss an ooportunity to stir the pot?
Mountain masher and I are probably to a dgree evil kindred spirits.LOL
Quote-Jeez, This is tongue-in-cheek right? Right?
Yes Terrapin completely tongue and cheek
quote "I too am interested in why Myrto seems to think Mountain Masher does not belong on this forum. "
Just making sure every one is awake lol
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I was Kidding!!!
Haven't you noticed by now that I try not to miss an ooportunity to stir the pot?
Mountain masher and I are probably to a dgree evil kindred spirits.LOL
Nice "backpeddling"
just kidding .. see if you were awake.
Let's ban Myrto.
Am I kidding, or am I serious?
Seriously you've got to be kidding
I think rather than banning anyone, a duel between myrto and the mountain masher would be best. We'll need to pick a suitable location, weapons of choice and qualified seconds. We could charge admission, set up a concession stand and use the proceeds to fund the statue of andy on MPC.
Suggestions, anyone?
CSP
Although i dont agree with many things he says i do think he does add something to all the discussions.
I say they should race down the glades of Blue Knob. Weapons of choice is their skis.
