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By popular demand, the Welcome Wagon once more.
To all of you that have just found the TGR Forums:
Welcome to one of the zaniest, craziest, coolest places on the entire net, and the ultimate haven for hard-chargin', story-writin', zappa recitin', flame-throwin', 24-7-365 thinkin' (about skiin' and boardin', anyway), gear-debatin', pow-ridin' people in the world!
Before you get started here you may want to read the following thoughts by some of the regulars around here. I have no idea what they'll say, and threads around here sometimes degrade pretty quickly, but nevertheless, reading this will quite likely help you ease your way into what may become your second worst addiction, if you're anything like us. Just remember, at least you get to keep your teeth.
A few nuggets of "wisdom" 
before the Referee calls a penalty or the Angry Whelk spews on you from above:
1. Very little is done in moderation here...
...including moderation itself. This place - although hosted and maintained by Teton Gravity Research and the constant contributions of the TGR webmonkeys - has little active moderation. Owens Never Sleeps, the webguy, Frozen, or most likely the The Suit or Advres will throw down when absolutely needed (do not trifle with them, for they are killers), but the rest of time, we're on our own. As a result, we've become (for the most part) a wholly self-regulating entity. If you put up something nasty, or worse, something truly heinious and criminal, we're going to track you down in the real world. It's happened before, and it'll happen again. The combined sleuthing prowess of this place is actually a little scary. This also means that we, as a group, are responsible for the quality and nature of the dialogue. So, while I can tell you to [American Pie]suck me beautiful[/Pie], you Jerk-Off-Newbie-Gaper (and if I don't, someone else probably will at one point or another), too much of that kind of thing gets old pretty fast (although it does help us get through the summers. If it's summer, and you just started reading, do yourself a favor and come back around October.) Speaking of chestbeating, that brings me to...
2. Its only an internet chat room.
So don't get your dainty little panties in a big nasty wad. Sometimes - actually MOST of the time - we ride people pretty hard for stupid crap they say, do, and so on. That's just how it is around here. Don't like it? Grow a spine or go away. No wanking allowed.
Don't bother trying to change the place; either learn to live with the atmosphere, or just go the hell away. If it's one person in particular you don't *heart*, just use your Ignore List. But whatever you do, DON'T FEED THE TROLLS looking for a reaction. Quite often the best response is no response. All that said...
3. Its not just an internet chat room.
The thing is, this isn't your ordinary chat room. Not anymore. This Board is filled by writers (budding and pro, Powder Magazine, and vitriolic Joe), photographers (amateur, up-and-coming, and old guard), pro freeskiers, aspiring freeskiers, backcountry riders, heli-guides, engineers, lawyers, programmers, doctors, students, drop-outs, high schoolers, new schoolers, old schoolers (and future schoolers?), knee-droppers, lift operators, party hoppers, tourons, morons, and bombshell blonds (although it's always nice to have a few more of those). More importantly, many (if not most) of us have skied together, partied together, and slept on each other's floors as a direct result of this place. Those who haven't probably will soon enough. For looking like an anonymous internet chat room, this place is actually a very well connected community. Don't be deceived! This place is as real as anything out there in the real world. And we're everywhere too. West Coast, East Coast, North Side, South Side, Cali, Washington, OOtah, NYC, Beantown, New Zealand, Austria, France, and more. Which is exactly why you should never, I repeat...
4. Never judge this book by its cover.
Beause you just don't know who you may be talking to. And that, combined with #1, #2, and #3, makes for truly hilarious situations. Many years ago, we had a long running joke with industry icons Shane McConkey and Scott Gaffney about their behavior behind closed doors, at least until Gaffney kicked McShlonkey out in a vicious lover's spat
; but they slagged back at us too. I'm afraid I once ribbed (very lightly, but with no lubrication...) one of the most accomplished ski mountaineers in the country, and he hasn't been around since. Oh well. Guess it just wasn't his style; maybe he prefers studded? I'm not saying that it's all childish, immature stuff that goes on here. There's actually a GOLDMINE of intellectual, soul-stirring, heart-warming, stoke-provoking posts here. But you have to find the gems amongst the noise. And to really get it, you've got to engage. To read and write, to participate, to debate with some intelligence, to create something new. To add to the community, to build it up and not to break it down. In short, to give before you are able to receive. That's because...
5. There's a bit of history here.
I'm not going to over do it - in the end, we're all still just a bunch of snow-loving interweb weirdos (and yeah, if you're wondering, we get some pretty strange looks from people when they ask where we're from, and we tell them "the internet"), but a lot of stuff has gone down in this community in the past six years. We've made our own t-shirts, produced stickers, and have shwag for sale. We raised money to support Silverton Mountain when it was just getting going. We've raised cash for charitable causes many times over and collected gear for a friend of a friend of a friend whose house burned down (we even got a little thank you at the end of a ski flick for that one). We've sent two cancer survivers heli-skiing, by donation. We designed the AK No Ka Oi's, and we spawned PMGear, producers of the BroModel ski. We've had multiple annual "Summit" gatherings (read: 50+ person parties!) from Utah to British Columbia to Tahoe to Jackson, and we've had countless nutty mini-summits on Mt. Hood, up in the bEast, Chamonix, and elsewhere. We've been written up in Powder Magazine, and these days it seems like Maginions (Powdermaggots + miniONS = Maginions) are popping up in movies and big mountain comps everwhere you look. These days, there's a maggot in every magazine. We've seen people quit their jobs to pursue the dream, and we've seen people get new jobs and leave it behind (although, not for long, we hope). We've seen people get injured, and we've seen them make a comeback. We've seen people get married, produce mini-Minions
, and sadly, we've even lost some of our own to the white room in the sky (RIP GSpot, Demolition Woman, and Plakespear).
Point being, this community, like the magazine that spawned it, is truly "For Skiers [and Riders!], By Skiers [and Riders!]." If you wake up in the middle of July, sweating not because of the heat, but rather, because of the sheer intensity of your desire to get back to ripping knee-deep powder; if you can form complete sentences and articulate your thoughts, then we want you and your creative juices here. And if you're a hot 6' blond named Victoria, we want pictures too. Naked ones. Lot's of them.
Anyway, that's what's I've got. Now, shut your cake-hole for a little while, and read before you post! Remember, post first, then smoke crack. Or is it the other way around? I can never remember.
Much luv to the Minions.
EDIT: READ the rest of the thread, these jokers actually put some good info in here, imagine that!
To all of you that have just found the TGR Forums:
Welcome to one of the zaniest, craziest, coolest places on the entire net, and the ultimate haven for hard-chargin', story-writin', zappa recitin', flame-throwin', 24-7-365 thinkin' (about skiin' and boardin', anyway), gear-debatin', pow-ridin' people in the world!
Before you get started here you may want to read the following thoughts by some of the regulars around here. I have no idea what they'll say, and threads around here sometimes degrade pretty quickly, but nevertheless, reading this will quite likely help you ease your way into what may become your second worst addiction, if you're anything like us. Just remember, at least you get to keep your teeth.
A few nuggets of "wisdom" before the Referee calls a penalty or the Angry Whelk spews on you from above:1. Very little is done in moderation here...
...including moderation itself. This place - although hosted and maintained by Teton Gravity Research and the constant contributions of the TGR webmonkeys - has little active moderation. Owens Never Sleeps, the webguy, Frozen, or most likely the The Suit or Advres will throw down when absolutely needed (do not trifle with them, for they are killers), but the rest of time, we're on our own. As a result, we've become (for the most part) a wholly self-regulating entity. If you put up something nasty, or worse, something truly heinious and criminal, we're going to track you down in the real world. It's happened before, and it'll happen again. The combined sleuthing prowess of this place is actually a little scary. This also means that we, as a group, are responsible for the quality and nature of the dialogue. So, while I can tell you to [American Pie]suck me beautiful[/Pie], you Jerk-Off-Newbie-Gaper (and if I don't, someone else probably will at one point or another), too much of that kind of thing gets old pretty fast (although it does help us get through the summers. If it's summer, and you just started reading, do yourself a favor and come back around October.) Speaking of chestbeating, that brings me to...
2. Its only an internet chat room.
So don't get your dainty little panties in a big nasty wad. Sometimes - actually MOST of the time - we ride people pretty hard for stupid crap they say, do, and so on. That's just how it is around here. Don't like it? Grow a spine or go away. No wanking allowed.
Don't bother trying to change the place; either learn to live with the atmosphere, or just go the hell away. If it's one person in particular you don't *heart*, just use your Ignore List. But whatever you do, DON'T FEED THE TROLLS looking for a reaction. Quite often the best response is no response. All that said...3. Its not just an internet chat room.
The thing is, this isn't your ordinary chat room. Not anymore. This Board is filled by writers (budding and pro, Powder Magazine, and vitriolic Joe), photographers (amateur, up-and-coming, and old guard), pro freeskiers, aspiring freeskiers, backcountry riders, heli-guides, engineers, lawyers, programmers, doctors, students, drop-outs, high schoolers, new schoolers, old schoolers (and future schoolers?), knee-droppers, lift operators, party hoppers, tourons, morons, and bombshell blonds (although it's always nice to have a few more of those). More importantly, many (if not most) of us have skied together, partied together, and slept on each other's floors as a direct result of this place. Those who haven't probably will soon enough. For looking like an anonymous internet chat room, this place is actually a very well connected community. Don't be deceived! This place is as real as anything out there in the real world. And we're everywhere too. West Coast, East Coast, North Side, South Side, Cali, Washington, OOtah, NYC, Beantown, New Zealand, Austria, France, and more. Which is exactly why you should never, I repeat...
4. Never judge this book by its cover.
Beause you just don't know who you may be talking to. And that, combined with #1, #2, and #3, makes for truly hilarious situations. Many years ago, we had a long running joke with industry icons Shane McConkey and Scott Gaffney about their behavior behind closed doors, at least until Gaffney kicked McShlonkey out in a vicious lover's spat
; but they slagged back at us too. I'm afraid I once ribbed (very lightly, but with no lubrication...) one of the most accomplished ski mountaineers in the country, and he hasn't been around since. Oh well. Guess it just wasn't his style; maybe he prefers studded? I'm not saying that it's all childish, immature stuff that goes on here. There's actually a GOLDMINE of intellectual, soul-stirring, heart-warming, stoke-provoking posts here. But you have to find the gems amongst the noise. And to really get it, you've got to engage. To read and write, to participate, to debate with some intelligence, to create something new. To add to the community, to build it up and not to break it down. In short, to give before you are able to receive. That's because...5. There's a bit of history here.
I'm not going to over do it - in the end, we're all still just a bunch of snow-loving interweb weirdos (and yeah, if you're wondering, we get some pretty strange looks from people when they ask where we're from, and we tell them "the internet"), but a lot of stuff has gone down in this community in the past six years. We've made our own t-shirts, produced stickers, and have shwag for sale. We raised money to support Silverton Mountain when it was just getting going. We've raised cash for charitable causes many times over and collected gear for a friend of a friend of a friend whose house burned down (we even got a little thank you at the end of a ski flick for that one). We've sent two cancer survivers heli-skiing, by donation. We designed the AK No Ka Oi's, and we spawned PMGear, producers of the BroModel ski. We've had multiple annual "Summit" gatherings (read: 50+ person parties!) from Utah to British Columbia to Tahoe to Jackson, and we've had countless nutty mini-summits on Mt. Hood, up in the bEast, Chamonix, and elsewhere. We've been written up in Powder Magazine, and these days it seems like Maginions (Powdermaggots + miniONS = Maginions) are popping up in movies and big mountain comps everwhere you look. These days, there's a maggot in every magazine. We've seen people quit their jobs to pursue the dream, and we've seen people get new jobs and leave it behind (although, not for long, we hope). We've seen people get injured, and we've seen them make a comeback. We've seen people get married, produce mini-Minions
, and sadly, we've even lost some of our own to the white room in the sky (RIP GSpot, Demolition Woman, and Plakespear).Point being, this community, like the magazine that spawned it, is truly "For Skiers [and Riders!], By Skiers [and Riders!]." If you wake up in the middle of July, sweating not because of the heat, but rather, because of the sheer intensity of your desire to get back to ripping knee-deep powder; if you can form complete sentences and articulate your thoughts, then we want you and your creative juices here. And if you're a hot 6' blond named Victoria, we want pictures too. Naked ones. Lot's of them.
Anyway, that's what's I've got. Now, shut your cake-hole for a little while
, and read before you post! Remember, post first, then smoke crack. Or is it the other way around? I can never remember.Much luv to the Minions.
EDIT: READ the rest of the thread, these jokers actually put some good info in here, imagine that!
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