Thread
My goodbye message
Dear 68kMLA Community,
My times on this forum have been wonderful. I have enjoyed learning about the vintage Macintoshes from all of you, and I would not be in this position with my collection without the help. But, I have came to a decision in life that I want to share with you all. I have realized, that collecting old macs rapidly becomes hoarding. It becomes an unhealthy habit, you end up indoors constantly, and it ruins your health. I find it hard to avoid massive spending related to computers in general. It turns into a shopping habit. I have some very strong advice to all of you:
Only collect the models you want. Don't make that huge.
You will end up ignoring many of them if you have too many. Lots of us have had this happen here, and I am the next one. I understand that it is a genuine hobby to collect computers, and it still is for me, but the toll it has put on myself is rather large.
Thus, my use for this forum has expired essentially. I urge all of you by all means not to stop collecting, but only to concentrate on what you want and keep your collections small. It becomes a "Hats And Feets" addiction rather fast. And its understandable, these macs are Insanely Great. Only concentrate on what is Insanely Great for you. Keep it simple.
So, due to outside and internal influences, and my wish to move on elsewhere with hobbies and pass-times, I am leaving. There is no purpose to continue here, and I felt that sharing my thoughts was needed.
Sincerely, and farewell and best of luck to all of you.
-System7
My times on this forum have been wonderful. I have enjoyed learning about the vintage Macintoshes from all of you, and I would not be in this position with my collection without the help. But, I have came to a decision in life that I want to share with you all. I have realized, that collecting old macs rapidly becomes hoarding. It becomes an unhealthy habit, you end up indoors constantly, and it ruins your health. I find it hard to avoid massive spending related to computers in general. It turns into a shopping habit. I have some very strong advice to all of you:
Only collect the models you want. Don't make that huge.
You will end up ignoring many of them if you have too many. Lots of us have had this happen here, and I am the next one. I understand that it is a genuine hobby to collect computers, and it still is for me, but the toll it has put on myself is rather large.
Thus, my use for this forum has expired essentially. I urge all of you by all means not to stop collecting, but only to concentrate on what you want and keep your collections small. It becomes a "Hats And Feets" addiction rather fast. And its understandable, these macs are Insanely Great. Only concentrate on what is Insanely Great for you. Keep it simple.
So, due to outside and internal influences, and my wish to move on elsewhere with hobbies and pass-times, I am leaving. There is no purpose to continue here, and I felt that sharing my thoughts was needed.
Sincerely, and farewell and best of luck to all of you.
-System7
You burned out fast didn't you (joined at the end of 2008 not even a year).
I was like that before I got married. Between work and home life I don't really have time to go around and collect computers anymore. At one time I had about 20 compact Macs in my itty bitty bedroom with an iMac and some Quadras. I gave away most of that stuff to charity.
Now it's just a Wallstreet II, a Lombard, Sawtooth and a Beige G3.
I still frequent the board though.
Now it's just a Wallstreet II, a Lombard, Sawtooth and a Beige G3.
I still frequent the board though.
You were nice and always brought a sense of humore here. 
We'll miss you!
And I wholeheartedly agree with your advice. After I buy a PowerComputing clone and a Macintosh IIci without PSU, I'm not going to add anything for a long time.
We'll miss you!And I wholeheartedly agree with your advice. After I buy a PowerComputing clone and a Macintosh IIci without PSU, I'm not going to add anything for a long time.
Goodbye, I guess. To be honest, I'm not a fan of the goodbye threads...Seems really attention-whoreish, in my opinion. I'm probably the only one that feels this way, though.
You're not.
Farewell.
You may not be the only one to share this opinion of goodby threads in general and some of them I can do without, depending on the circumstances, of course.
However, in this case, I think it's very difficult to dismiss this obviously heartfelt goodbye message. especially considering the warm and generous way he presented his advice regarding the avaricious collecting/hoarding habits of some of us here in the 68k community and, by extension in life's pursuit in general . . .
. . . I myself have SEVERAL hoarding addictions. :I
His advice about getting outdoors and working at remaining/becoming healthy are the same as . . . I forget his name . . . the author of The Cookoo's Egg. A genuine innovator, diligent, creative and thorough investigator, and a true hero of the online community.
I, for one, commend System7's efforts to help the rest of the 68kMLA Community with his, IMHO, excellent advice.
I haven't known of you for very long, System7, but you will be missed by myself and many others.
Farewell, comrade!
jt :'(
p.s. . . . oh yeah! The author was Clifford Stoll! Disnomia, coupled with the ravages of time on the brain, REALLY $****! :-/
Goodbye. Though I don't see any point in completely disappearing. I remember one user that disappeared but came back. coughimac600cough. I do relate to the hoarding issue. For a while I kept on taking the systems in. I've only gotten rid of my iMac G3s and the rest I've found places for where they aren't in the way (closets etc). After I got my Apple IIgs I just realized I wasn't gonna use it and that I was just collecting this stuff for the sake of collecting it. Farewell then, hopefully after you've gotten a break you'll find time to come back here in moderation.
Good luck, but I'm sure you'll be back. I'm a bit of a hoarder myself, (lots of "useless" spare parts) but I'm trying to find the space to have all my systems set up and functioning. Maybe when I get more systems, I'll open a vintage apple computer museum. :lol:
My thoughts are, "Meh, I have it, might as well keep it in case I need it. It'll be a PITA to find another one if I throw it out." Hence things tend to pile up quickly. 
Um...
"But why should i throw out that Cd-R with bacteria colonies growing on it? I might need it sometime..."
"But why should i throw out that Cd-R with bacteria colonies growing on it? I might need it sometime..."
That you can throw out.
Why not just clean it then store it properly?
Because it is blank.
cause you can buy a billion of them for 10 dollars
I'm not going to criticise System7's farewell thread because I think it includes a valuable piece of advice.
I see collecting as having two negative consequences. It reduces the hobby to acquisitions and maintenance. Which is fine if you like finding rare stuff and maintaining it for posterity. In my case though, it made vintage computing tedious and I eventually dropped the hobby. The second problem is that it excludes the possibility of exploring stuff in depth. Several people on these boards have well over 60 computers in their collections, which means that they could dedicate a different machine to each week of the year and still have machines left over to explore. Realistically speaking, there is very little that you can learn and do within that week so some sort of focus is a necessity.
I see collecting as having two negative consequences. It reduces the hobby to acquisitions and maintenance. Which is fine if you like finding rare stuff and maintaining it for posterity. In my case though, it made vintage computing tedious and I eventually dropped the hobby. The second problem is that it excludes the possibility of exploring stuff in depth. Several people on these boards have well over 60 computers in their collections, which means that they could dedicate a different machine to each week of the year and still have machines left over to explore. Realistically speaking, there is very little that you can learn and do within that week so some sort of focus is a necessity.
Yes, I went on leave for a while. Once I felt the time was right and my circumstances were a little better, I returned. A lot of my machines were lost in that transition, but I bought just one or two compacts afterward and i've otherwise left it at that.
We'll miss you system 7.
He will come back in a few years as system 8.1.
I understand the hoarding issue, it is something many of us have faced - myself included. I have since paired down my collection to these:
8600
BeigeG3MT
Sawtooth
PB5300cs
iBook 600 - Now failing and soon to be sold.
I want to get it down to just the Beige G3 and the 5300.
That all being said I have found the MLA to be an excellent forum and one I wouldn't dream of leaving even I didn't own a Mac. It's a wonderful community full of bright people and the occasional flame war. Throughout my years as a member here, I have always felt proud to belong to this group.
While I do wish System 7 good luck and whatnot in his future endeavors I sincerely hope he rethinks his position and decides to remain on-board with us.
Good luck and godspeed friend.
8600
BeigeG3MT
Sawtooth
PB5300cs
iBook 600 - Now failing and soon to be sold.
I want to get it down to just the Beige G3 and the 5300.
That all being said I have found the MLA to be an excellent forum and one I wouldn't dream of leaving even I didn't own a Mac. It's a wonderful community full of bright people and the occasional flame war. Throughout my years as a member here, I have always felt proud to belong to this group.
While I do wish System 7 good luck and whatnot in his future endeavors I sincerely hope he rethinks his position and decides to remain on-board with us.
Good luck and godspeed friend.
My thoughts on posts like these are the same as a few people have mentioned. Essentially, don't let the door hit your rear on the way out.
In my years on this board, which are (within days) going to number a total of seven, I've seen dozens, bakers dozens, maybe even more than a hundred people come and go. A lot of them come on, post a bit, then fade out, and some of them come on the board, cause lots of trouble, allow their accounts to get hacked dozens of times, get banned and then evade those bans, and then finally post a big dramatic "well, I'm done here!" message.
I'll let you decide what situation this is.
In terms of hoarding, what I've found is that it's a matter of how much you can physically store, and the other part of oit is what would you be physically capable and willing to take with you in the situation that you needed to, say, move across the country. (Latitudinally or longitudinally.)
The size of my collection of usable computers that's with me has fluxuated over the past few years, ranging from "just one laptop and one external drive, plus a binder of CDs" to "between fifteen and twenty desktops and laptops." Just in my dorm room, and that has fluxuated with my physical capability to manipulate them within my alloted space, and with my physical capability to move them all when I need to.
Of course, those issues aren't big for everybody, I know many of us are pretty much where we want to be physically and everything, so having a basement chock full of machines is really not a problem.
So in terms of "hoarding" I think there are no universal hard and fast rules. My level of concern is about 8 machines, most of which need to be tiny or laptops, so before I allow myself to get another (I'm at 7 now) I need to re-evaluate which of the machines I have I ever use, and which I can get rid of, either by putting them back at my dad's house, or recycling/selling/giving.
In my years on this board, which are (within days) going to number a total of seven, I've seen dozens, bakers dozens, maybe even more than a hundred people come and go. A lot of them come on, post a bit, then fade out, and some of them come on the board, cause lots of trouble, allow their accounts to get hacked dozens of times, get banned and then evade those bans, and then finally post a big dramatic "well, I'm done here!" message.
I'll let you decide what situation this is.
In terms of hoarding, what I've found is that it's a matter of how much you can physically store, and the other part of oit is what would you be physically capable and willing to take with you in the situation that you needed to, say, move across the country. (Latitudinally or longitudinally.)
The size of my collection of usable computers that's with me has fluxuated over the past few years, ranging from "just one laptop and one external drive, plus a binder of CDs" to "between fifteen and twenty desktops and laptops." Just in my dorm room, and that has fluxuated with my physical capability to manipulate them within my alloted space, and with my physical capability to move them all when I need to.
Of course, those issues aren't big for everybody, I know many of us are pretty much where we want to be physically and everything, so having a basement chock full of machines is really not a problem.
So in terms of "hoarding" I think there are no universal hard and fast rules. My level of concern is about 8 machines, most of which need to be tiny or laptops, so before I allow myself to get another (I'm at 7 now) I need to re-evaluate which of the machines I have I ever use, and which I can get rid of, either by putting them back at my dad's house, or recycling/selling/giving.
Must have been an incandecent lightbulb... :
Or a projector lamp. 