Matt drops "the webmaster", Hello Elise

“Don't even think something like that Bowlderman. Man, I need a drink now.”

“Thank you, thank you. I'm here all week!”

“thanks for your service, matt. i hope you made a killing on the sale! if i ever get to hike with you the beer is on me.”

“DITTO...matt, cigars and coffee on me.”

“Congratulations Matt.
I hope you were fairly compensated for your efforts.

I would also like to take the time to formally opt out of any marketing, data mining or information sharing efforts the new owners may be currently operating or considering in the future.
last edited: 6/21/07 8:45:27 AM”

“Thanks for creating and running this site for the number of years that you have.

It would require too much space and time to recite all of the good that has come from it.

But at a minimum the number of hiking relationships, group trips and lasting friendships that have formed stand in testament to the forum you provided.

And that does not even speak to the marriages . . .and I imagine resulting children that have also been . . .spawned.

Many many thanks Matt.”

“Congrats Matt! I got round 2 at Sacco's place.”

“Good morning, Mrs. Dork!!
(Lyra, that is)

XL, you are a fat mother#&%!$er!!!!
.....and much younger than I had thought!
last edited: 6/21/07 8:52:25 AM”

“Jimmy and Kneebone, if he made a killing he can buy the drinks!”

“Yo! :-)

Yeah, thanks Matt. If you hadn't invented this site, I prolly wouldn't have met my hubby! TT rocks.”

“Thanks for years of fun (and wasted time) Matt - I hope you were well compensated for your efforts.”

“LOL..Marko..Thats a HUGGINANDCHALKIN woman


you make a chalk mark on her when you start hugging so you know when you are finished.”

“Congrats Matt.

Hey Elise ... could you email me a list of Violin's and Stove Stomper's trolls?”

““is anybody else worried?”
cRaSh BaNg
10:39:21 PM
6/20/07

Let's put it this way....


Will the last backpacker out of here please bring the TrailTalk flag?”

“now that Matt is leaving and there is talk of PAYING to troll here, company production will rise way up high.
Matt all companies will thank you”

“Are the rules still the same? This doesn't me that he-who-must-not-be-named will come back, does it? (I'll probably get another threatening angry e-mail from him now.)

Thanks for the memories, Matt!

Welcome, Elise! Be good to us and we'll be good to you (mostly).”

“lyra - you mean alleged hubby!


I second HPM's thoughts. I'm opting out of the marketing mumbo jumbo too!”

“Matt, thanks for all you've done for this site and our "little" community of backpackers. Sorry to see you leaving the healm, but fully understand.

Elise, welcome. Please don't &$#% with the site.

Good one, BowlderMan.”

“looks like we better keep a backup of e-mail addies of our friends, swap some IM names, and throw around updated phone #'s.

I hope nothing changes, but we're in the corporate world now.

Phil, can we get an update on your page with e-mail addies?...lol”

“LMAO! Oh sorry for the misspeak, dayhiker. That's what I say to him all the time..."Honey, you're the best alleged husband ever."”

“Wow, I go away for awhile and look what happens!

I'll add myself to the Thank You Matt crowd. It's amazing it has been that long. I found my here in 1998 and thought the place rocked. You really did a great thing in establishing this community Matt. I've met some great people and even learned a thing or two. What more can you ask?

Elise, welcome aboard! We may bark a lot but believe me most of us have no teeth. I hope you get as much out of the experience as it appears Matt and all of us have.”

“That's as close as an admission as I'm probably going to get lyra. Busted!!!!!

Seriously, congrats.”

“Hey, Matt, you've been great over the years. Makes sense to me that you might want more family time and less TT maintenance time after your day job.”

“Check out the first sentence....

Hillclimb Media was founded in 1999 to develop premium pay-for-content web sites


#&%!$ that.”

“maybe we'll get him out on more hikes!!


Thanks Matt, you've been a good egg.

Can we know who the trolls are now?”

“Haha, thanks dayhiker!

Yeah, it's totally time for the unveiling of all trolls.”

“Well, I am not paying squat to hang out with you dorks.”

“And I'll be hanged if I'll pay to squat with you dorks!”

“Ban Matt Now!”

“We really need to get a site set up with email addys.

The day this goes "pay as you go" is the day I bolt.”

“I'm with you, Hombre!”

“If I was a more enterprising capitalist I think I'd start a board right now, and invite you all over to hangout. I imagine a new board would really take off, assuming this one goes pay site. I'm not that enterprising though. Oh, and I don't have the technical know how.

OTOH,

Are the people I've met and become friends with worth a yearly subscription to this place? Absolutely.”

“
to develop premium pay-for-content web sites...


Is the party over?
Is it time to call it a day?


Nat Cole Strikes from Afar.

”

“Give me some time.”

“Tilt, Nat Cole smoked himself to death a long time ago.”

“Yeah, they have a pipe dream coming if they think I'll pay for this site.

Again, thanks Matt for all your effort through the years. This has been a really great place to hang out and waste company time.”

“the problem is, MATT owned the website before. a single person, with a single, unique vision (thank you matt for the great site). NOW its owned by a corporation, i.e., a bunch of men and women in suits with no vision but lots of surveys and polls, sitting in a committee trying to decide whats the best way to make money instead of whats the best way to make a website. and we all know what kind of great decisions are made by committee”

“And AGAIN, thanks Matt for all the great years. If it would've not been for this site I prolly never would've gotten into backpacking. This was the only site I got answers. I hope it'll stay the same, but have a feeling it wont.”

“WOW...sounds like the Democratic Party...or sadly the Republican Party....


Maybe they will be Libertarian...and it will continue to be a free exchange of ideas between intelligent people and RAVING psychos who fled to Korea to avoid prosecution. (LOL)”

“CB, is this the committee you're thinking of?



”

““WOW...sounds like the Democratic Party...or sadly the Republican Party....


Maybe they will be Libertarian...and it will continue to be a free exchange of ideas between intelligent people and RAVING psychos who fled to Korea to avoid prosecution. (LOL)”
XL400236
10:07:19 AM
6/21/07

What did you do with XL?”

“Are the people I've met and become friends with worth a yearly subscription to this place? Absolutely.”
dayhiker
10:54:30 AM
6/21/07

Being the economist that I am...if this go to pay to view, you can direct all contact to me through my agent, dayhiker.”

“If you charge for this place it will die a quick death. I mean, does anyone here actually pay to use a backpacking Web site? Something like consumer reports, maybe, but for backpacking info? I don't think so. I'll go back to newsgroups before I'd pay for access to a backpacking site...”

“chili - I would definitely pay money to wind up listening to the UT/Bama game with you and longlost in the Smokies....provided Bama wins again.

See, we all have these great memories of trips that would have never happened if Matt hadn't put this together. I'd say 90% of my backpacking trips have been with TT'ers.”

“I concur, dayhiker.

But hell, we can from the TT "expatriot" site for free on MySpace.”

“~shudder, twitch, flinch~
last edited: 6/21/07 10:33:01 AM”

“HPM, at myspace or at listening to a UT game?”

“The herd mentality is taking over. All we know is that there is a new administrator and the website has been sold. 100 posts later we're in mass hysteria and writing business plans for a new website since it's already a forgone conclusion that the new owners are gonna booger this one up.”

“Well, given their exposed background, I'd say the track record is pretty spotted.”

“But hey, I figured things were going downhill when the Mormon ads started up...”