Messaging with the AGM Oldheads - BigPPup and Manny Stiles
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by BigPPup and Manny Stiles
Messaging with the AGM Oldheads
Brought to you by the sick deluded minds of Manny Stiles -yes, THE same Manny Stiles who prodded/convinced The Beast not only to start the "Meet the Users" series but also the same guy who inspired/frightened The Beast into continuing the "Meet the Users" series after it was on a hiatus. So don't give me any shit that this is a rip-off. This is how it was intended!
Regardless, this has nothing to do with that series anyway - this is "Messaging with the AGM Oldheads". This is about talking with the guys who remember AGM's roots and talking smack on the Users who aren't here anymore so when they Google themselves, they'll see we still care!
BigPPup
Dumont Walker is a pure sports enthusiast with a variety of pursuits. Whether he is "ranting" about anything and everything in his weekly "Walker's Rants" or keying on one of his particular passions - from rugby to golf, soccer to football, basketball, volleyball to a multitude of college sports; even the occasional round of cornhole - THIS DUDE is out there doing it! He plays the games, he enjoys the games, he understands the games and he writes about the games.
And he's been around Armchair longer than Manny Stiles, so he knows a thing or two you might not suspect.
Yeah, you might catch a typo here or there on his posts but you can't deny the man's in depth knowledge and passion for his favorite sports - plus he's got the kickass dreads!!!
Now, The Original DDub (one of the many names I have called him) and I have had a bunch of conversations over the past two "seasons" on Armchair ranging from life at an Atlantic 10 school (He went to Xavier, I to Temple) to me yapping about "projects" we should do together that never came to fruition to whatever questions about rugby I had at the particular moment. And I'll tell you what, there isn't a more level-headed and gracious user on this site. There isn't! Dumont is just a cool dude and I've always appreciated yapping with, so with his permission I decided to share a small sample of our conversations:
Let us begin!!!
Stiles - You are the original DDub on Armchair. You are one of those old heads that have been here longer than I have! What brought you to the 'chizzy?
BigPPup - I found out about the Chair when DNL emailed me from my website. He told me to check it out, and I liked the comments and the feedback you could get. Plus at that time there weren't more than about 75-100 active users, so you really got to know the users and could generate legit interesting conversations.
Stiles - What prompted you to begin the "Walker's Rants" series?
BigPPup - Walker's Rants came out of a couple of things. The idea originated from the old SLAM magazine where they had the bottomline which was basically Scoop Jackson ranting/musing/talking about whatever he wanted. I always liked that idea and did a similar running dialogue on my website. Finally I changed it up a bit to create a list idea that became Walker's Rants.
Stiles - Rugby is a sport a lot of people shy away from because of the physicality, but there's gotta be a ton of skill and finesse, right?
BigPPup - Rugby is the most difficult sport I have ever played. It requires such a unique skill set, that it requires a lot out of it's athletes. To play my position you must have the size and the strength of an offensive linemen, but because you handle the ball, (catching, running, passing) you need the presence of mind of a RB and a QB. Finally you are required to make tackles and be strong defender so you must also play like a D linemen. There is a lot that goes on on the field that the casual fan does not see. A lot of mental games and trying to outsmart the competition to make them do certain things that you want. That makes the sport very interesting.
Stiles - As far as 2007 goes, did any event impact your life as much as the Blacksburg Shootings (I refuse to call them the "VT shootings", because it wasn't the school's fault it happened there)???
BigPPup - The shootings in Blacksburg were a strange time. It was the first time that random violence/crazy people really hit home. Yes, I knew people who were injured in the attack, but it was more than that, it was the first time that I felt vulnerable about something. I mean if you've ever been to Blacksburg it is a nothing town that would be a cow pasture if not for Va Tech, and to think that something that tragic can happen in a place that small even with a University there, just goes to show you that the world has changed and there are no more "safe havens" out there.
Stiles - You work for a website, right? What's that like and how has it changed your perspective about how people view (news, sports, otherwise) information over the web?
BigPPup - Correct, I work for an online news syndication company called Voxant. Working for them has given me a greater understanding of how people use the internet and what type of entertainment they are looking for. Sadly, it has taught me that;
1) people will do anything to make money off the internet.
2) people will read or watch anything that has to do with nudity or sex.
However, all in all it is pretty cool to be in a cutting edge industry where you get to make the rules and many things are just being discovered as far as marketing strategies and plans.
Stiles - And now for the nitty gritty: How good are you at the game of cornhole?
BigPPup - Ah Cornhole... sadly I have not played cornhole since leaving college, but back in my prime I was one hell of a player if you gave me a case of High Life to acompany me on the field. More than anything Cornhole is probably the one thing from Ohio that I wish I had brought back to Va.
Stiles - I know not many people remember this but the Original ArmchairGM users awards were presented by yourself and a since long gone user named UFgators. I was about to do something similar because it was baseball All-Star voting season and you guys had me step aside, and for good reason - yours was more organized and definitely more fun! How did that come about?
BigPPup - The original idea behind the ArmchairGM awards was they were a farce. It came out of my frustration and hatred of the Espy's on ESPN because I consider them made up awards. So UFgators and myself decided we would generate our own made up awards and pass them out like candy to whoever we saw fit.
Speaking of animalistic users remember The Shark?
Stiles - I think The shark is still around occasionally? He's buddys with ChachiOSU, isn't he? There used to be a strong Ohio presence on the 'chair. Remember Friskysman? He was from Cleveland and he would get really cranky. I like that he was up in ESPN.com's grill all the time. He was mentioned on PAGE 2 a couple times!
Whatever happened to UF Gators? He came back for a week this past summer. Of course, I was on vacation... I liked him but is he just waiting for me to go away?
BigPPup - Yeah, UFG took some time off to attend the U of F and then came back for a quick min. I dont even know if he said hi.... I'm kinda hurt by that. I think you managed to scare him off. You seem to have that way about you Manny (cough PNatt...) I had forgotten all about Friskyman. On principal alone, I tried to forget/ignore everything that has to do with Cleveland - yes, thats you too CP!
Stiles - Actually, I called him UMFgators and we got along pretty well. He hated me at first (because he loves Derek Jeter) but we got along fine. Friskysman used to go at it with Widening Geier who oddly enough messaged me via Myspace not so long ago to tell me some things I said about him weren't nice. I only said "not many people here liked him" and I think it was a fair assessment. Even though he was a Yankees fan, he was creative and even tried to battle sports-rap with me!
Another guy who didn't like me and maybe really was scared off by the Stilish antics (I really was an obnoxious A-Hole when I first signed up) was Steaksammich. He just up and disappeared!
Too many people on the 'chair today don't remember what it was like to not have an avatar and to STRUGGLE to get 8 votes for an article.
BigPPup - Yeah Gators was a huge Jeter fan, and I always hated that, just out of my sheer hatred of everything that is Northeast. Mmm, I do remember the Frisyman-Widening Geier wars of mid '06, I believe it was. I also remember your battle sports rap, and shaking my head at my computer.
Yeah, the Chair is easy nowadays, just show up and make a post here and there and you're featured. Back in the day getting 8 votes was like a badge of courage because it was damn near impossible. Another thing that is new is the idea of plus 8 on a comment, no way that used to happen.
Stiles - Yeah, Anonymous Users used to be able to plus/minus comments (just ask MJD), but that was before I got here - I remember feeling proud, like I did something REALLY good if I got 10 votes on an article or +3 on a comment!!!
I haven't had an article NOT get promoted since August 4, 2006 -and that one wasn't worth 6 votes! - and that was back when I was TRYING to NOT get promoted!!! I would post on weekends and holidays when it was deadtown.
But then Pnatt showed up. He hated all things American and all things with established rules. That guy was a tad nutty. At first, I wanted him banned the first time he swooped onto the 'chair but not the second (Pnatt II). Remember I would go at it with him for hours asking him to "build not destroy" until I finally made the "Ignore Pnatt Group" - that dude NEEDED attention and once we froze him out like Isaih at the All-Star game, he left. I think he did some good stuff the second time and was much more level-headed but he got bullied into freaking out, so he left...
He was the troll that trolls aspire to be.
And I'll admit it, Geier had some fiery raps!
BigPPup - Yeah, you always managed to bring to heat with everything you wrote. On an odd note actually, Pnatt often reached out to me and would chat with me back on my wiki board, back in the days before a messenger service. He liked the fact that I was an American who knew and understood rugby, so he would always ask me tons of random questions about it. I never liked the guy a whole lot so it was an awkard conversation, but eh, could be worse I guess.
Stiles - I had a ton of conversations with Pnatt. A lot of Australia vs. Arizona stuff that wasn't sports related, but was at least interesting. He was an idiot, but he wasn't stupid. Actually he was just a wiki-ing world class Obsessive Compulsive Disorder patient.
Of course my favorite user of all-time was WTT02005. He was the guy who wrote the famous Volleyball article anonymously trying to make it like I wrote it. And Pean busted him - that was hilarious! He was complaining that my posts were too short!!! Where you at now WTT? Too short? HA HA!
He was complaining about me on some other websites as well... Gotta love free publicity!
Message boards, Firends and Foes, avatars, articles getting 40+ votes, boy the people who left have no idea what they're missing!!!
And you FNGs have no idea what you've missed!!!
I want to thank The Original DDub/BigPP for banging this out on the keyboard with me in doing this. He is definitely a very underrated, veteran user with a wide scope of sports knowledge and Armchair is definitely better for having him!
If you don't at least catch the Rants - what the hell is wrong with you? He's reading and voting on your stuff!!!
Armchair 4evah!
To venture through BigPPup's archive of Armchair articles - click here!
So... Which oldhead wants next???
It is not far to expect the OLDEST AGM head to hang on forever....
