Miataphiles.com

There's a link over to the right of the screen for "miataphiles.com". At one point, I was a member of the site, and would find some of the threads on their board interesting. I even went so far as to go to some of the monthly meets, and even went on a trip to Deals Gap with 26 other Miatas and a total of about 30 GTA miataphiles.

Way back in (2002? 2003?) when I registered, I lived in Barrie. The Miataphiles are a GTA (read: Toronto) based group, which more or less means they don't see much life "North of Steeles" (unless there's a twisty road involved). So, I couldn't always head out to monthly meets, or random last-minute meets at the strippers or whereverthehell they ended up. Because of this, I'd log in from time to time, read some of the threads, and maybe post once in a while. Plus, I didn't have the money to blow on the gas, let alone on beer and food every time they'd all meet up.

Fast forward to the summer of 2005: I moved to Richmond Hill to be closer to work. I think to myself, "Hey, I'm finally closer, I can actually take part in some Miataphile fun!" And what do I find? My username/password allowed me to log into the board, but I have NO ACCESS to any of the threads! I can't read anything, I can't post anything, and there's only ONE link to email the site administrator (which I did repeatedly, with NO RESPONSE).

Today, I logged onto the site for the first time in a while, since I couldn't actually *do* anything on the site any other time I logged in... and it's all re-arranged! Adding to this, they have a brand spankin' new FAQ section, with one fantastic question/statement:

I registered in the past but cannot log in anymore!

And the answer? This is GOLD:

"The most likely reasons for this are: you entered an incorrect username or password (check the email you were sent when you first registered) or the administrator has deleted your account for some reason. If it is the latter case then perhaps you did not post anything? It is usual for boards to periodically remove users who have not posted anything so as to reduce the size of the database. Try registering again and get involved in discussions."

Nice. So, if you're registered, and you want to post (but haven't in a while), you can't. Unless you register a whole new name. Which I also tried, which was deleted.

And after all that effort emailing in the past, trying to find out what the problem is with no response, and they say something like "try registering again?" Register THIS. Why do I have to chase them...? What is this, some sort of exclusive club? Eat me.

I'd have participated a bit more in the discussions, but most of them were about CRAP. Seriously. And most of the people on the site were god-damn post whores. I honestly didn't have the time required to waste hours and hours every day reading and posting on that site. But occassionally, the stuff there was good - it was just harder to find.

And the alternative? Trillium Miata Club. Although it's gotted a bit of a bad rap in the past for being an old person's Miata club... what's wrong with old people? At least they're not all cliquey and highschool-ish like the Miataphiles.

Long live the Klown!