Yes, I think they started here. But now they live in the real world as well. Before we called them 36ers they were Cokers, and people who rode them a lot were Cokerheads or Cokeurs. The Coker label held on for quite a while after Coker was the only brand, and some people still use it. Until last summer I only had Coker 36ers so it was easy for me.
I first wrote a “Where’s Your Other Wheel” article for the USAs quarterly Newsletter in 1981. It was titled “Snappy Comebacks to Stupid Remarks” but used the classic WYOW as the main line. BTW, I never saw that acronym before this thread.
Threads go back many years before Gilby created this site, to the rec.sport.unicycling days on Usenet. I think the limit is 1993. The resurrecting of old threads should follow the same rules of new ones; the reason for using it should be on-topic, and meaningful for more than one or two people. Often it is better to add to an ancient thread than to create a new one on the same topic.
Yes, though I try to be nice about it. I’m definitely less polite with long-time users that should know better.
For noob users, I expect them not to have the background of having been in this community, and answer their questions accordingly. Also I think I’m sometimes better at understanding questions from people coming in for the first time; the regulars here forget what unicycling is like for “normal” people, and have to be reminded that the vast majority of unicycles in the world are pretty basic.
Indeed. If I understand the term correctly, it’s mostly about posting off-topic. Then there’s more to it as it applies in forums, such as posting the same thing to a pile of different threads (which I guess also fits the basic definition of online spam). We’ve had a couple of recent cases of veteran forum users getting emotional and going on spamming sprees, cross-posting all over the place. A very rare temporary ban from Gilby usually brings them back to their senses pretty quick.
I had to re-read that one a couple of times. I definitely look up to JC (John Childs), especially if it has anything to do with Loctite. But as for me, I don’t really enjoy working on the unicycles. I guess I had to do a lot of it back in the day, but now I just try to buy stuff that won’t break (because now we can). 
In those, I have learned to debate intelligently (most of the time), and try to pick apart arguments, not people. I have learned there’s no reason you can’t have a discussion with someone you vehemently disagree with, as long as both of you are willing to be civil about it. This is a valuable lesson for everyone; a skill we should all cultivate. This place has been great for that, and just general practice in expressing written ideas clearly enough to be understood by non-native English speakers, kids, old folks, and other weirdos.
True. The opposite of this place is the ubiquitous “comments” area under an article or video clip on most larger sites. There, people feel free to post the rudest and most ignorant stuff ever. Stuff that would disqualify you even from appearing in one of Jay Leno’s Jay Walking segments.
Just like a car provides you with semi-anonymity (and a steel shell) while driving, the Internet is a place where one can hide and snipe all over the place.
And I’ve always treated it like I was talking to someone in real life. Who would have thought I would ever meet Rowan, for example, a guy in New Zealand? Not until a Unicon was held down there, and we hung out together on the trails of Middle Earth. I’ve met a lot of the people here; some before these forums existed and more after. I even know who “this guyI know” is. I once hired Maestro8 to be in a Trials show. I used to play Unicycle Sumo (in the 80s) with Hardcore Coker Rider. Someday I will probably get to meet Mikefule, Gild and maybe even BillyTheMountain! But hopefully not Miss Ayersley (unless I already have). 
I’ve probably brought more here than I picked up. I was involved in unicycling long before the forums, and was around for the invention of the IUF, MUni, Unicon, Trials competition, Road Racing, Street, Flat, international competition rulebooks, and MUni Weekends. We made up a lot of terminology for those things. Some of it caught on easily, while some has been a struggle.
For new slang/terminology to catch on, people have to use it. If they don’t repeat it, it won’t go anywhere. For example, while I still add the capitol U in MUni, few others still do. But they used it that way in Trivial Pursuit, and I get to take the credit for that. In another example, U Games was a great new name for the USA convention last summer in Berkeley. Beats the crap out of NAUCC, but the 2011 hosts didn’t agree. NAUCC it is.
