It's been all too long since I last came to you with a "JANG Speaks!" column, so I thought I’d better do double-duty this time to help repent for my procrastinating sins. When I first sat down to write this, I wanted to do something positive and uplifting. However, I couldn’t fool myself for long. I’ve been holding onto some pent-up irritation for awhile, and it’s time to let it out! I’ll come back around to the upbeat stuff later.

Yeah, so what is up with some of these characters you see on the forums, getting so worked up over nothing. It's actually funny sometimes, when it's not just plain annoying. Okay, so somebody said they don't like the color you painted your truck's wheels. Oh, man. Take it personal. Get online at the same time as the other poster and start throwing 4-word insults back & forth like it's a chatroom. Curse him out. Get warned by a moderator. Curse out the moderator. Get banned. Come back with another account and start threads about how unjust the moderators are and how you hate the site. Get banned again. Come back with another account and start posting curses connected by unrecognizable, misspelled words. Go join another site and post about how happy you are to have arrived there, escaping the tyranny and oppression of URC. Sign up for URC again to post some more, because you hate it so much that you just can't stay away. Holy crap! Take a sedative! Get a girlfriend. Something!

About that tyranny & oppression thing. From time to time the disgruntled user of the month, livid over something like being (tyrannically) warned for flagrantly breaking the (oppressive) forum rules, will pull the “JANG’s a dictator” card on me. Alright, alright, you got me. I’m a dictator. I founded URC. I own it. I built it. I maintain it. I pay for it. I set the rules. I hold absolute power over it and have the final say in everything that goes on with it. Nearly four years ago I bought the UltimateRC.com domain, and at that moment I earned dictator status. So, explain to me what the big fuss is about?

Let’s see, what else has been bugging me lately. Oh yeah, people still don't seem to understand why I don't respond to their emails & PMs instantaneously. Do you really think all I do all day is sit in front of the forums, hitting refresh over & over to inflate my stats artificially and respond to every post & incoming message the moment it arrives? If you do, you've got me confused with the admin of some other R/C zone, I mean site. First off, I have a job. Not a sit at a desk and browse my own site most of the day job. A work with 2-4 different departments at the company, frequently in meetings, often on critical path, 2-8 projects at a time, direct & define the present & future look & feel of an enterprise-class application in use by over 400 organizations across the country, managerial job. Even after work and on weekends, there's more to my life than my inbox. I have a girlfriend. I have friends (real-life friends). I go out for driving practice. I do chores. I go grocery shopping. I watch TV. Get the picture? I'm a warm-blooded, adult, modern human being with a... life. Now, for good measure, throw in babysitting of the forums, working on new sites, working on my project vehicles, and managing relationships with advertisers & manufacturers, and hopefully you can figure out why I'm not responding to every email, every private message, as soon as it arrives.

Okay, enough ranting for now.

I  can't express how fulfilling it has been continuing to watch the whole URC Network phenomenon morph & grow as time goes by. Remember the humble beginnings! It was the original Ultimate Traxxas, with the Phase I Ultimate Rustler then a work in progress and the Ultimate Stampede running its original Bronco body. Who made that body? Was it Parma? No, Bolink, I think. Since then? Wow. It's gone from "hey look at my truck!" to cool little place to hang out to well-respected and practically unstoppable presence on the online R/C enthusiast map. There are webmasters out there who spend a sizable percentage of time with every major URC update browsing and saving my source code, trying to keep up by means of the good ole' copy & paste. You know what they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

The most interesting thing I've noticed in the past year with URC, though, has been the social development aspect. In the off-topic forums we have members helping each other through real-life decisions and even crises now on a regular basis. I'm talking girl trouble, school violence, financial difficulties, family problems, full-scale car buying, and so much more. It's literally having an effect on peoples' lives, and that is something I cannot take any credit for. Yes, I founded URC and its child sites. Yes, I've invested an ungodly amount of money into my projects and quite a bit into the sites, too (1 to 2 gigabytes of bandwidth per day isn't free, ya know). Yes, I've also done all of the design & coding work. However, I did not create the community. I did not create the community dynamic. With only gentle massaging at the guiding hands of our awesome group of moderators, the community has been developed by you guys & gals. For this, I cannot give enough thanks. Seriously.

I keep these sites running for you all. I enjoy your enjoyment. It brings a heartfelt smile to my face whenever a new user (whether age 14 or age 54) signs up and starts getting inspired by my vehicular creations or those of other members and immediately goes on a research rampage to launch his or her own wild new project. That's what it's all about, see -- I provide a little bit of inspiration and a managed medium for communication and the sharing of ideas, and the community does the rest.

Kudos to all of you guys & gals for making the URC community such a tremendous ongoing success.