MarylandQuitter

I love this thread. It realistically sums up what an online support community consists of. The ups, downs, unexpected twists and turns, disagreements, laughter, conversations over coffee (perfectly brewed coffee is free on the Train) and friendships are all part of the process of ridding our lives of this deadly addiction. Kind of reminds me of the Polar Express.

We have been steadily rising on the search engines. We are #1 if you type in Quit Train. Same with Quit Train Quit Smoking. This was far from the case just one month ago. We were not to be found. Yesterday when I typed in various phrases that someone might do a search for when wanting to quit smoking, we were anywhere from page 1-3 and the of course lower in the rankings but as we continue to grow, we will rise with those as well. The longer we're here and with such an active posting community, it won't take long before newbies start arriving. Please keep in mind one thing. We do not pay small companies or individuals who specialize in jump starting new message boards or add traffic to existing boards by creating members to give the appearance of activity or new membership. This is a hotly debated topic among message board owners and unfortunately, a lot of upstart online communities do this (as well as established ones). Obviously, we have not. Our community is genuine. We don't believe in creating any fake newbies because it's a moral issue with me as well as the moderators. Who wants to spend time helping somebody who doesn't even really exist? We're talking about serious issues when it comes to quitting smoking and is literally life or death. This was a gamble that I took when I started this forum. It was either going to take off on it's own merit or fail on it's own. It's taken off and then some. To be frank about this, we are so far ahead of the curve you have no idea. With us, what you see is genuine. What we have in place is a seasoned group of quitters, quitters in the middle and those new to quitting. We already have in place what all other new communities desperately want and are willing to pay in efforts to create the illusion of having. As we stated from the beginning, it was just a matter of playing the waiting game with the search engines. George (TAC) and I did everything and then some to get things "in the basement" done regarding the search engines. As always, 3 minds are better than 2 so I retained a very good programmer who is highly skilled in this particular message board software who made some tweaks specific to our community and search engines. I'm starting to see where this is paying off in a huge way. Again, we already have a very, very, very active quit smoking community and once future quitters stumble upon us, that is what they will see; an established, mature quit smoking community that is open to everybody, is free and is uncensored as much as we can possibly be while maintaining a friendly, open-minded community. We're working on adding some exciting additions to the site, one of which should be implemented very soon... I would like to give a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you. I've said that this is your community. Make it count for something. This, my friends, you have done and done very, very well.--MQ :good3:

Very, very funny. Lol

Sad to see you go Markus, but I understand. Stay well and please know that you always have spot here if you pass by our little town again.

Congratulations! PS, The Baltimore Orioles coffee mug is in the mail. Air mail. :pilot:

:hi: Top of the morning to ya! Took the words right out of my mouth. No smoking for me today.

Driving is such a common trigger for so many of us. Now, as far as "The cup holder. Because WHO puts cups there?!", I do! Each cup holder in my truck always has a coffee cup in it. I'm not very good at brining them in the house when I get home from work and so they just keep piling up until the passenger seat is full of empty coffee mugs from my perfectly brewed cups of coffee. Usually at the end of a shift rotation I have enough empty coffee mugs to fill the dishwasher. :focus:

Great job, Evelyn. Sometimes going to bed early has it's rewards. :lazy:

That's great news, TAC! Just don't turn into cousin Eddy when he had to pump is his RV in Clark's storm sewer. lol

:spruce_up: :search:

:negative:

Yes, it was moved to a more appropriate forum, if we even have one. Nevertheless, it's now in the OTR forum.

:shout: :popcorm1:

Added a bunch. Over 150 of them. :spiteful:

Congrats on the engagement and well done remaining a non-smoker. :)

Just made my day reading this, Action! :) I bet you're on cloud 9 about right now. NTAP!

I'm glad you quit smoking, Beth. Some docs have ya one foot in the grave. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Your throat and lungs are healing and it's very common among quitters and is referred to as a non-smoker's cough. :) Yes, I had this as well and it lasted for quite sometime after I quit. My throat felt very sensitive and I could really feel it when I tilited my head back and stretched my throat (if that makes any sense). Some people will get it and some won't. Some get it instantly like I did while others get it months down the road. Some never get it. Whether it's related to smoking, who knows. Could be allergies, a virus etc. When in doubt, see a doc to get some peace of mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHkojuUSDO8

Not gonna smoke today. :)

Congrats to my friend, Ava. Don't ever change! :)

Amy, When you want to quit more than you want to smoke, being afraid that you'll fail at quitting again will not stop you from quitting. Since you've already quit and relapsed, I think "being afraid of failing again" is junkie thinking and still believing that the cigarette has something to offer you. The reasoning for your delay of not immediately quitting again is the addict speaking, not Amy. If you're going to wait until it sinks in or wait until it feels right, you could be looking at quitting 5, 10 or 15 years from now. You already know what it feels like to quit so there isn't any fear of the unknown this time around. You can do this, Amy. If we could rationalize smoking all those cigarettes knowing full well how harmful they were, certainly we can rationalize our quitting knowing all the benefits of doing so. Even if you still think smoking is great and you enjoy it too much, you can still rationalize quitting. No excuses. Set a date, stick to it, journal your quit here and you have all of the unconditional support that you need. Never, ever stop quitting and fighting for your life. Never stop coming here. Actually, you know what, why not start a thread while you're still smoking. Chronicle your quit while you're still smoking. Imagine the wealth of information for the newbie when they read it and see you as a non-smoker. They'll see your struggles and how you overcame them. Remember, you need not be a non-smoker to be a member here. :) Don't think about how you're going to be able to stay quit for 10 months. Think about how you're going to stay quit for just today. Yep, you guessed it, Elliot appears again. This can be used for any area of our lives, especially when we decide to quit smoking. We got your back, Amy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEnHzV9XpL0

I love the idea. I'll check into this and see about integrating it into the each page. :)

This is something that everybody should know and perhaps I should put it in the "About Us" thread. We don't condone the relapse and we say never quit quitting therefore, those who relapse can expect some tough love but their seat on the train is and will always belong to them.