Okay, fair enough!
I have to admit that I haven't actually read those ride threads because I don't have time to read everything on CC and those rides take place miles from here. Sounds like they might be worth a read though so I'll dip into them later.
I admit that having people turn up and get out of their depth in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night wouldn't be much fun. I can also see that these rides are very well organised.
The original post came across as being a bit elitist, but I can see that it wasn't meant that way. It was just part of the organisation process.
When I organise rides up here, I take responsibility for planning the routes, finding shops/cafes that will be open and I do the navigating. I'd be prepared to help out if somebody was struggling to get a tyre off/on but I do assume that riders carry spares and know how to use them and would be pretty miffed if somebody turned up without them. TBH - I'd never thought of specifying that, I just took it for granted.
My rides are slow but the hills make them hard. We go at the speed of the slowest (often me!). I always emphasise the degree of difficulty so we don't get people coming along who can't cope. I suppose that it will happen one day and if it does then we will have to either cut the ride short or send the ailing rider back in a taxi if we are at the most distant point on the route!
I've never got along with night riding so I won't be joining you, but have a good ride folks!