A Friendly Place...

[Flying_Monkey]

Everybody needs a little time away, I've heard her say, from each other. Even lovers need a holiday.

But it's hard for me to say 'I'm sorry'...

 

[Jaded]

Is that when you unplug this server to plug the kettle in for a cuppa?
What do you IT bods call it? An 'unscheduled outage'?

followed by an 'unbridled outrage'.

No tea, Admin!!!

 

[Andy in Sig]

To Tete - This place has changed, and it is innevitable. YACF is currently in the 'optimistic' phase that CC was last year. Then new people come, place gets bigger, less intimate, original people feel like they are losing control and that it isn't theirs anymore... even the people themselves feel like they aren't the same (which is the most disturbing thing). My only suggestions are:

Come on then Sigmund, you're going to have to explain that one.

 

[yello]

It's been said... take a sojourn.

To be honest, I find that if I'm becoming bored (or wound up!) by a forum then it's better for me to get away for a while because I have the problem, not the forum. That is, it's got too much of a hold on me and I've become too entwined, perhaps dependant. It's only a damned forum forcrisake!

 

[rich p]

Come on then Sigmund, you're going to have to explain that one.

It's obvious Andy, when you stop feeling yourself, you're finished. I feel myself every 30 seconds or so.

 

[Chuffy]

Come on then Sigmund, you're going to have to explain that one.

Made perfect sense to me. These places can act as a mirror, you see yourself reflected in the way that other members react to you. Sometimes you look in that mirror and discover that you aren't quite what you thought you were. What was it Nietzche said, about not gazing into the abyss, for the abyss gazes also into you? It's easy to find yourself being changed by the experience and not always in good ways. Back in the C+ days, I worked hard to establish myself. Evilchuffy was definitely me but also a created extension of myself. People knew who and what I was, it was a good, strong persona. So strong that I came to believe in it too much. When I came here I rapidly realised that I couldn't just take it for granted that everyone would react the same way to me, I had to change and start working again to build myself up, with slightly less success perhaps because I just don't have the time these days.

Of course you can just post occasionally to ask what that strange creaking noise is and not get too hung up on stuff...

 

[Andy in Sig]

Oh Lord! Now I'm starting to feel inadequate for not looking at it all so deeply. The only difference I think to real life is that posting on a forum has two great advantages:

a. It's an opportunity to have less "I wish I'd thought of saying ..." moments.

b. You can bite your tongue a bit before replying to someone who has annoyed you and so avoid unnecessary rudeness.

Both of these are due to the fact that internet conversation is inevitably slower than the real thing. It would never occur to me to adopt a wierd persona.

 

[Chuffy]

It would never occur to me to adopt a wierd persona.

No, no, no, no. It's not about adopting a persona. It's about recognising that the 'you' online will be a variation of the fleshy 'you'. Nothing artificial, but definitely different. Maybe I do think about this kind of stuff too much, but that's part of the joy of the internet. It allows you to review conversations, interactions and relationships in ways that we simply couldn't before.

 

[wafflycat]

These places can act as a mirror, you see yourself reflected in the way that other members react to you. Sometimes you look in that mirror and discover that you aren't quite what you thought you were. What was it Nietzche said, about not gazing into the abyss, for the abyss gazes also into you? It's easy to find yourself being changed by the experience and not always in good ways.

I know what you mean.

 

[bonj2]

I've been spending less time on this forum recently, largely because I've now got a good job which involves actually working, and not just posting on the forum all the time.
However a lot of the time when I do, I find most of the forums clogged up with SHITE threads. Whole marathon four-pagers about something somebody saw when they were taking their dog for a walk, or polls on how many round-edged photo frames you've got on your mantelpiece. Even Soapbox often seems to be just a sorry recital of the day's news stories with most posts being obvious observations.
But the most depressing thing is the fact that threads related to cycling often either don't yield any intelligible response or quickly degenerate into absolute CRAP (e.g. this thread http://cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=11187) - this says to me that most of the people on this forum aren't serious cyclists at all, but merely WANT to be. I did sign up with ACF, in order to get some good advice on technical issues, but haven't been back since one of the pieces of advice I got relating to front mech issues was completely wrong despite the fact the guy was fairly definitive in his answer.

But that said, most of the people on here are alright, have got largely respectable morals, are fairly intelligent, and therefore would happily buy them a pint if I met them. It's a shame that they appear to feel the need to try to be funny above all else in order to seem like they're at the nub of some clique that they imagine exists but in fact doesn't, and to say anything to appear respected and seem popular, but still...

 

[col]

I think you have a point there bonj,but dont forget,the forum is a place to just chew the breeze,or have a laugh,thats why there are different areas.

 

[bonj2]

what/where is yacf please? presumably 'yet another cycling forum', but url please anybody?

 

[bonj2]

I think you have a point there bonj,but dont forget,the forum is a place to just chew the breeze,or have a laugh,thats why there are different areas.

Hmm.. I think a good way of putting it might be, it's a "cyclists' forum" rather than a "cycling forum". There are probably only one or two people on here who post advice that singularly and on its own merit I would trust absolutely to the letter. That's not to say there aren't lots of people who weigh in with either confirmations of what I wanted to hear which is probably right for me, or what in its collective form makes sense generally, or stuff that gets the message through even if I have to apply my own interpretation to it...

 

[bonj2]

Also, I do have to say I am pleasantly surprised at the amount of people that previously back on C+ I wouldn't have given the time o' day but now I quite like. i even quite like tefkab! (even though he blanks me)

 

[bonj2]

I probably post more in Soapbox than on the other fora. I suppose it must look a bit grim to the occasional visitor but there is a lot of humour and camaraderie in there.

Abso-bloody-lutely. I mean where would we be without class gems like this: http://cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=236340#post236340