another F@@@ S@@@ CRAP moment

[Boris Bajic]

...these responses are why CycleChat isn't always the friendly and welcoming community it purports to be. This makes me sad.

My posts on this thread may in part have brought on this response from you and the earlier one about being right and being unpleasant not being inclusive sets.

I happily admit upthread that I've done just as the OP did and still bear the scar. We all do daft things on the road.

It's not the doing of the deed that brings out the slightly acid or wry tone in some posters, it's the apparent desire to blame and keep blaming and not to take on the advice that was sought in the first place.

Even the latest post by the OP gives an extraordinary and complex (and slightly artificial) list of excuses and mitigations and justifications before accepting that with hindsight the filter may not have been the optimum choice. Like those Youtube videos of rants on the tram, it repels and attracts in equal measure.

I've attracted extraordinarily scathing posts on these pages. It's the Internet, where these things do happen. If one looks carefully, this is a friendly and helpful site. I've had lots of good advice here and lots of gratitude for advice I've been able to give.

I've even (well into my forties) adapted my road position as a result of points made on these pages.

When I make plonkerish points on these pages, I am torn to shreds. The repeated defences made by the OP were in that parish and I thought much of the advice was tempered and reasonable.

 

[Deleted member 20519]

Bit late to this thread but...

 

[boydj]

Speaking generally, you guys could be considerably less nasty and more constructive towards Ricky. It's possible to be both right, and an peanut at the same time.

It's called 'tough love' Mikey, but you're right, in that there is no need to be nasty. As Boris said, most of the criticism has tried to be constructive.

 

[BentMikey]

To be fair, I find it extremely difficult to give constructive criticism in a nice way, so I do have sympathy for the ease with which the tough love is generated. We should still try hard to do it nicely and constructively, though. I dislike the overly unkind remarks enough that they are the reason I'm on here so rarely nowadays.

 

[Gary E]

I think this thread has run it's course and to be honest I'm less bothered about the actual incident and more upset about the general damage this sort of thing does to all cyclists, good and bad.
The vast majority of cyclists I see out and about are considerate and careful riders. The odd black sheep just gets us all tarred with the same brush and we all become "W@@@er cyclists" in a lot of driver's eyes leading to punishment passes and abuse that we don't, for the majority, deserve.

 

[dodgy]

*Excellent video

*=For showing to complete novices so they may learn from your mistakes.

Did you get a frisson of excitement immediately after that incident, thinking you've finally got a great helmet cam video to put on Youtube?

What is it with helmet cammers and their youtube channels?

 

[AndyRM]

To be fair, I find it extremely difficult to give constructive criticism in a nice way, so I do have sympathy for the ease with which the tough love is generated. We should still try hard to do it nicely and constructively, though. I dislike the overly unkind remarks enough that they are the reason I'm on here so rarely nowadays.

So you don't come on much because people make "unkind remarks" and then call folk "peanuts". Makes sense...

 

[benb]

*Excellent video

*=For showing to complete novices so they may learn from your mistakes.

Did you get a frisson of excitement immediately after that incident, thinking you've finally got a great helmet cam video to put on Youtube?

What is it with helmet cammers and their youtube channels?

Are you suggesting that people who run cameras deliberately put themselves in a dangerous position just to get a "good" video?
That's ridiculous.

 

[Rob3rt]

Are you suggesting that people who run cameras deliberately put themselves in a dangerous position just to get a "good" video?
That's ridiculous.

Is this meant to be sarcastic?

 

[benb]

Is this meant to be sarcastic?

No

 

[Rob3rt]

Well then......... I will say this, I would allege that at least some (probably not that small of a minority) of helmet cam nobbers do indeed put themselves in silly predicaments and/or go looking for their next youtool video, dreaming of the day they go viral!

If only you had said yes..............

 

[benb]

Well then......... I will say this, I would allege that at least some (probably not that small of a minority) of helmet cam nobbers do indeed put themselves in silly predicaments and/or go looking for their next youtool video, dreaming of the day they go viral!

If only you had said yes..............

I would suggest that's utter drivel. Got any actual evidence for that ludicrous assertion?

 

[Rob3rt]

Yes, see here: http://www.cyclechat.net/forums/commuting.6/

 

[BSRU]

Yes, see here: http://www.cyclechat.net/forums/commuting.6/

That's a no then , unless you would like to actually point out a video where a cyclist has deliberately put themselves in danger just to get a few extra hits on YouTube.

 

[Boris Bajic]

Cripes! I think this thread is heading towards a yawning canyon of unintended and pointless animosity.

There's no need to go there. It's got steep sides and it's a long fall to the bottom.

There are several excellent posters of headcam footage, some of whose work I've shown to my teenage kids over the months.

There are one or two who whilst not actually putting themselves in danger, appear to delight in confrontation and drama.

The latter group do not in any way reflect poorly on (or detract from) the efforts of the former. Some headcammers seem to flit comfortably between groups, never settling in either.

We cannot prove whether anyone deliberately puts themself in danger. I doubt that they do. I think the poster of the original slightly scoffing comment might have been alluding to those cammers who in the eyes of some viewers and road users seem keen to create maximum friction and drama where little existed.

A row has been extruded here from a billet that was completely free of anything more contentious than a slightly arch and waspish comment about the frisson some cammers might feel at capturing a 'moment'.

Many neutral observers will have enjoyed a wry smile at the comment, waspish as it may have been. Rob3rt's original comment made no mention of deliberately putting oneself in danger... The extrusion happened after the product left his keyboard.

White flags and handshakes all round, I think. I've checked all the official figures and this disagreement doesn't meet the crteria for a full-on difference of opinion.