FNRttC Christmas Ride - Olaf's German Christmas Saturday 16th December 2017

[StuartG]

Probs cos you're not a member of the group, it's not public

Neither is Facebook. Problem is Facebook say my email address is invalid I've used for twenty years and accepted by everybody else. They said I should get a fake one so I could share the riches of this closed bunch of notorious ad-slingers and privacy violators. Surprisingly I didn't!

This is really outside what I thought of as the Friday ethos. Please help to keep discussion open to all and not confined to that walled garden. If you think you need a walled garden for discussion I can give you one free and ad-free as an adjunct to your website which you can control. Keep it all together and not divide us.

 

[mmmmartin]

Ir's been there for years, with comments from members. @velovoice was very keen that it remained a closed group with only Fridays in it. And I'm sure @StuartG is correct in his description of FB, but the fact remains that very many Fridays are members of FB and talk to each other all the time on it. I merely point this out.

 

[mmmmartin]

Can

’t see how to apply :-/

start at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/FNRttC/

 

[samsbike]

ignore me found the link

 

[J1888]

ignore me found the link

If you're a member of the Fridays you'll have got an email.

If you're not: http://fridaynightridetothecoast.blogspot.co.uk/p/welcome.html

Can't see what the issue is personally - surely not all Fridays are on CC, nor are they all on FB? Anyway, I'll shut up, should I poke the electronic hornet's nest

 

[Tim Hall]

It is to try to widen engagement, to use a management-speak term.

We'll see if the 247 Fridays members in the Facebook group want to have a conversation among themselves. There are long threads on here but they tend to be multiple posts by the same people and we think there are fewer Fridays on here than in the closed Facebook group, where for years there've been chats about rides.

(We also used to have an FB "Page" but don't any more. We used that only for posting about rides and then promoting that page to FB members who were friends of people who liked the page, who were aged 18-65 and living in the UK with an interest in cycling. But after doing that for a year it seemed it attracted hardly any, or no, new riders - who tend to be friends of members anyway.)

An advantage of using FB is that we all know who we are (and if they get rude we can chuck them out) whereas CC is a public place open to anyone at all.

Email remains the foremost way we tell everyone on the mailing list (communicating "outwards" as it were) with dates and destinations, etc. So you all get info at the same time. And many members do reply to the FNRttC gmail address. But FB allows conversations among a large group of people generally using their real names.

It only recently occurred to me to point out that for ages the two have been running in tandem - and, I suspect, will continue to do so.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Getting back to the point, I hope to be there, but Real Life may intervene.

 

[velovoice]

@velovoice was very keen that it remained a closed group with only Fridays in it.

I freely admit mine seemed to be minority amongst the "committee" but I held to my guns because closed groups aren't important to white middle-aged men but they sure the heck are to women.

Now that I am no longer on that committee finding myself forced to repeatedly don a unofficial and very much under-valued Diversity Officer hat to defend the rights of non-white males, the committee can do what it likes with BOTH Facebook pages.

I'm glad this issue is out in the open. I've been wanting to warn all women in the closed group that there is a very real risk that what I envisioned as a "virtual clubhouse"(where every woman posting knew that her audience was entirely made of up current paid up Fridays members who she most likely had met in real life chatted and ridden with) could at any point be opened up to all and sundry. Now I can.

I've been a social media manager for many years. This is never a good move for women but men tend not to see it because they never feel the impact.

As you were.

 

[rb58]

I freely admit mine seemed to be minority amongst the "committee" but I held to my guns because closed groups aren't important to white middle-aged men but they sure the heck are to women.

Now that I am no longer on that committee finding myself forced to repeatedly don a unofficial and very much under-valued Diversity Officer hat to defend the rights of non-white males, the committee can do what it likes with BOTH Facebook pages.

I'm glad this issue is out in the open. I've been wanting to warn all women in the closed group that there is a very real risk that what I envisioned as a "virtual clubhouse"(where every woman posting knew that her audience was entirely made of up current paid up Fridays members who she most likely had met in real life chatted and ridden with) could at any point be opened up to all and sundry. Now I can.

I've been a social media manager for many years. This is never a good move for women but men tend not to see it because they never feel the impact.

As you were.

I find the tone of this post really odd. The Fridays is possibly the most inclusive organisation I have been involved in and I think the risk you describe is overstated. Sorry.

I know I am a white male, but I too have worked in social media for many years so feel I have some experience of the subject.

 

[mmmmartin]

the Christmas social ride starts on a SATURDAY at midnight from the usual place and involves a couple of loops using St Pancras as a refreshment stop, the idea being it'll be weather that might be, shall we say, less than clement. We pass several interesting points, it's an easier ride than the usual. More social. Christmas jumpers may be worn. Strange bikes may be ridden.
Maybe 30 miles. Much banter and stopping.

It's fun.

 

[Flying Dodo]

I find the tone of this post really odd. The Fridays is possibly the most inclusive organisation I have been involved in and I think the risk you describe is overstated. Sorry.

I know I am a white male, but I too have worked in social media for many years so feel I have some experience of the subject.

Except the fact is that people have been banned, and others have been spoken to, due to their behaviour.

As has been seen here on Cyclechat, (and I'm aware of the irony in me saying this), the sheer volume of white middle aged, sometimes opinionated, white male voices can at times make an intimidating space so others not in that demographic can feel not able to freely comment. For the simple reason they can end up being patronised or ignored. That's the reason the separate Facebook page had been set up originally, and the reasons for that, after discussion, had all been agreed by the Fridays committee.

 

[rb58]

Except the fact is that people have been banned, and others have been spoken to, due to their behaviour.

As has been seen here on Cyclechat, (and I'm aware of the irony in me saying this), the sheer volume of white middle aged, sometimes opinionated, white male voices can at times make an intimidating space so others not in that demographic can feel not able to freely comment. For the simple reason they can end up being patronised or ignored. That's the reason the separate Facebook page had been set up originally, and the reasons for that, after discussion, had all been agreed by the Fridays committee.

Understood. But my point is that the extent of the risk doesn't justify the tone of the post, which I felt to be aggressive and intimidating. There's an irony there too. Anyway, I have nothing more to say on the subject, I'm just looking forward to the ride.

 

[mmmmartin]

forcing a hitherto closed group to be open would be a retrograde step

This has never been suggested, at any time, by anyone.

 

[kimble]

I freely admit mine seemed to be minority amongst the "committee" but I held to my guns because closed groups aren't important to white middle-aged men but they sure the heck are to women.

I'll second this sentiment, with the hefty disclaimer that Facebook is probably the worst place to do it. It may not seem important to straight, cis people who've never had a stalker or an abusive partner or family member, but the problems with Facebook's complete disregard for privacy are well documented elsewhere.

Anyway, I'm not on Facebook because reasons, and I'd selfishly rather not lose more of my friends to the walled garden.

Which isn't to say that a basic Facebook presence to increase an organisation's findability isn't a good idea. As long as it doesn't become canonical.

As you were.

Indeed.

(Currently debating the relative merits of this or the local group's Christmas ride. Some silly person has made Christmas happen at the same time for everyone.)

 

[RoubaixCube]

Day off booked. Im in...

My friend (Van Li) who joined us on last years Christmas ride will also be attending though he has no cycle insurance despite me badgering him to get some.

 

[mmmmartin]

My friend (Van Li) who joined us on last years Christmas ride will also be attending

Not until he fills in the form he's not...........