What's happened to this forum?

verylonglegs

shortfall said:

surrey_commuter said:

tailwindhome said:

Am I to understand there are too many woke people and not enough diversity?

I am reeling from discovering that other than RJST I am the only one without a holiday home

Just to clarify. I have nothing against centre left middle class white blokes with holiday homes and good pensions, just that it would be nice to see a more diverse body of opinion sometimes. On the holiday homes thing, there was recently a thread dedicated to buying a second home abroad and another about a bloke with a double glazed shed and I thought those two topics were the perfect metaphor for cakestop.

You often bang the drum about this place being left leaning but I do think you over look how far the Conservatives have moved. They really are just UKIP now, they been hollowed out and taken over by the hard right minority. I think it's fundementally wrong to suggest anyone who doesn't vote for them is 'left'. Before the election that May nearly lost her majority I had a Britain First leaflet drop through my door and I wished I had kept in now as it read pretty much where we find ourselves. Slashing foreign aid, teaching only 'good' British history in schools, no co-operation with the EU and pretty much treating them as a hostile entity, it was all there.

Anecdote time...a mate of mine is the son of a copper who was drafted across the country to deal with the miners strikes and inherited his Dad's worship of Thatcher, even before we could vote we mocked him for being a Tory boy. If you'd have told me there would be a time he didn't vote Tory I wouldn't have believed it. Prior to the EU referendum he said to me 'this isn't about leaving the EU, it is who is behind it and you shouldn't ever let people like that get a foot in the door.' Since then he was hoping, despite detesting her, that Theresa May could somehow pull something reasonable from the situation but as events turned out as they did for the first time I know he didn't vote Tory in the last election.

elbowloh

How about this? I've not bought a new bike since 2014. I did buy a second hand one for £200 though about 5 years ago though.

shortfall

surrey_commuter said:

shortfall said:

surrey_commuter said:

tailwindhome said:

Am I to understand there are too many woke people and not enough diversity?

I am reeling from discovering that other than RJST I am the only one without a holiday home

Just to clarify. I have nothing against centre left middle class white blokes with holiday homes and good pensions, just that it would be nice to see a more diverse body of opinion sometimes. On the holiday homes thing, there was recently a thread dedicated to buying a second home abroad and another about a bloke with a double glazed shed and I thought those two topics were the perfect metaphor for cakestop.

I am nowhere near centre left
middle class
white (but could not pass for it)
bloke
not even the hint of a holiday home

the audience is self selecting as you need to be able to have access to a computer throughout the working day with no monitoring

You know that people can log into forums outside of work hours though right? The fact that most of the activity seems to take place amongst the demographic and times you have identified raises the question why other people choose not to? There are probably tons of reasons for this but if one of them is that some people feel like their opinions arent valued for whatever reason, then that's something that can be easily addressed. Robust debate is fine and what we're all here for but condescension not so much. it's not always overt and it's probably not even done consciously most of the time but it exists. Just my thoughts, I'm sure I'd get on fine with most of you if we were sat in a pub (or the wine bar obviously 😉)

ugo.santalucia

We have what we call a summer house... it is a brick outbuilding in the garden which we use as office and I keep my bike in... it even has a small bog
Does it count as holiday home?

womack

verylonglegs said:

shortfall said:

surrey_commuter said:

tailwindhome said:

Am I to understand there are too many woke people and not enough diversity?

I am reeling from discovering that other than RJST I am the only one without a holiday home

Just to clarify. I have nothing against centre left middle class white blokes with holiday homes and good pensions, just that it would be nice to see a more diverse body of opinion sometimes. On the holiday homes thing, there was recently a thread dedicated to buying a second home abroad and another about a bloke with a double glazed shed and I thought those two topics were the perfect metaphor for cakestop.

Slashing foreign aid, teaching only 'good' British history in schools,

Growing up in Wales we were only taught 'good' English history, no mention of the rest of Britain.

Disgracefully by the time I had left school in Wales, taught with a curriculum set by a mainly English Westminster I had never heard of and was not taught about the main reason for the rapid demise of the Welsh language, i.e. The Blue Books.

From 85% to less than 20% speakers in less than 100 years due to outside interference.

shortfall

ugo.santalucia said:

We have what we call a summer house... it is a brick outbuilding in the garden which we use as office and I keep my bike in... it even has a small bog
Does it count as holiday home?

No but the fact that you
A, have a garden and
B, have a summer house in it
means you're bang on the demographic for cake stop 😁

shortfall

verylonglegs said:

shortfall said:

surrey_commuter said:

tailwindhome said:

Am I to understand there are too many woke people and not enough diversity?

I am reeling from discovering that other than RJST I am the only one without a holiday home

Just to clarify. I have nothing against centre left middle class white blokes with holiday homes and good pensions, just that it would be nice to see a more diverse body of opinion sometimes. On the holiday homes thing, there was recently a thread dedicated to buying a second home abroad and another about a bloke with a double glazed shed and I thought those two topics were the perfect metaphor for cakestop.

You often bang the drum about this place being left leaning but I do think you over look how far the Conservatives have moved. They really are just UKIP now, they been hollowed out and taken over by the hard right minority. I think it's fundementally wrong to suggest anyone who doesn't vote for them is 'left'. Before the election that May nearly lost her majority I had a Britain First leaflet drop through my door and I wished I had kept in now as it read pretty much where we find ourselves. Slashing foreign aid, teaching only 'good' British history in schools, no co-operation with the EU and pretty much treating them as a hostile entity, it was all there.

Anecdote time...a mate of mine is the son of a copper who was drafted across the country to deal with the miners strikes and inherited his Dad's worship of Thatcher, even before we could vote we mocked him for being a Tory boy. If you'd have told me there would be a time he didn't vote Tory I wouldn't have believed it. Prior to the EU referendum he said to me 'this isn't about leaving the EU, it is who is behind it and you shouldn't ever let people like that get a foot in the door.' Since then he was hoping, despite detesting her, that Theresa May could somehow pull something reasonable from the situation but as events turned out as they did for the first time I know he didn't vote Tory in the last election.

This is a straw man and it's also the wrong straw man. I thoroughly dislike the conservative party and have done for years. I think your analysis is way off. The current lot are to the left of Blair, to the left of Heath and about as big state, big spending and socially liberal as it's possible to get without calling yourself The Labour Party. The Brexit issue isn't about left or right so you've mischaracterized that.

morstar

It regularly gets portrayed as there being no room for right wing opinions on here but they are regularly expressed.

I think only Ben has recently claimed to be a Labour voter and I don’t recall any true socialist posters since long gone Frank the Tank.

The demise of the forum is inevitable. People are probably only leaving at the same rate they ever did but there is no incoming new blood. The format predates smartphones and social media which is where people head and the SEO drives them.

It’s no different to the fact that only one of my 3 kids watch any broadcast TV and the one that does only does so when visiting home.

We’re simply a relic.

elbowloh

shortfall said:

verylonglegs said:

shortfall said:

surrey_commuter said:

tailwindhome said:

Am I to understand there are too many woke people and not enough diversity?

I am reeling from discovering that other than RJST I am the only one without a holiday home

Just to clarify. I have nothing against centre left middle class white blokes with holiday homes and good pensions, just that it would be nice to see a more diverse body of opinion sometimes. On the holiday homes thing, there was recently a thread dedicated to buying a second home abroad and another about a bloke with a double glazed shed and I thought those two topics were the perfect metaphor for cakestop.

You often bang the drum about this place being left leaning but I do think you over look how far the Conservatives have moved. They really are just UKIP now, they been hollowed out and taken over by the hard right minority. I think it's fundementally wrong to suggest anyone who doesn't vote for them is 'left'. Before the election that May nearly lost her majority I had a Britain First leaflet drop through my door and I wished I had kept in now as it read pretty much where we find ourselves. Slashing foreign aid, teaching only 'good' British history in schools, no co-operation with the EU and pretty much treating them as a hostile entity, it was all there.

Anecdote time...a mate of mine is the son of a copper who was drafted across the country to deal with the miners strikes and inherited his Dad's worship of Thatcher, even before we could vote we mocked him for being a Tory boy. If you'd have told me there would be a time he didn't vote Tory I wouldn't have believed it. Prior to the EU referendum he said to me 'this isn't about leaving the EU, it is who is behind it and you shouldn't ever let people like that get a foot in the door.' Since then he was hoping, despite detesting her, that Theresa May could somehow pull something reasonable from the situation but as events turned out as they did for the first time I know he didn't vote Tory in the last election.

This is a straw man and it's also the wrong straw man. I thoroughly dislike the conservative party and have done for years. I think your analysis is way off. The current lot are to the left of Blair, to the left of Heath and about as big state, big spending and socially liberal as it's possible to get without calling yourself The Labour Party. The Brexit issue isn't about left or right so you've mischaracterized that.

They're only big state because of Covid though Shirley?

shortfall

elbowloh said:

shortfall said:

verylonglegs said:

shortfall said:

surrey_commuter said:

tailwindhome said:

Am I to understand there are too many woke people and not enough diversity?

I am reeling from discovering that other than RJST I am the only one without a holiday home

Just to clarify. I have nothing against centre left middle class white blokes with holiday homes and good pensions, just that it would be nice to see a more diverse body of opinion sometimes. On the holiday homes thing, there was recently a thread dedicated to buying a second home abroad and another about a bloke with a double glazed shed and I thought those two topics were the perfect metaphor for cakestop.

You often bang the drum about this place being left leaning but I do think you over look how far the Conservatives have moved. They really are just UKIP now, they been hollowed out and taken over by the hard right minority. I think it's fundementally wrong to suggest anyone who doesn't vote for them is 'left'. Before the election that May nearly lost her majority I had a Britain First leaflet drop through my door and I wished I had kept in now as it read pretty much where we find ourselves. Slashing foreign aid, teaching only 'good' British history in schools, no co-operation with the EU and pretty much treating them as a hostile entity, it was all there.

Anecdote time...a mate of mine is the son of a copper who was drafted across the country to deal with the miners strikes and inherited his Dad's worship of Thatcher, even before we could vote we mocked him for being a Tory boy. If you'd have told me there would be a time he didn't vote Tory I wouldn't have believed it. Prior to the EU referendum he said to me 'this isn't about leaving the EU, it is who is behind it and you shouldn't ever let people like that get a foot in the door.' Since then he was hoping, despite detesting her, that Theresa May could somehow pull something reasonable from the situation but as events turned out as they did for the first time I know he didn't vote Tory in the last election.

This is a straw man and it's also the wrong straw man. I thoroughly dislike the conservative party and have done for years. I think your analysis is way off. The current lot are to the left of Blair, to the left of Heath and about as big state, big spending and socially liberal as it's possible to get without calling yourself The Labour Party. The Brexit issue isn't about left or right so you've mischaracterized that.

They're only big state because of Covid though Shirley?

Dunno, think Boris had already put his tanks on Labour's lawn before the pandemic.

pblakeney

elbowloh said:

How about this? I've not bought a new bike since 2014. I did buy a second hand one for £200 though about 5 years ago though.

I'll raise you 2011. 😉

TheBigBean

I've only ever bought one new bike in my life. That was in 2006.

pblakeney

TheBigBean said:

I've only ever bought one new bike in my life. That was in 2006.

How many second hand? 😉
I will clarify. I last bought a frame in 2011.

ddraver

elbowloh said:

surrey_commuter said:

tailwindhome said:

Am I to understand there are too many woke people and not enough diversity?

I am reeling from discovering that other than RJST I am the only one without a holiday home

Me neither.

I have a...tent..?

elbowloh

pblakeney said:

TheBigBean said:

I've only ever bought one new bike in my life. That was in 2006.

How many second hand? 😉
I will clarify. I last bought a frame in 2011.

Yeah,my 2014 bike was frame and components separately.

shortfall

pblakeney said:

TheBigBean said:

I've only ever bought one new bike in my life. That was in 2006.

How many second hand? 😉
I will clarify. I last bought a frame in 2011.

Yes but haven't you got a Master? Why would you need another frame ever again?

pblakeney

shortfall said:

pblakeney said:

TheBigBean said:

I've only ever bought one new bike in my life. That was in 2006.

How many second hand? 😉
I will clarify. I last bought a frame in 2011.

Yes but haven't you got a Master? Why would you need another frame ever again?

The Master is 2008. The 2011 Fratello was to stop the Master getting ruined in the winter. 3 winters was more than enough for my liking. 😉

rjsterry

shortfall said:

surrey_commuter said:

tailwindhome said:

Am I to understand there are too many woke people and not enough diversity?

I am reeling from discovering that other than RJST I am the only one without a holiday home

Just to clarify. I have nothing against centre left middle class white blokes with holiday homes and good pensions, just that it would be nice to see a more diverse body of opinion sometimes. On the holiday homes thing, there was recently a thread dedicated to buying a second home abroad and another about a bloke with a double glazed shed and I thought those two topics were the perfect metaphor for cakestop.

It would.

rjsterry

morstar said:

It regularly gets portrayed as there being no room for right wing opinions on here but they are regularly expressed.

I think only Ben has recently claimed to be a Labour voter and I don’t recall any true socialist posters since long gone Frank the Tank.

The demise of the forum is inevitable. People are probably only leaving at the same rate they ever did but there is no incoming new blood. The format predates smartphones and social media which is where people head and the SEO drives them.

It’s no different to the fact that only one of my 3 kids watch any broadcast TV and the one that does only does so when visiting home.

We’re simply a relic.

Doomed, I tell you. The homo neanderthalensis of social media.

One thing's for certain a thread entitled Tony Blair that is actually discussion of the finer points of pensions is not going to hold back the tide 😁.

Stevo_666

shortfall said:

ugo.santalucia said:

I met Coopster in real life many years ago and before he became obnoxious on this forum. We went for a ride in Berkshire, together with the guy who renovated the water tower in Amersham on Grand Design. He did seem a rather normal guy... who would have thought there was a maniac inside...
I can confirm he definitively wasn't a guy who knew much about mechanical stuff, so not the same guy as David37 for sure...

Most people are normal in real life. Anonymity seems to bring out the Mr Hyde in a lot of Dr Jekylls who are otherwise constrained by their contracts of employment or whatever. Conversely there will be people who say all the right things in threads like "Women's Safety" before hopping over to Pornhub to knock one out. I would have liked to have met Coopster. I remember the Grand Designs episode. Was it the is where the tower had 12 inch thick walls made of concrete harder than diamonds?

😀 I suppose they are keeping women safe by doing that...

I used to have a 'holiday home' in a North East seaside town which was my folks old house that I inherited. Sadly, Costa Del Redcar didn't really hit the spot for me so I got shot of it.

darkhairedlord

shortfall said:

elbowloh said:

shortfall said:

verylonglegs said:

shortfall said:

surrey_commuter said:

tailwindhome said:

Am I to understand there are too many woke people and not enough diversity?

I am reeling from discovering that other than RJST I am the only one without a holiday home

Just to clarify. I have nothing against centre left middle class white blokes with holiday homes and good pensions, just that it would be nice to see a more diverse body of opinion sometimes. On the holiday homes thing, there was recently a thread dedicated to buying a second home abroad and another about a bloke with a double glazed shed and I thought those two topics were the perfect metaphor for cakestop.

You often bang the drum about this place being left leaning but I do think you over look how far the Conservatives have moved. They really are just UKIP now, they been hollowed out and taken over by the hard right minority. I think it's fundementally wrong to suggest anyone who doesn't vote for them is 'left'. Before the election that May nearly lost her majority I had a Britain First leaflet drop through my door and I wished I had kept in now as it read pretty much where we find ourselves. Slashing foreign aid, teaching only 'good' British history in schools, no co-operation with the EU and pretty much treating them as a hostile entity, it was all there.

Anecdote time...a mate of mine is the son of a copper who was drafted across the country to deal with the miners strikes and inherited his Dad's worship of Thatcher, even before we could vote we mocked him for being a Tory boy. If you'd have told me there would be a time he didn't vote Tory I wouldn't have believed it. Prior to the EU referendum he said to me 'this isn't about leaving the EU, it is who is behind it and you shouldn't ever let people like that get a foot in the door.' Since then he was hoping, despite detesting her, that Theresa May could somehow pull something reasonable from the situation but as events turned out as they did for the first time I know he didn't vote Tory in the last election.

This is a straw man and it's also the wrong straw man. I thoroughly dislike the conservative party and have done for years. I think your analysis is way off. The current lot are to the left of Blair, to the left of Heath and about as big state, big spending and socially liberal as it's possible to get without calling yourself The Labour Party. The Brexit issue isn't about left or right so you've mischaracterized that.

They're only big state because of Covid though Shirley?

Dunno, think Boris had already put his tanks on Labour's lawn before the pandemic.

Covid is the excuse to open the pirates treasure chests and fill their pockets.

Pross

veronese68 said:

ugo.santalucia said:

...but it does lack recognisable expertise and even the non recognisable expertise is moving elsewhere (Monty Dog? Cycleclinic?).

David37 that was posting until fairly recently was very good on bike repairs, unfortunately as a person he was rather more lacking and got himself banned.

Hadn't realised he'd picked up a ban. Agree that he was like a different person in Workshop.

pinno

elbowloh said:

pblakeney said:

TheBigBean said:

I've only ever bought one new bike in my life. That was in 2006.

How many second hand? 😉
I will clarify. I last bought a frame in 2011.

Yeah,my 2014 bike was frame and components separately.

I bought a new bike in '87. Another one in '88 (the bug had well and bitten me by then and the first one was way below expectations).
I bought a new frame in '89 and rode it until 2007. Then I bought a 2nd hand frame and then another in 2011 and another 2nd hand one 2 years later (winter bike).
August last year, I bought a new frame! First new frame in 31 years.

I decided that my holiday may be a tent. I've never voted Tory.

There's too many posters who are stuck with a p.o.v and that in itself is not inviting.

Luddites I tell ye, luddites.

rick_chasey

Worst thing about the forum recently is the like function.

My complaint is that the comments attacking people personally always get the most likes.

Makes for more pack-like behaviour

surfercyclist

womack said:

Been a member (reading only) of this board for nearly six years. Posted first time recently when needing some advice. Advice given fitted the bill so thankful for that.

However was always hesitant to post in the general threads as my reading of the board was that if you weren't one of the established many thousands of posts members your opinions and input were not entertained.

I think / guess this would put a lot of new members off, they may try and engage a couple of times only to find themselves in the middle of a "private conversation" amongst the aforementioned so not bother to try and join in again and just disappear until perhaps they need a bit of technical help.

The other problem I see, on here and other boards to be fair, is that there appears to be one "view" and anybody who disagrees with it is not listened to and branded with some ism.


Edit. Yes I do have a holiday home but never had a company pension, hard work paid for it.

This.
Reason I left was dickheads like Sungod who think they know it all but don't and when get called out they take umbrage and all his little cliche defend him. This is the guy who supposedly gets up at 4am every day, rides every day, stays in the most expensive places, flies first class everywhere but is still working and has got to be mid 70s at least. Something doesn't add up.
Then you have Walter Mitty aka MF who seems to have a strange hatred of clubs, Ultegra and any stem which isn't slammed or wheel which isn't "phat". Tries to be street by dropping in words like "fam" whereas in reality he's a 47 yo white middle class oik in the army. Oh yeah and apparently was going to Everest Hardknot Pass.

No wonder everyone leaves.
Bye.

shirley_basso

Well if you take everything so seriously no wonder you're such a bag of fun.

The forum is far from perfect but if you're that up tight it's probably not the place for you.

shortfall

surfercyclist said:

womack said:

Been a member (reading only) of this board for nearly six years. Posted first time recently when needing some advice. Advice given fitted the bill so thankful for that.

However was always hesitant to post in the general threads as my reading of the board was that if you weren't one of the established many thousands of posts members your opinions and input were not entertained.

I think / guess this would put a lot of new members off, they may try and engage a couple of times only to find themselves in the middle of a "private conversation" amongst the aforementioned so not bother to try and join in again and just disappear until perhaps they need a bit of technical help.

The other problem I see, on here and other boards to be fair, is that there appears to be one "view" and anybody who disagrees with it is not listened to and branded with some ism.


Edit. Yes I do have a holiday home but never had a company pension, hard work paid for it.

This.
Reason I left was dickheads like Sungod who think they know it all but don't and when get called out they take umbrage and all his little cliche defend him. This is the guy who supposedly gets up at 4am every day, rides every day, stays in the most expensive places, flies first class everywhere but is still working and has got to be mid 70s at least. Something doesn't add up.
Then you have Walter Mitty aka MF who seems to have a strange hatred of clubs, Ultegra and any stem which isn't slammed or wheel which isn't "phat". Tries to be street by dropping in words like "fam" whereas in reality he's a 47 yo white middle class oik in the army. Oh yeah and apparently was going to Everest Hardknot Pass.

No wonder everyone leaves.
Bye.

Could you at least stick around answer the inevitable ripostes to this? A bit of bants will liven things up 😀

Pross

Feels strange seeing a post that says "the reason I left" referring to the forum they are posting on.

seanoconn

rick_chasey said:

Worst thing about the forum recently is the like function.

My complaint is that the comments attacking people personally always get the most likes.

Makes for more pack-like behaviour

There should be a ranking system of members to do with likes to encourage quality posts/personal attacks 😂

It would be nice to be able to view who had liked your posts, that might help with misuse (liking a Sh!tty post) if they were publicly available, at least to the recipients.

briantrumpet

rick_chasey said:

Worst thing about the forum recently is the like function.

My complaint is that the comments attacking people personally always get the most likes.

Makes for more pack-like behaviour

Am I allowed to like this post?