FAQ

[sam]

I'm not ashamed of any of the following, though obviously, it didn't work.
Note also that these posts weren't originally jammed together like this.

Frequently Asked or Anticipated Questions
See also Memos from Head Office

Welcome to another cycling forum. It's British but you don't have to be. Make yourself at home. Sorry to inform that tea-making facilities are currently unavailable.

Do we really need another cycling forum?
Do you really need another bicycle?

Haven't we been down this road before?
Some of us have.

Is it cliquey here?
Cliques get a lot of press, most of it bad. It's no wonder. The dictionary definition is "a small group of people, with shared interests or other features in common, who spend time together and do not readily allow others to join them." The more common definition seems to be "any group of people with whom I do not identify". To answer the question: at any given time, who knows. It's in the eye of the beholder.

What shall we do about 'trolls'?
Not worry.

There are no Awooooogas here. Don't call anybody a troll.

Is there censorship?
No.

Not even a little?
OK, a little. To keep the face of the forum looking reasonably presentable for the purposes of continued recruitment from as wide an audience as possible, as well as workplace friendly, it is requested that members exercise a modicum of restraint when naming topics and posting photographs. Avatars and sig lines can also be a gray area.

As for the post itself, most anything goes, though for the love of God and the personal and financial safety of admin try not to incite any riots unless it's absolutely necessary.

See also Keeping acf healthy, below.

That looks like more than a little
"Everything is permitted to me, but not everything is constructive." Some saint or another said that. No, not St. Theodore.

Why are avatars and sigs a "gray area"?
These appear whenever you post, and are both private and public, so constitute a unique statement in themselves. They become a design in the acf wallpaper, which is something that tends to interest admin.

No images in sigs. Keep 'em short.

You are also requested to refrain from choosing anatomical pinups which might contribute to a locker room atmosphere.

And no ads, please. acf is noncommercial.

Can I promote my site?
You can add it to your profile, which then appears as 'website' underneath your name/avatar. A low key mention in your sig is also OK. Please refrain from plugging it by making quickie replies which are little more than a vehicle for links.

What does R2U mean?
That's txt for 'replies to you'. Clicking on it shows replies to your posts, which practically speaking means it comes up with a list of all topics in which you have posted and in which there are new replies. This is a little different than 'while you were away', which shows unread topics since your last visit and, via link, all unread topics. All clear?

An Error Has Occurred!
The topic or board you are looking for appears to be either missing or off limits to you.
Sometimes the URL of a topic gets changed, in which case this notice is the forum's generic way of saying "I'm sorry but I can't find it".

What do the << previous next >> links refer to?
Threads, rather than pages in a thread or eras of your life.

Why aren't there smileys?
To give people a choice of going to a forum without them. (Clearly this FAQ has been edited since 2005.)

Missing in action?
It is the nature of forums that people will come and go, for their own reasons, which can be personal. Please respect their privacy.

What are Personal Notes?
This is a text field in your Profile. It's not visible to other users.

Who are you?
I'm just another cyclist.

[sam]

The 10 Commandments of acf
the Apocrypha being carved on other tablets

I. Honour the filing system and chisel new topics in the most appropriate board.

II. Thou shalt not indiscriminately use ALL CAPS in posts or subject headings, and shall keep ellipses and other punctuation under control when christening topics.

III. Thou shalt not post topics along the lines of "Jokes for men only", or make subject headings gender specific without good reason, but invite both sexes into thy threads, for it is written Noah did fill the ark two by two. Try not to alienate half your potential audience.

IV. Thou shalt not post provocatively to obtain a reaction for private amusement, lest thou eventually be cast to the outer darkness that is without acf. Thou shalt make a sincere attempt to address the topic and not the personality and refrain from prodding thy antagonist. If thou hast a broken record which repeatedly skips on well worn tracks, e.g., the 'evils' of political correctness or other liberal daemons, thou shalt toss it like an unholy frisbee into the nearest convenient bottomless pit or risk incurring the Wrath of Admin, who verily is a Liberal and whose patience shall not be tested unto eternity. For it is written: a left bias on a privately owned website is not a sin but a balm in Gilead.

V. Thou shall attempt to familiarise thyself with how PMs work, perhaps opting for the "pop-up" option. Related to this, thou shalt not ping, in this case not a mysterious sound emanating from the spokes.

VI. Thou shalt not make use of the word 'chav', 'pikey' or other terms of nonendearment as may be defined in future by the seraphim acf action team.

VII. Thou shall optimize thy images so those trapped in the 9 to 5 levels of hell, or using dialup connections, aren't unduly inconvenienced. <100Kb is preferable.

VIII. Thou shalt not reprint private emails, or entire stories or posts from other websites, unless thou art the author; rather, thou should post a link and perhaps an excerpt. Nor should thou steal bandwidth of other sites by enclosing photographs in image tags, image hosting services excepted.

IX. Thou shalt not post very long links which may cause horizontal scrolling which is a cursed thing, but shorten them: [ url=YOUR LINK HERE] link description here [/url]

X. Thou shall give some thought to making calendar events.


New Testament addition:
Thou shalt not import smileys, for it is written in the book of Revelations, they art the 5th horseman of the apocalypse.

[sam]

Personal Messages are like an auxiliary forum, useful for keeping the atmosphere of public spaces more welcoming to newcomers who cannot be expected to decipher the inside references of regulars who were fortunate enough to stumble upon acf earlier.

[sam]

Conventional wisdom, to which I have subscribed, is that acf should strive to be all-inclusive. It has recently occurred to me that this is impossible, or at least unnecessary. What I mean is, a forum can't be all things to all people. When drawing up the blueprints you decide the sorts of discussions you want and who you wish to attract. "Well, everybody!" one thinks; the more the merrier. Don't get me wrong: I'd love to host as many different personalities and viewpoints as possible. But this is why we have different forums.

Those who want a bit of rough are spoilt for choice on the world wild web. acf is meant to be a safe haven. There's no 'Rant/Soapbox'-style board, for example, due to my belief that it tends to give the idea that there are no boundaries even while attempting to set them, and it can be difficult to contain the ill feeling that may breed within. It's quite possible to enjoy robust debate without a specially constructed thunderdome.

This style of architecture helps refine our demographic considerably, and improves your freedom of choice to find a discussion group which suits you best. Think of it like shopping for a bicycle. Would you want all shops to carry exactly the same stock?

The virtual anonymity forum life offers can be a powerful lure to the dark side. At the risk of offending, a comparison can be made with 'cagers'. Nice guy gets behind the wheel of a car, occasionally changes from Jekyll to Hyde without warning. Cops deal with motorists, not individuals: I have to look at people's behaviour on acf, not out in the Real World.™  Anyone eager to rip the still-beating heart out of all comers is invited to operate elsewhere, and I'm going to stop worrying about making free speech martyrs. It's better than suffering death by a thousand cuts.

[sam]

I don't want to ban people. I want to ban certain behavior, such as

• Trolling, defined here as posting with malicious intent.
• Picking fights more because you like fights than because you want to express a genuine point of view.
• Bitch slapping to amuse yourself.
• Getting personal, but not in a nice way.
• Engaging in annoying habits such as excessive pedantry, numbing repetition of an opinion, and righteously invoking freedom of speech when all you're really interested in is freedom to be disagreeable.
• Spamming.
• Winding up cyclists because you don't like them and haven't realised you're on the wrong forum.
• Trying to change acf to suit yourself rather than accepting that it's this way because somebody went to the trouble of sweating blood to make it so.
• Backseat moderating.
• Ignoring administrative requests and refusing to use the PM system to help settle disputes or avoid causing them in the first place.
• That about covers it, though if I think of anything else I'll be sure to add it to the list.

[sam]

Everyone has to do their part to keep the climate comfortable for everyone else. This means:

• What you think it means. No need for more bullet points. (I wish.)
• Never make the argument personal. Anecdotes are fine; avatars-turned-dartboards are not.
• Don't freight your posts with intolerance no matter how righteous the cause, or plumb the depths of insult.
• Give people room to breathe. If you're an expert in a certain topic, try to avoid turning what may be a very opinionated debate into either a condescending lecture on your own speciality, or a soapbox. You may with vigour expound, rebut, defend. Just remember that you do not own a topic anymore than you own the truth (though you do have the power to delete and lock your threads - please use it with care if at all). This is not sloppy relativism in the face of what may be cold hard scientific facts; it's a pragmatic approach to running a cycling forum.
• Points of view are bound to be aired which you find frustrating. Note that the feeling may be mutual, and make every attempt to find common ground in your shared desire to keep the 'a' in acf from standing for antagonistic.
• Dogma isn't your best friend here. Nor pedantry.
• Respect the rights of others to disagree with you (even if you're right, damnit!). The funny thing about respect is that it can be infectious.

The Usual Suspects

Shimano -vs- Campagnolo
They both work.

Helmets
Q: Drop two cyclists onto the road headfirst, one wearing a helmet, the other not. Which will survive?
A: Neither. They'll throttle each other on the way down.

Or so it would seem if you were gathering impressions from cycling forums, where anecdotes and statistics are ammunition in the never-ending battle for hearts, minds and heads.

It is never a "no brainer". If it were, people on both sides of the issue would've run out of steam long ago. I'm not interested in telling people what to think about helmets. Nor do I wish to provide space for endless iterations of the pro- and con- arguments.

Fixed -vs- Freewheel
Even more tedious than helmet wars, if that's possible. Respect each other's choice of drivetrain and move on.

Everything not Rapha -vs- Rapha
Clothes don't make, or unmake, the cyclist.



acf -vs- YACF and other cycling forums
Please don't make this a topic of discussion. There's too much potential for grief.

PC -vs- Mac
This one's easy. Obviously              are way better. Case closed.

God at his computer, © Gary Larson

acf is a big enough church for theists and atheists, both of whom should be able to contribute to religious threads without feeling trespassed against. We'll be debating this subject until the second coming, so for the love of Dawkins find a way to do it peacefully.


Write with your heart and your brain, not your spleen. Every time you post, think about what kind of forum you want.