CycleChăt

[Thunderbolt]

How many still here from the old C+ Forum days?

Don't feed the troll.

This old home week thread is chiefly of interest due to an astonishing confession from a practitioner of the sock puppet arts. Not me, silly. Moving right along...


credit: segamiytteg

How about a poll about which is the best cycling forum run by disaffected CycleChat members?

In the act of drawing on me, the man with no name was presumably referring to Cycling Related, a genuine splinter forum. There's no competition. Unlike Joan, I don’t insist on my members having a pulse.



Ever since 10 things great about you turned into something more like "Fun and friendly? Not so effing fast", CycleChat has held a special place in what you might call my affəctions. I go; but so far, I haven't been able to stay.



Agony Guy likes this

[bikeforumsnob]

"A forum is its people," people used to say on Another Cycling Forum. Which people, I always wondered at the time: the ones here now, or shall we include those yet to arrive? (I worried about cliques, a wall of friends.) It's true that without a sufficient quantity of wetware, you immediately lose the right to call yourself a forum.

A forum is its software. The interface itself may attract or repel those you do or don’t wish to contribute, or so I've imagined. A site without likes and trophies


star quality

is going to be different than one with them. There are actually vanishingly few users who are bothered, and bothered pragmatists just get on with it. Still, I believe those sorts of things are agents of change, generally not in a good way. Not getting as much validation as your mates? You must be doing something wrong!

A forum is its moderation. While CycleChat has shed many users over the years through natural attrition, others have been banned or jumped or were essentially pushed. That I can feel the loss of those who were a net gain, even as someone not that plugged into the place, brings me back to "a forum is its people."

Call me a bikeforumsnob. As an inveterate talent scout, it used to frustrate me that I couldn’t scoop up people with the right stuff and deposit them into clearly classier digs; and that those who had crossed the road seemed inexplicably to be unwilling to settle in.

I like talking about forums, but have nobody to talk about them with, which rather leaves me in a pickle. That’s all I really wanted to say today.

off to find a forum about pickles

[Poetic justice - Ed.]

[Cookie Monster]

I did a century ride today that was sponsored by a local club, and at each of the rest stops they had pickles out with the usual snacks (bananas, pretzels, cookies etc)…

Though I like the crisp cool crunch of a cucumber which has changed identity, it doesn’t appeal as a ride pick-me-up.

At the risk of spending too much time on the subject of pickles, I am also reminded of Crossing Delancey:

(Spoiler: Happy ending.)

Here’s a map of my tongue showing how the taste buds are apportioned:

[anothersam]

Chompsky waiting for breakfast, me waiting to see if Are you your politics? gets moved from General Chat to News & Current Affairs, where I do not dwell by administrative fiat (details on application). UPDATE: LOCKDOWN UPDATE: UNLOCKED



What can't I live without? Sharing pictures and words.



My motto? Try try again.

[sam]

I’m tempted to post

but


and anyway, who doesn’t like a bit of nostalgia from time to time. To time. I do, however, think that as threads go, there are better

reference spoiler

[close]

[Howard Cosell]

The following posts aren't going to make a great deal of sense due to missing links and context. Think of them as pieces in a puzzle in a box in the loft.
Ladies and gentlemen and those still making up their minds, something astonishing is happening. See for yourselves. A civilian is attempting to take control of the ship. Some passengers are applauding, while others have long since bailed out.

Forum moderation and heteronormativity! It's like watching Ali fight Liston on the back of Moby Dick as Ahab arm wrestles Ishmael handicapped by a monkey on his back.

Look at that little monkey! What's that? You want me to step away from the mic? I don't understand.

[Howard Cosell]

The man with no name^[1] and I agree: to most observers, this duel has probably been a draw. My view is that M started well but kind of lost it, her poor arguments and frequent sailing close to the wind of ad hominem rendering her ever less convincing. Serial flouncelets didn't help.



Au revoir ≠ goodbye is a distinction without a great difference, ohdear. This was covered in How To Deal With People You Disagree With^[2] under Common mistakes. I would class believing legal fictions to be non-fiction as another.

Spectators await moderation, such as it is.^[3] Some are experiencing an attack of the vapours.


1. Last seen being wrong
2. Not available as a podcast
3. Bias alert
3b. Et voilà

Short quiz: guess what's often out of fashion, never out of style.

[Mr William Joel]

As with Brexit, if you chose the wrong side you may have made an enemy for life, or at least forced a reappraisal by friends – "like finding out someone you otherwise respect is a Scientologist."* Nobody still in touch with their humanity wants there to be sides on this issue where genuine dysphoria is involved, but as long as rights are in opposition, there will be.

Truth needs honesty to make it whole. I don't have to agree with you, nice as that is. I do, however, have to believe that you're basically an honest person. This is ascertained by the integrity of your arguments. (That's probably one ascertain too many.) Liking the cut of your jib also comes into play, seeing as we're not all debating society material.


The ears have it

Lacking the bare necessities for debate, i.e., opposing views, I must needs tune in elsewhere – preferably somewhere with bikes nearby, as they make it more inviting. It's a shame when a forum no platforms itself. To coin a phrase, you might not do politics, but politics does you.


Claudius, apparently part giraffe

* actual comment I’ve just made up