[Closed] Is it just me or is this place boring?

I've come to the conclusion, from reading a lot more than I post, that this place has a small clique of those that are either in the vicinity of and ride with the powers that be or have at some point in the past

I've not noticed this - I don't think many posters mix socially with the mag people do they?

I might use the term 'Pikey' in real life with no expectation of anything other than light humour or riposte, does that make me racist

Perhaps not racist directly, but you'll be using it as a derogatory term I'm sure. You should be able to see why it's a bad thing to use the name of a social group as an insult , surely?

personally im dissapointed, i mean we havent had a wheelsize debate for at least 3 days...

Oh look,some more of WGM just leaked out.

No offense 😉

A forum is surely only is "boring" or as vibrant as its users, and if anyone believes that a forum requires endless arguing and spiteful name-calling to avoid being boring then I think we'll have to agree to differ.

Ultimately, the users control the content of the forum at least as much if not more than the moderators on STW. If you don't like the content, consider adding something you [i]do[/i] like; it's not a one way system where everyone else exists to provide your entertainment.

Looking at the front page of the chat forum currently, there's: a joke thread; a thread full of "witty" business name suggestions; a 33-page debate on the ethics of overtaking; several threads asking for help and discourse regarding injuries, surgery and other medical issues including mental health; a couple of political debates; a discussion on not-parenting as a lifestyle choice; what new phone / trainers / wood burner / jar jack threads; bacon; witty euphemisms; "what's the last thing you made"; cricket; dambusters; photography; walking routes; office politics... and all on one page of a [i]mountain biking forum![/i] What else do you want? About all it's missing is a religion thread, and I'm sure there will be one along in a minute.

It does beg the question though, why would you choose to frequent a forum which you find boring?

It does beg the question though, why would you choose to frequent a forum which you find boring?

Two words. Word avoidance.

binners - Member
That quote is Charlie Brooker

full article here

And its absolutely bang on! Some people seem to exist purely to take offence at everything

You do not have the right not to be offended!!!

Miles off the mark there.

molgrips - Member

Perhaps not racist directly, but you'll be using it as a derogatory term I'm sure. You should be able to see why it's a bad thing to use the name of a social group as an insult , surely?

You and me, Pub, after a ride we're talking about that movie Snatch and having a laugh, now, look me straight in the eye and say that to me, whilst keeping a straight face..

Has anyone said 'Only boring people get bored' yet? 😀

wilko1999 - Member

Has anyone said 'Only boring people get bored' yet?

If not, let me be the first.

That was a boring response

100!!!

Well done kevevs

If Elf was around now, he'd mark this thread length with: 'wun undered'...

so in his memory...

wun undered

EDIT: dammit, too slow!

What's a jar jack cougar? 🙂 can i use one to open the marmalade.

[i]What's a jar jack cougar?[/i]

Its what happened to his bottle of chilli sauce.

this place has a small clique of those that are either in the vicinity of and ride with the powers that be

I'm a moderator, and I've never met any of the powers that be, whether that's the magazine / site owners or the other mods. People get together fairly often and I'm sure plenty of genuine friendships have been formed on the back of that, but I can count the other users I've met on the fingers of one hand (largely because I'm not sufficiently rad to the power of sick on a bike).

Funny thing though, perception. I've said this before, but when someone gets a warning they don't see whether anyone else does, so it's easy to take things personally. "Why am I being told off and not him?"

I've been using social media systems since before the web existed, and the "clique" accusation is by no means exclusively an STW phenomenon. I think perhaps it's a side effect of any arena where the ratio of regular contributors to occasionals is badly skewed, and IME that's pretty much all of them (google the "1% rule"). The regular posters aren't more privileged, they're just more prolific.

newcomers have a pretty random and unfair application of the rules. Those rules also in themselves are difficult to quantify,

Again, I've discussed this at length. The TL;DR version is that moderation is ultimately a judgement call. There is more than one moderator and individual moderation styles may differ.

The "rules" are a little organic in so far as every time we try to firm something up, people immediately start pushing boundaries to see how much they can get away with.

For instance, you'd think that 'don't make homophobic comments' is on the face of it a fairly simple rule, yes? But then someone says "your gay" (sic) - is that homophobic or tongue in cheek silliness? How should we moderate that? Do we delete it, issue a warning, ignore it? How about "mincing down the trails"? Common parlance on STW, but it arguably could imply a slur based on sexuality.

So if it's any consolation, it's not a particularly easy place to moderate. In the example above, I guarantee that whatever decision we came to, some people wouldn't like it. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. So, feel free to lump it. (-:

Its what happened to his bottle of chilli sauce.

*applauds*

And its absolutely bang on! Some people seem to exist purely to take offence at everything

You do not have the right not to be offended!!!

Balancing this is the job th emods must do and it is not easy

FFS we agree on nothing on here [ and i count binner as a mate*] to see how hard it is for the mods who have to decide which it is for any given post

* Be as offensive as you like to that one 😉

"The person in the room you like the least is the one that's most like you"

I find this depressingly true and in some ways it applies to this forum.

personally I might use the term 'Pikey' in real life with no expectation of anything other than light humour or riposte, does that make me racist

In that situation, yes.

As it's the one that seems to come up most often, I'll repeat what I've said before about the word - stop and think whether you'd use the very similar sounding "****" in a similar (or any) context, and maybe wonder what the difference between the two terms is?

Fred is decent yes.

Fred seems like a decent bloke but after seeing that 'banned from STW' page on Facebook or whatever it was, I genuinely think he needs professional help.

I have to argue the "Pikey" v "****", the one group is a lifestyle choice, out side of the social norms whilst in some instances preying upon society, the other is a racial group and definitely an objectionable insult.

Some what shall we call them so's not to offend? Travellers? They go to brick, it's an option, their choice, they then pay tax like the rest of us, but all the time their lifestyle preys upon ours, in my view they are a legitimate target for base humour.

Nor do you have th eright to be offensive

Oh, you have every [i]right [/i]to be offensive, you just have to accept the consequences of your actions if you do. In the meat world it might earn you a smack in the mouth, whereas on STW we ask that you waive this right and refrain from posting offensive comments, and so it may net you a warning or a ban for trolling if you do.

I have to argue the "Pikey" v "****",

And two short pages ago STW was accused of being boring.

I must have missed that episode of Deadliest Warrior.

Cougar - Moderator
I have to argue the "Pikey" v "****",
And two short pages ago STW was accused of being boring.

And saying that "I hope you didn't get that bike you're going to send me off some 'traveller'" doesn't quite have the same ring does it? 😉

I have to argue the "Pikey" v "****", the one group is a lifestyle choice, out side of the social norms whilst in some instances preying upon society, the other is a racial group and definitely an objectionable insult.

Jesus wept - so you have a low opinion of them and you use a derogatory word about them and then you claim it is humour and ask if it is racist.
Now try this is this racist?

"****" is a lifestyle choice, out side of the social norms whilst in some instances preying upon society,

I have to argue the "Pikey" v "****", the one group is a lifestyle choice, out side of the social norms whilst in some instances preying upon society, the other is a racial group and definitely an objectionable insult.

More ignorance.

English Gypsies and Irish Travellers – Today, both English Gypsies and Irish Travellers are recognised as distinct ethnic minority groups in law because they are recognised as members of a community with a share history stretching back over hundreds of years. As such they are granted the full protection...

Unless you were referring to "new age" travellers. But you weren't were you? No one calls them "pikeys".

we're talking about that movie Snatch

Entirely different. That film consists entirely of caricatures and their language reflects that - they are not real people, they don't live in a real world.

all the time their lifestyle preys upon ours

So there you are accusing an entire group of people of thievery. If that's not prejudice I don't know what is.

all the time their lifestyle preys upon ours

Who you callin' a thieving Pikey?

[img] [/img]

I know what you mean JY. I wouldn't fancy the mods job. Even with the more ...erm... 'challenging' members exiled. I do look forward to some very drunken, in-person bickering in a few weeks though 😀

haha I knew this'd turn into one. Fred is my mate and he should be brought back.

Who you callin' a thieving P[s]ikey[/s]aki?

[img] [/img]

That one okay? It's just a joke etc..

Well he appears to have his nob out. That'd offend me personally

Offended or turned on? 😀

Nothing anyone has said here, other than deliberately attempting to be inflammatory, has argued anything to disprove the fact that by and large the group referred to as 'pikeys' live outside of our society, contribute no tax whatsoever, are often guilty of petty crime and in some instances serious organised crime, they are not just Irish or English, they can be Albanian, Romanian, Czech and from all manner of races, hell I even have a Romany in my own lineage and yes I often refer to myself in a self deprecating manner as a bit 'pikey'.

It ain't racial it is a lifestyle choice, one actually worse than that the unemployed are sometimes accused of.

They 'moved in' to my office car park once, as usual there was no help from the PC brigade and in the end after several weeks of theft, damage, blocked culverts from human faeces, and a spate of local crime the Army moved them on, the Police? Scared witless, difficult to serve a warrant on people of no fixed abode and of course they give you their name and address.
I'm currently awaiting a court case to another Major crime a vehicle I sold to a group (I hadn't realised were Pikeys)which was used in a Major tobacco smuggling scam, which nets them up to 12 million a year, there's a dozen or so of them, every now and then one of them goes down for a year, not bad money do a year inside and come out to a mil in cash, wouldn't you?

So yes we have to protect their human rights, but do we have to be concerned about offending their sensibilities? I don't think so, but that's my opinion, you can maybe join that list of offended on their behalf, but that will all end though the moment they move in round your way, trust me.

Kevevs, was going to direct you to

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/conscientious-objector-on-being-jailed/page/3?replies=96#post-4985851

as its looking a bit old school over there but having caught up with this thread and the pikey-**** debate(?) I realise that the answer to your question is No it's you, this place is not boring.

Think is a bit poor of Fred to get you on asking for his return, has he no pride? 🙂

FFS I can't believe people hav a problem with this.

Yes, there are a lot of travellers committing crimes. Maybe the majority, I have no idea.

But once you start generalising based on race or social group then yes you are being a bigot or a racist. That's the whole point. That's what prejudice means - judging somoene based on some external characteristic.

If you go around using the word 'pikey' as an insult, then it's not fair on decent law abiding travellers is it? Can you not understand this? The whole root of the issue is tarring whole groups with the same brush. Saying stuff like "they're all the same".

Go on, tell the forum that pikeys are all at it, I dare you.

Loads of travellers live near me in Morecambe. Can't say I've ever had a problem - apart from the odd slightly scrawny looking horse being left tethered next to the main road.

I think the point is once you start making sweeping generalisations about groups of people you are on a very slippery slope.

What was your previous forum name by the way whitegoodman?

Where do we stand on Gingers?

[quote=molgrips ]But once you start generalising based on race or social group then yes you are being a bigot or a racist. That's the whole point. That's what prejudice means - judging somoene based on some external characteristic.
+1

Where do we stand on Gingers?

[img] [/img]

It ain't racial it is a lifestyle choice

The courts have tested this assertion with a little more rigour than you have. They reached different conclusions:

In Commission for Racial Equality v Dutton the Court of Appeal held that Romany Gypsies were an ethnic group within the meaning of the Race Relations Act 1976 (RRA) having regard to the evidence of their shared history, geographical origin, distinct customs and language.

More recently in O’Leary v Allied Domecq, a case brought on behalf of Irish Travellers, the County Court accepted that Irish Travellers are also a distinct ethnic group for the purposes of the RRA.

Perhaps a more timely look at the demonisation of particular ethnic groups is explored in the Guardian. The article is from last year, but is also topical given the news over the last couple of days. The whole thing's here:

[url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/22/how-racism-takes-root ]linky[/url]

but you can get the gist of my point from the first couple of paragraphs, to wit:

By now surely everyone knows the case of the eight men convicted of picking vulnerable underage girls off the streets, then plying them with drink and drugs before having sex with them. A shocking story. But maybe you haven't heard. Because these sex assaults did not take place in Rochdale, where a similar story led the news for days in May, but in Derby earlier this month. Fifteen girls aged 13 to 15, many of them in care, were preyed on by the men. And though they were not working as a gang, their methods were similar – often targeting children in care and luring them with, among other things, cuddly toys. But this time, of the eight predators, seven were white, not Asian. And the story made barely a ripple in the national media.

Of the daily papers, only the Guardian and the Times reported it. There was no commentary anywhere on how these crimes shine a light on British culture, or how middle-aged white men have to confront the deep flaws in their religious and ethnic identity.

This would be all well and good, were it not for the fact that we're not debating an actual ethnic group, we're debating (and proving the forum aint boring)that the offended PC brigade (I.e. you lot) make the place uncomfortable for the casual pub banter brigade(i.e. me). I have no idea who even coined the term 'Pikey', it used to be 'Gippo'. Either way it may be a sweeping generalisation of a group, lifestyle or ethnic have it either way, but it aint Racism its a slang term often used in jest.

No more than calling all STW'rs nobs, a sweeping generalisation I have heard in real life which caused me to investigate further, you're not, only those that disagree with me are... 😉

He's going to make you wear one of these...

[img] [/img]

molgrips - Member
FFS I can't believe people hav a problem with this.

Yes, there are a lot of travellers committing crimes. Maybe the majority, I have no idea.

But once you start generalising based on race or social group then yes you are being a bigot or a racist. That's the whole point. That's what prejudice means - judging somoene based on some external characteristic.

Dude were you an Alien you could apply that logic to the entire human race.

They occupy that planet and kill each other in order to destroy it's resources..

Either way it may be a sweeping generalisation of a group, lifestyle or ethnic have it either way, but it aint Racism its a slang term often used in jest.

Hah.. it's only banter, so it's ok.. right. Sounds like the 1970s in here, doesn't it?

What difference does it matter if it's not genetically an ethnic group? Notice I didn't accuse you of racism, just prejudice. It doesn't really matter if it's racial or not.