Viewing 38 posts - 1 through 38 (of 38 total)
  • So long and thanks for all the fish!
  • rollindoughnut
    Free Member

    I think the time has come for me to stop visiting this forum.
    Back in the early days I used to love learning about different bikes, places to ride and chat about events and training. Sadly however, these days I’m compulsively drawn to all the arguments and I never enjoy my time on here, I just leave irritated and angry.
    Therefore I should try make a change to my life and break the habit.
    So I just wanted to say thank you to you all for the myriad of conversations and a special thanks to Singletrack for providing this forum free of charge to me for around a decade.
    Finally I’d like to apologise for all my snide remarks about ebikes. All the ebikers I’ve met in the wild have been just fine. I don’t like everything about the way the worlds going but being facetious on the internet is the worst of them all.
    I hope to come back someday in the future when we’ve all got more positive things to discuss but for now I need to try put down my smartphone. I think it will be a difficult challenge.
    Ed

    colin9
    Full Member

    Good on you for making a change.
    Get out for a ride and we’ll see you again another time.

    Trimix
    Free Member

    No point replying, he has put down his Smartphone.

    But I do think getting out in the real world can be much better than being glued to the online version.

    I stopped listening to the News ages ago, my life improved after that.
    I don’t read threads that are likely to be full of arguments, that makes my life much better.
    I don’t have any social media accounts, so don’t get to see all that crap either.

    Well done Ed. (not that he should read this)

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    jimmy
    Full Member

    I don’t like everything about the way the worlds going but being facetious on the internet is the worst of them all.

    Pretty much this. never had this problem on STW, but I find it easy not to get dragged into stuff. Unlike Twitter and Facebook which i have learned to control my access to. Almost.

    Bez
    Full Member

    I don’t like everything about the way the worlds going but being facetious on the internet is the worst some small way of dealing with it.

    I quit Twitter a while ago; aside from the fact that it became impossible to use it without being force-fed The Newspocalypse it wasn’t the facetious people who made me fed up with it 🙂

    At least STW is usable without the Chat section; I’ve found the Bike forum entirely tolerable (but then I know to only visit e-bike/road safety/helmet/etc threads if I’ve either got something specific to say or my popcorn’s hit its best-before date).

    tjagain
    Full Member

    I just leave irritated and angry.
    Therefore I should try make a change to my life and break the habit.

    Before my banning I sometimes felt like this. I found that looking on from afar gave me the perspective to see what a dick i had been at times and thus when I returned I was able to interact without the anger

    A couple of things really helped. On a contentious thread try to make my point and move on and not get bogged down in debate ( varying success on this one) and also to identify the individuals who annoyed me and ignore them or just laugh at them.

    The two things together led to people actually baiting me less as they were not getting the rise

    so to the OP I would say take your break, regain some perspective then come back with a new outlook

    convert
    Full Member

    Good plan and anyone taking a positive steps should be admired.

    I feel I need to do the same – not because I spend all my time angry (though a couple of entirely valid mod warnings recently mean I’m not great there too) but because I’ve got into the habit of stalking around threads I really have very little interest in as work avoidance. Which means work is spilling over into home time as it still needs to get done.

    So I’m going to take your prompt to do the same.

    zippykona
    Full Member

    I have felt this way in the past but aways come back.
    The help I’ve had with my water bill just this week has been amazing, this place has literally saved me thousands of pounds.
    Practice self restraint, other people are allowed a different point of view….even if they are wrong.

    verses
    Full Member

    Worst… Flounce… Ever… 🙂

    DezB
    Free Member

    I considered this a few times lately. Feel like I have absolutely nothing in common with anyone on here! But they’re the same people! I put it down to the Covid shite and how it’s effected my tiny bwain.
    I certainly wouldn’t have started a flounce thread, just gone, but then you get threads like the Tiny Desk one and discover some stuff and realise things are ok. I just don’t reply to posts I disagree with so much (not always, obv) and move on.

    wordnumb
    Free Member

    Sometimes a Rollindoughnut’s just gotta roll on.

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    I think you just need to apply your own filter to the content & ignore getting drawn into threads that have the potential of riling you up.

    I often write overly wordy replies to threads that are only going one way & then manage to come to my senses & hit refresh or back….
    Occasionally I write something & hit send while my brain is shouting ‘don’t do that you idiot’ but I then just ignore that thread going forwards.

    There’s too much useful stuff & general ‘niceness’ to ignore it completely.

    belugabob
    Free Member

    Should we expect a Vogon Space ship, sometime, soon.

    funkmasterp
    Full Member

    Do you reckon he’s gone yet or is he reading the responses? I’ve fake flounced a couple of times and nobody noticed. I always come back because you might be grumpy middle aged bastards, but you’re my grumpy middle aged bastards.

    ElShalimo
    Full Member

    No we’re not 😉

    franksinatra
    Full Member

    You know it is possible to chose not to get involved in arguments. I happily use FB, STW and Twitter and manage to not get angry at all, I just chose who I engage with. Its not that hard.

    I do however spend far too much time on my phone looking to see if someone has said something interesting when they usually haven’t.

    Kryton57
    Full Member

    You know it is possible to chose not to get involved in arguments. I happily use FB, STW and Twitter and manage to not get angry at all, I just chose who I engage with. Its not that hard

    This. I had a break in January, and despite posting more than I anticipated in February I did this and tried to stick to sensible and helpful comments. I feel much better and I’m sure the forum would be all the better it.

    Edit; and perhaps selfish but remembering that there’s many helpful people for both bikes and other things available for the forum. It can be a very helpful place both through contribution and reciept.

    the-muffin-man
    Free Member

    The forum isn’t what it was, but it’s always the first tab I open in a morning.

    Used to be a place of light-hearted chat, now a lot of topics descend into fights within a few posts.

    funkmasterp
    Full Member

    There are a lot of doom and gloom and posts that come across as a bit “back in my day” in how they read. Ironically the majority of them are complaining about others with a different set of “back in my day” criteria. I find it easier to just not engage in those threads or, if the mood takes me, to wander in with the pokey stick and then retreat!

    plus-one
    Full Member

    scruff9252
    Full Member

    I happily use FB, STW and Twitter and manage to not get angry at all,

    I’ll admit I’m quite envious of that – I don’t find that I get angry so much as be constantly be disappointed in humanity and each day seem be more and more convinced the world is populated by utter *****.

    This place is often one of the more positive places which goes somewhat to refute the above feeling and restore some faith in humanity.

    esselgruntfuttock
    Free Member

    The forum isn’t what it was,

    I agree. I don’t come on any where near as much as I used to (& I was permanently logged in) had a good long lay off recently which did me the world of good.
    I’m not convinced anyone reads my posts anyway. 🙂

    timbog160
    Full Member

    I’m with you OP. A break can do you a world of good.

    By the way shouldn’t this be in the Chat forum?

    funkmasterp
    Full Member

    I’m not convinced anyone reads my posts anyway. 🙂

    I miss your posts

    Poopscoop
    Full Member

    @rollindoughnut
    I only dip my toes into the more consensus* chat forum threads now and again these days. I was finding them to be having a negative effect on me to be honest. I’ll post an opinion or link but don’t get involved in the debates.

    Oddly, I find the “tensions” regarding ebikes, wheel size, shim vs SRAM etc comforting and it reminds me that I came here and stay here for the bike forum. That’s the glue that keeps the forum together, bikes and a love there of, everything else is noise.😁 Overall I find the forum a huge positive on my life and there are a lot of good people on here. It can reflect people’s worries in real life though and its obvious there are a lot of people going through some really rough times at the moment.

    Anyway.

    All the best op and hope you return soon.👍

    *Notably excluding the corona thread, that’s proven to be an invaluable resource for me and my family. Even there however, I’ll not compulsively read it like I used to as it gets a bit too much sometimes.

    esselgruntfuttock
    Free Member

    I miss your posts

    Don’t fib.

    Poopscoop
    Full Member

    @esselgruntfuttock
    I read your posts too. It’s no fib.😁

    Your trending!

    Poopscoop
    Full Member

    I meant you’re, I ment you’re! Bloody mobile.😉

    theotherjonv
    Full Member

    I’ll tell you who I haven’t seen for a while, that esselgruntfuttock

    jamj1974
    Full Member

    All the best.

    dyna-ti
    Full Member

    @Ed
    Don’t take any of it seriously. If someones being a douch, then acknowledge they’re a douch and leave it at that. Feel proud you aren’t a douch.

    In reference.

    “Grown men, he told himself, in flat contradiction of centuries of accumulated evidence about the way grown men behave, do not behave like this.”

    tjagain
    Full Member

    The forum isn’t what it was,

    Yup – its a lot better IMO especially since that dick tandemjeremy got banned!

    I really think in many ways its less nasty than it was.

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    @OP – yeah, people are pissed off with “stuff” lately and that means some have taken to trolling and some have taken to biting. It’s not a great combo but I’m staying.

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    I’m compulsively drawn to all the arguments and I never enjoy my time on here, I just leave irritated and angry.
    Therefore I should try make a change to my life and break the habit.

    I did write a long rambling post about how I agree with the OP, how the Brexit and lately Covid thread have dominated the conversation and how the very binary right / wrong, them / us way of STW (and the internet) is leeching into my real world and rather than a bit of light relief when work it stressful, it’s become a habit and I should probably be doing, you know, stuff I paid to do, but part of my personal way to break the habit was to stop paying for my ‘P’, but the site keeps eating my post before I can finish typing so before it does again I’ll say the same. I’m out, I might not quit completely, but I’m going to try.

    My advise to anyone else, if this shit starts to feel like it’s actually reality, and it makes you change the way you feel and act in the real world, it’s probably time to quit too.

    Blackflag
    Free Member

    Its not such the outright disagreements that wind me up (ebikes, brexit etc) its the pathetic c*ck measuring oneupmanship that kicks in far too often. We had two “engineers” trying to outdo each other about chain stretch the other day.

    But this place is no worse that elsewhere on the internet.

    easily
    Free Member

    The forum isn’t what it was

    Well there’s been a lot less cycling in the last year, and a lot more sitting home bored in from of computers.
    I find a couple of threads I want to read every day – that’ll do me.

    Scienceofficer
    Free Member

    Good lord.

    Whatever happened to resilience eh?

    It’s much easier to denigrate and dislike someone you disagree with than to give potential credence to their point of view. That requires understanding and empathy.

    Its not true of all, and of course rudeness and poor behaviour must be moderated, but some people might be better off taking a look at themselves, their mindset and their willingness to be offended by opinions that differ from theirs rather than blame others. But that requires a modicum of self awareness and effort. Much easier to take the binary position.

    This forum is an anodyne echo-chamber in comparison to the full blooded, free and frank exchange of thoughts and ideas that it used to be. I still come here for entertainment, less so now, because its less interesting than it ever has been.

    garage-dweller
    Full Member

    You know it is possible to chose not to get involved in arguments. I happily use FB, STW and Twitter and manage to not get angry at all, I just chose who I engage with. Its not that hard.

    It is possible but sometimes it’s also hard knowing when to back down when you are passionate or strongly concerned about an issue. Sometimes you need the right nudge.

    I originally learned that from this place after I got into a minor (by the standards of the day) spat with the pre ban, more lairy TJ. The only reason I remember it was it left me feeling I didn’t want to have those kinds of rows on the Internet and I’m grateful for that in an odd way. I stay because there’s also so much kindness and humour on here but I’m strict about staying off things that will annoy me.

    I do however spend far too much time on my phone looking to see if someone has said something interesting when they usually haven’t.

    +1 (that not interesting stuff could well be me)

    Would also echo that the forum content can be thin because the riding and travelling is curtailed.

Viewing 38 posts - 1 through 38 (of 38 total)

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