Originally Posted by
Cuppa
Clunk & Ben-e-boy, I suspect that whilst I enjoy your company that we may have to agree to disagree on this issue. I hope I can manage to express my differing views to yours without us getting into a bunfight.
Apart from a few folk leaving the forum over the years I’ve been here, something which is the norm on all forums, including a small number of dummy spits by popular folk who were unable to exercise restraint & were moderated, I really haven’t been aware of any ‘change of atmosphere’. Forum dynamics are something that interests me & consequently I fiind it hard to believe that I would have missed that. This place attracted me because of it’s friendliness, lack of bitching, & respect for others. Those are still the reasons I stay.
The ‘plateaued’ comment is I suppose a matter of perception. Does it refer membership numbers, regular numbers, new member numbers .... or something else? Currently there are 29,121 members which strikes me as a large & healthy number, & we get new members joining all the time, a percentage of whom stick around, as they always have done. What is the plateau? Is it a personal comment which translates to “I’m growing out of this forum”? I hope not, but it is a fact that people do. I was on a couple of other forums for well over a decade & now only look in now & again & no longer post. It was me who changed, not the forum. Newer members continue to enjoy it. I think it is the nature of the beast.
I expect that those most likely to be making ‘gumby’ statements about this forum on other platforms are those who have an axe to grind by virtue of having been either moderated or kicked out of this forum because of being unable or unwilling to accept this forum’s ‘family friendly rules’. Those who remain are either happy with the way things are, or prepared to accept the way things are because of other recognised benefits of staying.
The reference to ‘other places’ where these disaffected folk like to congregate, (& to whinge about this forum?) are a riddle to me. Can someone provide the links so I can have a peek to see what it is that those advocating change here would like here to more like?
Am I to believe that inference about the loss of a previous ‘relaxed atmosphere’ here means there is a body of folk here who are regularly being moderated or finding self restraint too hard?
Seems to me that an analogy might be the commonly held view that in ‘real’ life it is not generally acceptable for men to use the f*ck or c*nt word in front of women & children. Clearly some folk don’t think that & swear wherever they like, some don’t agree but restrain themselves when visiting the local primary school or other people’s houses, & some just never use the words.
Arguments that there should be a f*ck & c*nt room at the primary school, or making it ok to use that language in the friend’s garden but not in the house, or only when with others who do the same seem analogous to what is being suggested needs to occur here. (If you think I’m only making reference to swearing, check ‘analogy’ in a dictionary).
Although I too had never heard of ‘NSFW’ before, it’s exists obviously because of the need by some to place some boundaries on acceptable behaviours. Nothing wrong with ‘pushing boundaries’, it’s a good way of strengthening them & ensuring clarity, some enjoy that process. ........ but I cannot see any need to remove or change boundaries in a successful organisation/workplace/forum to pander to boundary pushers who want the place to look like somewhere else. If the reference to the other place that the disaffected from her have migrated to is the Patrol 4x4 forum ........ there are reasons I prefer not to use that forum & if badmouthing this forum is something that occurs there it says something about that forum which reinforces my preference not to use it. When I first joined here I recognised that there were a body of folk disaffected by that forum who had left it to come here & I could see why.
I am not suggesting that forums with a greater ‘free for all’ should not exist, but the fact is they already do & I’m quite sure there are folk here, the ‘regulars’, occasional visitors & ‘lurkers’ exercise their preference. I simply see no point in trying to make this place more like those they choose not to go to.
EDIT: I took so long typing the above that when I posted I found that AB has made a decision - so perhaps I’ve wasted my time. Still at least folk might better understand where I’m coming from. I might even have a quiz at the ‘Memes’ now & again, as I have since the thread was introduced. (& which I’ve never been offended by IIRC). I will be interested to observe what changes with ‘more relaxed rules’ for that thread.
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