My dad was in the RAF, so I grew up around an armed forces sense of humour. Let me tell you, you haven't seen anything as dark or twisted as an armed forces sense of humour. I constantly have to reel myself back in because "normal" people with a civilian family background just won't get it. EDIT: And why the hell are you psychopaths posting at 0230 and 0457 in the morning?!
Fully sympathise. My proudest moment was when I managed to 'out-sick' my ex army friend. Early to bed, early to rise!
The key here is not that one side is the right or wrong side. Both 'sides' are shitstirring arseholes here.
You know, I disagreed with one thing. I then soon realised others saw things differently, made it known I didn't want to fall out over it and put it to bed as far as I'm concerned.
This place always had its cliques. It is part of the reason I stopped posting here. I still respect the knowledge and a few of the members, but they just echo off each other now. The brexit thread just morphed into the corona thread for an example. Same people, same opinions, same noise. This forum is devoid of any soul unless you are one of those 8 people who post everyday. This forum died years ago. I log in occasionally out of boredom or sentimentality.
I wish you'd hang around more @Fizzban Most forums can generate what look like echo chambers if alot of people agree with each other, I like hearing different points of view - I mean I speak to my mum every weekend so I have to hear them anyway
It's definitely true that this place is a lot less active than it was even a few years back, and much of the activity that remains is concentrated between a relatively small number of users. That said, it's still a good community and I find myself visiting (even if not posting) daily. But: I don't know if it's the lockdown getting to me (and others), but I'm finding more and more that there's a trend for negativity, cynicism and misanthropy that seems to be on the increase. It's probably just confirmation bias on my part - I've started noticing it, so suddenly it's more noticeable, combined with a smaller userbase meaning that certain voices ring out louder than they might if we had more people posting regularly. I've found myself using the ignore list quite a lot recently, which feels like a real shame given we don't have a surfeit of active users in the first place, but it makes my experience of using the site more enjoyable - better that than to just stop visiting, imho.
The ignore list was a pivot point of my personality transplant. I used to use it constantly and with satisfaction: now I refuse to use it on general principle. I think ignoring someone is tacky. If you have to ignore people, you don't want to be in the social group any more. You wouldn't go to the pub to hang out with your mates and just hold your hand up so the one bloke you don't like can't make eye contact with you. You just learn to put up with him and try to find some common ground. I wish I'd understood this years ago. When someone rubs you up the wrong way, it's as much a you problem as a them problem. You can walk away from it, or you can get to work trying to find common ground and a language that lets you understand each other. And yeah, out in the wild west of the internet, there are too many arseholes to make that effort with all of them, but in a little community like this? You make the effort if you like the place. Hell, I don't like any of you very much, but I find you all interesting and your kaleidoscope of perspectives on things is often invaluable. So here I am.
Many, many forums have gone the same way over the years, this one at least, remains generally friendly and, if someone asks for help or advice, help is forthcoming and nobody gets ridiculed for asking a noob question. More than plenty of worse forums and this is still one of the better ones.
TBH the only person i've thought about adding to the ignore list is myself. Oh and @David but that's a given.
My ignore list mainly consists of people who leech off the MP without contributing to the forum. Everyone else who was on it have gotten themselves banned by now, so I stand by my instincts.
That's exactly what I love about Bit-Tech. There's a sense of charity pervading the entire forum. I tried to sell something I'd previously bought on the marketplace back to the marketplace at a profit, once, and was quickly and unanimously KO'd by the entire community. I was thinking of it like eBay. It's more like a village fair. A village is probably a good analogy in fact. It's a small community, many of us hold petty grudges and are notorious to one another as being pests of one kind or another, but we basically all help and trust each other. The secret is probably precisely that the forum has never gotten huge. This **** isn't very thunderdomey, huh...
I've never banned anyone, and I don't ever intend to unless the user is either blatantly disregarding the rules of the forum (which we as mods get very little say in, the site is a commercial enterprise after all), or is clearly here to disrupt other user's enjoyment of the forums. Disagreements happen, cliques form, people have an off-day. Those are all aspects of life, and we are all different people, most of whom have never met each other in the flesh. The forums aren't what they were 10-15 years ago. That's a direct consequence of the commercialisation of modding, social media and super-forums like Reddit. But there is still a special blend of folks on here, and it keeps me coming back. It'd be lovely to see some of the OGs return and liven the place up from time to time, or a solid supply of new users who actually contribute to the place, but for now it's as good as it's going to get, and I have low standards
That 'community' feel brings me here every day to check out what's going on. IMHO there's less negativity and unpleasantness here than many other places, including real life. We may be reduced in numbers, but there are guys that are helpful, supportive and good to chat with, at worst some opinions that I don't agree with or make me think about a topic from a different angle. If nothing else (damning with faint praise...) it's people other than the other 3 at home or family on the phone. No one here walks / cycles / runs past me closer than 2m for example . That really gets my goat out walking. We have a wideish promenade at the beach, but I still see people of all ages, (even older potentially more vulnerable folk), walking side by side in couples. Some even pass too close without moving at all. If I'm out with Mrs A, we seem to be the only ones who scuttle to one side, walk in line to make more room, walk in the road on a narrow pavement or cross the road. Some say thank you, the majority are oblivious it seems. So, I'm not looking forward to my next supermarket trip, as it sounds worse inside, when you need it the most. @Shirty, as one of my nearest B-T neighbours, we may meet up one day... My nearest 'neighbour' TMDD moved across the pond from Ringwood a few years ago, and I think there may be others in the 'BH' area other than @ElThomsono
I don't take part in cliques. I would imagine at (most of our) age we are past all of that. And holding onto anger, spite and rage. There are a couple of people here I try to avoid, but only because they have made it rather clear they don't like me. I don't do that. Whatever I was thinking or annoyed about in the evening is long gone by the time I get up the next day. I come here for a laugh and some tech talk. To that ends it's a great place to be. Big forums with masses of users simply don't work. They just don't. You can never remember every one, and threads just become cluttered and OT so quickly that it's not worth it (see Linus forums and others). I like the community feel, not that I am at a rave with thousands of strangers. So yeah, I'm a forum freelancer who lives free That said I have met some fantastic people on here, and off of here (like IRL).
So guys, question. I'm thinking of making a Youtube channel where I sing. I was classically trained, have performed with the Mobile Opera and Symphony and played the Phantom in Webber's Phantom of the Opera. I'm working to rebuild my voice after a diagnosis of bronchiectasis and thanks to new medication I can actually sing properly again (in short spells.) Anyone interested in hearing me squawk at things? Bored I am, need things to do I must.
