New Forum suggestion

[knucklehead]

Dazzler, I have tried to explain it to a couple of people but their eyes glaze over and they say "yeh" a lot. A obvious sign that I am a complete failure when it comes to explaining anything.

so
http://www.blogger.com/start

Click on take a quick tour.

Hope that helps, try not to say "yeh" while your reading it.

[namtrak]

Why not just contact Dean at Online Tool Reviews? He posts stuff here quite often, and Im sure he'll respond well to requests for reviews.

Cheers

[outback]

Dazzler,

Thanks for letting me know you think most of my contribution to this board is crap. I could, and indeed have decided to take this personally.
Whilst I am haapy to admit I let my wit run riot most of the time, it is in an attempt to bring humour to those who read.
If you find my posts boring, well, I guess you can please some of the people some of the time.

[Sturdee]

Usually a thread gets highjacked, pancaked or otherwise changed from its original intent because either the topic is boring or all that needs to be said has already been said and should no longer be allowed to continue boring us like this one.

On the other hand if a thread is interesting or educational it seldom gets highjacked.

As such Outback, Ozwinner, Grunt and others are doing the majority a favour by brightening their days. Keep it up when needed.


Peter.

[adrian]

Hear, hear! Pancakes for Outback, Al, Grunt and Peter. Raspberries for anyone who disagrees! :mad:

Well I suppose I'm going to have to get some of those raspberries because I disagree. It's one thing that's always annoyed about some of the threads that contain topical subject matter. Whenever some people have nothing more to contribute, instead of just leaving a thread alone they either ramble on with largely unfunny posts about their dietry preferences or plead with to close the thread. Very often their only contribution is to hijack the thread.
If you are bored with a thread or don't have anything worthwhile to contribute, leave it alone and go on to a thread that interests you.

[journeyman Mick]

I like these forums, the humour and cameraderie. I reckon it woulod be pretty boring if hijacking and jokes were disallowed. Sure there's people that come onboard and just want their questions answered and not have to sift through a lot of seemingly irrelevant stuff. But a lot of the hijackings and jokes come from regular contributors anyway, so if they were told to can the jokes and the hijackings they might can the rest of their contributions too. Personally I reckon I've posted more than a few helpful posts (and my fair share of jokes and hijacks) but the reason I keep coming back is not that I want to answer building and renovation questions, but because I enjoy the company. I think this would be a poorer place without all the humour and hijackings.

I've made an analogy previously about this being a virtual woodies clubhouse, with people milling about showing off their jigs, denonstrating their sharpening techniques and cracking jokes. If you're sitting round with a few friends, maybe with a drink in hand and you start discussing, say, the relative merits of a particular tool or technique and the subject swings around to something else related, then drifts a bit more and a bit more until you're talking about something entirely unrelated, well that's how discussions go. You can always interject and ask another related question to try to redirect the discussion. Perhaps the reason the discussion has drifted anyway is because no-one has any thing more to add on the original topic. Of course there's nothing to stop someone coming on and posting something back on topic anyway.

Asking to lock a review thread after the first post would:
a) make more work for him (it's amazing he manages to get any paid work done on top of all his hard and unsung work here)
b) possibly be rather unbalanced - I could come on and say "I bought X and I had problems and I reckon it's junk" and then that would be locked, probably not very helpful and definitely not balanced if ten other people ahd good experiences.
c) the act of lockong the thread, if it's a particularly unfavourable review, might be seen by the manufacturer's legal people as endorsement of that view by this BB's owners/moderators and make them a target for litigation.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

End of rambling rant

Mick

[dai sensei]

... but because I enjoy the company. I think this would be a poorer place without all the humour and hijackings ...

Mick

I also may not like all the jokes and hijacking, but I agree with Mick. Wouldn't life be boring if we were all the same.

[craigb]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Yep. That sums it up for me.

[Studley 2436]

Raspberries go really well in a sugar syrup. Then you can put them on your pancakes. Actually sould go OK on a sticky date too. Aaron Maree has a good sticky date recipe in his book I am pretty sure. Even if he doesn't he is a master of sweets and chocolate recipes so just get anything you find of his.

What were we talking about sugar syrup.....,mmmmm yes well pour some water in a pot chuck in a heap of sugar heat it up swirl it around time to time and it will go to syrup. If you stir it goes into crystals which are crunchy and not nice to eat, then just chuck in the raspberries and hit the thing with a staff blender run it through a strainer to get the pips out and dump it on your pancakes. Very good with coffee and friends.

And by the by I don't think that this forum really needs to be changed it is doing pretty well as it is.

Stevo

[Driver]

Col
Why haven't you posted on your thread lately? :eek:

Jim

Mate! It's not my thread - I only started it. And the reason for the lack of contributions to the RITFOTU this week is that my creative juices have been fully diverted into writing some stuff that will actually go towards crust-earning.

However, fear not!

But wait .....What's that slow, heavy, shuddering, thumping noise? Could it be .... a T Rex .... or something much worse :eek: .. Oh No! ... I think it's the Mother Farcquar!!!!! :eek:

[silentC]

Whenever some people have nothing more to contribute, instead of just leaving a thread alone they either ramble on with largely unfunny posts about their dietry preferences or plead with to close the thread.

Humour is such a subjective thing, don't you think? I admit that a lot of the time I post for my own amusement and I don't really take into consideration whether others will find it amusing or not. Basically, I'm a smartharse on here as I am in person. My barometer is how many black eyes I get

Nah, bugger it. There's plenty of straight laced forums out there for those who want them. Leave this one alone. I know if I need an answer to a question I'll get any number of really good ones and a bit of sh!tstirring Aussie humour thrown in for free.

[Driver]

Mick's analogy of the clubhouse is spot on.

The best kind of group to belong to is the one where you know you've found people who share your interests - including some genuinely knowledgable experts - and where you've got to keep your wits about you because of the one or two slippery bastards who delight in taking the **** when it all gets a bit earnest.

Don't change a thing. This BB is the best virtual clubhouse around.

[adrian]

It seems that you're not enjoying yourself on this BB.

I don't know what gives you that idea. The quote of mine you used does nothing to indicate that I am not enjoying the forum. It must be the fact that I object to the childish habit of some members to hijack a post because they have nothing intelligent to contribute. It's like a kid in a playground who wants to stop everyone playing a game that he doesn't want to play, just so they will play with him.

Humour is such a subjective thing, don't you think?.

I agree, but not the same joke day after day. Look back in this thread and find out how the hijack occurs. It's not a comment made in a relevant post that someone has latched onto in order to take the discussion in another direction. It's purely designed to stop the thread. I don't know why the thread was intentionally hijacked but PLEASE!!! do it with something new.

94 posts containing the word pancake.
142 posts containing the word pancakes.
Give it a rest guys. It's like Benny Hill reruns.

PS. Back to the original discussion. For all those guys who don't like the idea of sub-forums and don't understand why they are necessary, make sure you post all your questions about Marquetry and Pen Turning in General Woodwork. That way when the more experienced members post a "DO A SEARCH" it makes it a lot easier for new members to do a search if everything is in the same forum.
DAZZLERS original idea was good (minus the lock) if they can get an unbiassed contributor.

[adrian]

I think that some people have had a humour bypass Col.

Sad, but there you go.

Thanks for the negative reputation points.
The following quote from the FAQ area might be helpful.
"Negative reputation should be given if the person is posting something that detracts from the conversation. If the post is rude, inappropriate, breaks forum rules, is not gracious, etc; these are all good reasons to give negative reputation.

If you have a personal grudge against someone, it is not appropriate to give them negative reputation for no reason. Giving negative reputation because you don't agree with what was said is also inappropriate use of the reputation system. People are entitled to their own opinions, just because you don't agree doesn't mean the user was wrong or not contributing to the conversation.

Administrators and moderators, take 20 points per hit. Administrators have the power to take away as many points as they deemed necessary for violations."

The only other time I've had negative reputation points was by Sturdee in the "Thanksgiving.... here???? " thread and I deserved it because I insulted peoples Christian beliefs. In fact it's amazing that I didn't get more. I think save me with a well aimed edit.
I'll make that my last contribution to this particular thread because, as usual, the intentional hijack has heated things up.

[dazzler]

Hi All

My apologies to anyone that has been upset by my suggestion. Had I known it would have caused so much angst I wouldnt have done it. But anyway whats done is done.

I am not asking you to change your behaviour or how to behave. I dont recall asking you to do this. My suggestion was that a new forum be added to assist those who are after specific information and want it quickly.

My reason for this is simple. I work long hours by necessity and spend my free time actually building things. I dont spend a lot of time online so when I do it is usually to find out a specific answer, ask a question or browse how to do things. It is frustrating when you go back to a forum that you are interested in and have to read irrelevant crap that seems to stop the thread.

Once again I am not asking you to change or how to behave. I put up with it.

However once you need to search something specific its a dogs breakfast and that information is lost amongst irrelevance. It is annoying so instead of complaining and asking you to stop I came up with an alternative suggestion for one forum. There would remain another 47 forums for you all to enjoy.

I imagined that there would be others out there in a similar situation to mine, however apart from Adrian all is quiet so perhaps I am in the absolute minority. Hey thats life.

This site is used very differently to many others in that they generally run a chat channel for the kind of banter that goes on here. To understand where I am coming from go to thesamba.com and see how it runs.

I am not asking to change the way this runs except for one simple forum as explained above to cater for specific reviews of a product. So everyone can add a review of what they have, good and bad, so that those who want to know can find out easily.

Anyway, it was just a suggestio, not a personal attack.

dazzler