« A club for all ages |
Main
|
Vested Interests »
Banter
April 16, 2004
As Mick would say, 'We all like a bit of banter,' and those of you who read other weblogs will know that comment threads quickly degenerate from argument, through contradiction, into abuse. This is also the way newsgroups have worked since anyone started using the internet for anything more serious than passing around pornography.
However, we're supposed to be a club here. We (mostly) know each other. There are some posts here which are frivolous -- and there are others which are informative, and are an easy way for us to enjoy something resembling a two-way conversation. If someone like Simon, in the post two before this one, goes to the trouble of organising a trip or an event, I'd appreciate it if comments were kept relevant, and didn't drift off into nit-picking.
Posted by Dave at April 16, 2004 04:03 PM
Dave, I thought you were the great champion of freedom of expression! Any more of this control-freakery and people will start describing you in the same terms that you described Peter Hain.
heer heer.
Oh i forgot i don't know whow peter hain is£
Yes, it's great fun, that is, until you try to organise something and someone inadvertently messes YOU about. I think the word is respect.
Hi all,
as an overseas reader of the ACE l must agree that to put in comments that don't add information be it in seriousness or light accepable banter then what's the point.l'm not putting down anyone here but one David Lloyd and in particular the other Alan Mann are OUT OF ORDER in this matter.What a great club and website manager you have so don't spoil for all of us.l am big enough to receive criticism but think before replying.
As always, good to hear from you Eero.
One of the best things about our running club is the social interaction and relationships that we share. Thursday nights are a highlight in an often banterless week, and I look forward to the fun pokery, the chit-chat and the competitive wind-up. The website I feel, provides a different service. It can't be beaten as a means of 'spreading the word', especially if you can't make it to the club (Eero rarely comes down these days, but we'll let him off as he has a 10,000 mile commute). I have no issue with banter on pieces that invite it (as this one to a certain extent does), but the issue is one of selection. Informative pieces are precisely that, and we hope to encourage participation rather than discourage it through irrelevance or irreverence (remember, other clubs read this stuff!). Nowhere is this more keenly felt than when organising a team or an event, particularly if a huge amount of personal time and commitment has gone into it. By all means comment (please, please do) but always try and keep to the spirit of the piece..........then give us a good slagging at the rugby club.
Eero, I don't know who you're agreeing with, but it's not me. I said, as narrowly as I could with any brevity, that I considered the comments (most of which I've deleted) to Simon's post out of order because the post represented Simon's work in organising our fell-running weekend, and his generous putting up of the deposit, while the response he had was concerned with whether or not his keyboard had a £ sign.
Simon says, quite correctly, "I have no issue with banter on pieces that invite it (as this one to a certain extent does), but the issue is one of selection." This one did invite banter, and Dave Lloyd laid in with some in response to the substance of what I said. He's quite right to point out that there is a superficial (and only superficial) hypocrisy in my taking this position, given my other widely-enough publicised views. What he wrote was banter, and it amused me.
I'd also appreciate it if comments stuck to the accepted rules of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Logic is in your hands. The sense in "l'm not putting down anyone here but one David Lloyd and in particular the other Alan Mann are OUT OF ORDER in this matter" eludes me. I did consider deleting the subordinate clause, but it's only fair to let others judge you by your own words.
Dave, going by the texts DP sent me from Paris, they already do.
Hi all,
l guess it's always going to be "you can't please everyone all the time" and l guess l don't know your sense of humour that well Dave but bravo in taking Dave Lloyd's comment in an amusing way .
It's also reassuring to know that there are some posts that you don't allow in(?) , so l should presume that what's in is acceptable. Having said that , then l probably don't understand Alan Mann's sense of humour(?).
That said l must reiterate that my post was not to put down anyone .
We are a great club with varying points of view but fellow support should always be paramount.
If l need to eat humble pie on this occasion then so be it .
Dave , my worst subject in school was english so don't be too harsh on me .
All the best to all and in particular to the London runners , (including Lloydy and Manno)
Without prolonging this discussion unduly, I would like to mention to Eero that I was making a serious point, deliberately presented as banter(and with reference to something which I knew Dave was likely to find amusing). Dave accepted the serious point and, fortunately, found the banter amusing (I've slept with him often enough to understand his sense of humour!). I don't actually disagree with the spirit of Dave's post but feel that strands of irrelevance or irreverence are a small price to pay for the opportunity to express our views via such a wonderful website. If an individual decides that a particular comment is irrelevant, irreverent or even disrespectful, then she or he can choose to either ignore that comment or engage with it. The nature of the medium means that there is always potential for frustration, frivolity or (as I have just seen) for respondents to miss the intended point of the comment (in this case because it was a specific response to the person submitting the original post). This goes with the territory and I'm confident that we are a sufficiently mature audience to deal with this.
You're right of course Dave, but it is still about selection. Thankfully most of us are quite mature (like a fine wine or a strong cheese), but engage in banter when the piece dictates, and have a little respect for race/event organisation. It can be exceedingly frustrating when the point of your article is totally lost in a sea of irrelevance. The very fact that we even have this debate illustrates our relative maturity and the ability to take it on the chin (bravo Eero)!
Forthcoming debates in Ace;
Marathon Des Sables, extreme event or Club-med with blisters?.......Sleeping with your mates to understand them better, a guide by Dave Lloyd..........Is beer a performance enhancing drug? (a joint post by Julian and Andy).
i have been sitting hear for half an hour now thinking whether or not to say something. So hear goes. I made a mistake in making in commenting about the £. As some of the club members know some of the things i do i draw attention to myself (for Eero benefit, like wearing odd socks) If what i do makes someone smile i'm happy. But this cind of attentoion i don't want.
I have been told never regret what you do because how are you going to learn anything.
I have learnt i won't make any comments that are not irelivant until someone else does first,Simon needs to take some happy pills,one of the Daves comments got me totaly lost, Eero sound like a reasonable guy,(i'm assuming you are in Canada or usa send me a marathon form from your area for next year and i'll come and stay with you)you can ask everyone if it's safe.Bye for now
P.S. LIke you sead dave you have taken most of the comments off, i also noticed you put the £ signs in, well you missed one.
It's really not a problem, Al. Just so you and everyone else knows what’s accepted as fun, and what gets others’ backs up. Eero’s in Australia by the way. What I called Peter Hain, I’m not going to repeat here, but take it from me, it wasn't very nice. He's the Minister for Permatanning, I mean, the Secretary of State for Wales.
Simon does the real work, I just come along and prettify everything later, so the problems with the £ signs were for me to fix; you just got in too quickly.
Simon has done a lot in organising the weekend in the Lakes. He’s put up a deposit for all of us, which I think is very generous of him and as there are 27 of so far, I make that £520 (£20 x (27 - 1)), so I can understand a little seriousness on his part. If you haven't signed up, Al, why not come along? — there are a few spare places yet. We'll even let you wear odd socks.
Eero, fair enough. But excuse me if I get a little upset if you tell anyone they’re out of order — especially Dave, who never tires of boasting that he's slept with me.
Dave, do you have to tell the world? When you told Jo Clarkson, she moved to Perth, Australia, the following week. And think of all the broken hearts in the club.
hi all
..all's forgiven Andy , and if you are the second Les Croup to visit ..yes you can stay with us and hopefully it's around a marathon .. but l was hoping that a few would venture downunder and try a shrimp on the barbie!.
ps. okay Dave , this probably sounds like drivel(?) but it is an open invitation.
pps. a big hello and miss you ..the Cox family.
© Dave Weeden 2000–10.
Feel free to contact me with suggestions, complaints, or praise — or if you spot any errors of fact, grammar, sense, or coding.
