Halifax - Bradford - Huddersfield - Leeds

Why did you give me positive rep then? :/

 

It was before I knew you liked Bruce Springsteen :tongue:

 

I have to say I disagree with you there lith, if "Newport-Alaska-Steam room-Vineyard" doesn't have to be explained as the first reply to a newbie thread I don't know what does.

It would certainly confuse me if I didn't know better, and I don't think I'd find that particularly welcoming and would wonder if someone was taking the piss.

I do think we need to be more of a welcoming community here in terms of open honest talk and communication and a little less of the oblique and cryptic which puts people off.

anyway, let me say welcome JesusIsCute

 

I agree with Mr Frankie :-O ... and hello Ms/Mr New!! I'm from one of those places you mentioned Welcome and keep coming back!

** xx Claire xx **

p.s. Huddersfield - Scarecrow week - Vodka - Dildo

 

oh boy.

*face palms*

*that's my yearly contribution over with*

 

http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/cgi-bin/seigmiaow.pl?6312

 

A forum is a mix of people who have different ways of looking at things, different ways of communicating and different senses of humour. One of the things that attracted me to this forum was the sense of humour of people who were around when I joined, a thread like this would have attracted me to join in for the reasons already explained at great length when they should really have been fairly obvious to begin with. At the moment we seem to have a lot of humourless and somewhat poe-faced people around who don't seem to understand some fairly basic things about humour and the important function it serves in communication, personally that puts me right off and makes me want to participate less, but who knows it may attract others

Personally I wouldn't find the first response to this thread confusing, it seems quite obvious what was intended, and the fact a couple of others joined in in the same vein made it patently apparent that this was light-hearted humour being extended as an invitation for all to join in with it. I've always found this forum very welcoming for this type of banter between people who get to know each other by sticking around and sharing a sense of fun. I have done my best to welcome others over the last 8 years in precisely this fashion, I would however find a thread like this, which has been derailed from a welcoming, fun thread into a discussion between some people who have apparently had an irony lobotomy a huge turn off, and the OP is I would suggest far more likely to have been put off by this than by some harmless joshing.

 

Yes, but you didn't, did you ? What you did was join in a thread hi-jacked from its original direction. The OP did not start a thread saying "post four unrelated words you think are funny".

Define humour ! Then tell us why your definition of humour should apply to everyone. Since you gave me a neg along with the comment: "Humourless, self-righteous priggishness", you evidently feel that any sense of humour contrary to your own should be punished in some way ?

But once again... my point is that it wasn't a thread about humour...until it was hi-jacked.

Still thread hi-jacking, whichever way you want to spin it.

No-one, I suggest, even gave the OP a thought in the rush to show how clever they [thought they] were. As Joshua Tree suggested:"I don't think I'd find that particularly welcoming and would wonder if someone was taking the piss."

And that, to some people, is exactly how your "harmless joshing" comes across - taking the piss. Rather than taking offence and deciding they must be humourless, perhaps it would be better to at least consider whether they may have a point.

Still, at least this has injected some actual excitement into what has become a particularly moribund forum. [I expect I'll get another neg for that....].



.

 

You do know he doesn't actually care if his neg rep comment is public, right?

 

I'm not sure what you're saying here ... I did join the forum because of threads like this, where people say funny things and join in with a sense of creativity and fun. When I joined there were plenty of people around who would have demonstrated a fearsome sense of irony and made unusual and linguistically creative connections in unexpected places. That's a brilliant thing as far as I'm concerned. The fact that it wasn't a funny thread but a rather dull one and became a funny thread due to the contribution of several forumers is precisely what makes it good

If you carefully read my previous comments you will learn that I was making the diametrically opposite case, i.e. that humour and creativity are what attracted me to this forum, but that others may be attracted by bland, humourless banality of the kind now being demonstrated in this thread. There's room for all sorts. That's the beauty of free speech.

The reputation remark was fair, frank and objective comment based on plenty of empirical evidence, but others are free to disagree that the evidence points in that direction and bring contrary evidence to the table. It's a beautiful system, really.

Worse than people only being allowed to be linguistically creative within well defined boundaries is having to explain basic principles of communication to people with no sense of irony...

 

I love you

 

I think the "objective" facts are that the first 5 replies were posted by Roger Irrelevant
and the "empirical evidence" is that the poor OP was last seen running for the hills clutching
desperately to his sanity whilst foaming at the mouth.

there is no lack of humour in this forum, but ffs let's at least give newbies a welcoming
supportive human conversation to settle them in first.

that's especially important on an online forum where you don't speak to people face to
face and the medium of communication is so impoverished, so there is much more room
for ambiguity in the meaning and intent of messages.

I must say I'm surprised lith that you don't think this is a problem, and that it is even the way
forward, and I find your rationalisations frankly bizarre rather than objective, I'm sorry to say.

 

I don't think he's viewed this thread since posting it.

"Last Activity: 06-24-2011 12:49 AM" - as far as I can see, an activity includes viewing threads, not just posting.

The first reply was at 11pm the same day. So his last appearance on the forum was a day before the reply was posted.

Unless he came on but didn't log in, but then he wouldn't have the "Your Posts" function to check his posts (and he made quite a few), so I doubt he'd have done that.

I need to get laid.

 

well when he goes down in the woods today he's in for a big surprise

 

The OP joined in 2008 and has 16 posts...I highly doubt his lack of response here is because of a bit of lightheartedness. You really need to loosen up, JT.

This place doesn't need policing against the threat of fun and a laid-back atmosphere. If someone's going to pipe up telling you what you're doing wrong every time you make a joke or say something which isn't wholly serious the place will turn into an old peoples home. The aim is free speech and we're decent people having a bit of fun. You know us, and you know that. You don't have to join in.

If Frankenstein really believed the person needed a big serious formal welcome, why didn't he just give that rather than stirring up all this? He didn't even say welcome himself. The fact is you guys preferred to get narky about it rather than getting on with things and doing the very thing you're claiming must be done.

 

^this

 

Actually i forgot i'd posted this entirely, i have no recolection of actually doing so, but since it's under my username and seems like something i would post i guess i did.

But it was more a hopeful "maybe some random cool person will reply and we'll just hook up and become friends" kinda post.

I'm one of those guys that actually would meet up with a random stranger, during daylight in a public place of course... though i've spent 6 months of the past year hitch-hiking, so i've learned to be a very trusting person, since i've recieved so much kindness from people.

Uh anyway, so i guess, if anyone is local (and like me, willing to take a risk on a stranger), hit me up, i'm in Halifax till September and i'd love to make some new friends and some happy summer memories.

 

you guys have a Halifax over there too?...thats just crazy..did we steal all the names lol

 

Well, welcome back to the thread, I hope you weren't put off by our comedy replies and bizarre peregrinations. May you find some willing strangers in your vicinity so you can undoubtedly stab them up and bury their corpses in shallow graves:biggrin:

 

He's from Halifax... not Hebden Bridge