I fully agree, but hope it doesn't die. Apart from a few most on here are good value - it's just that the few tend to dominate at present.
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There actually is an official FRA Facebook group - I think it is called The Fell Runners Association, or something similar. It is very rarely used, and only for official statements.
Interestingly in a recent debate on that page, a prominent person in one of the regional associations described a senior FRA committee member as a "prick" (that word keeps coming back!)
The facebook page which we generally all refer to is Fell Runners UK and is indeed not officially tied to the FRA...
I think the fact that new members do still pop up on here asking questions, shows that the forum is worthwhile… there may be less of a response than the facebook page, but the info on here is generally worth listening to (quality not quantity!)
Disappointed to hear people are not posting but it’s probably for the same reason I’ve actually made a few posts, I think there is some good info and ref to sources in the posts, some of which I have sought out and read, whether I agree with it or not is another matter but that doesn’t stop me reading it and increasing my general knowledge which must be a good thing. It also helps me understand if the info has been used in context or where the poster has taken a bit of a liberty.
Plenty of good stuff even from those who denounce our scientific establishments & / or newspapers and refuse to even look at them because they express a different view. Don’t lower yourself to that level, I have found that to be a bad approach, when you sift through the info, even though it uses up precious time you find the odd wee golden nugget that saves the day, and improves your general knowledge.
I notice the posts tend to become long, (?) include statements not fully connected, a bit of new stuff, some info references and some repetitive opinion on demons, possibly the poster thinks this will encourage you to responding or if they keep repeating the same stuff you might actually believe it or think it meaningful.
Recent demons have included Public sector pensions, the variety of Scientific advice given to (poor) Boris, poor Boris, lazy Teachers, demanding Unions, Imperial College, Corbynista (I have a very nice photo of Jeremy with Dalmation ears and nose).
I have to laugh when every financial or systematic trouble is flagged up against the Left, not the poor Tory. When you look back over the last 50 years the Government has been Tory about 70% of the time. Hopefully they improve.
As I said I think there is some good info in there but in regards to Oracle I do like one of dictionary.coms definitions,(#1) “an utterance, often ambiguous or obscure, given by a priest or priestess at a shrine as the response of a god to an inquiry”. He may prefer one of the other definitions.
In the words of a bard; O wad some Power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us. Happy posting.
A few comments from an ‘anonymous’ ‘new’ member 😊:
1. The vast majority of user names on here are anonymous (derby tup, muddy retriever, the oracle etc) and it’s only really over time that people have become (sometimes) known
2. An anonymous comment is just as valid as a non-anonymous one if what they’re saying makes sense or at least has a point
3. I can’t talk for anyone else but I am a fell runner through and through and run from home in the fells every single (uninjured) day. The trouble is there’s not much left to say about fell running on here, partly because right now no fell races are actually happening, but mainly it seems because most of the remaining hard core posters here don’t actually run in the fells. Stagger posts about golf ffs!
4. Running in the hills and mountains is very much a visual thing to me and fell running is often best viewed that way. It’s more a thing you do and if you can’t do it you at least look at the mountains and other people doing it. This forum to me isn’t visual in any way and being stupidly fiddly to post pictures on doesn’t help
5. The forum also became over the years an increasingly unfriendly place that absolutely put off many of the old regular contributors. Especially females, like onehillwonder and Emmilou (both of whom I’m still in contact with on Facebook and Instagram), but many others too. And if someone really new posts on one of the many fell running threads here, they very rarely even get acknowledged or replied to anyway
6. The remaining hard core now like to look down on Facebook, judging it perhaps just by the fell running group page, but like travs said that has lots of race pictures and results, neither of which you see here, and even when racing isn’t happening it has pictures of people actually running in the fells and people actually posting enthusiastically about their hobby
7. But it’s not just about the Facebook fell running page anyway. There’s shed loads of specialist fell, ultra, trail and running groups on Facebook, as well as dedicated race pages and obviously local club group pages. A huge portion of my fb friends are fell runners and we keep in touch directly that way. I personally don’t post much on Facebook nowadays to be fair but I do know that I can go there and tap into really positive fell running stuff whenever I want to
8. So what’s left to tap into here?
9. Well, to me, choosing to occasionally drive a coach and horses through some of the right wing and, occasionally, ultra right wing views of the bulk of the remaining membership is quite fun 😊
Your thread was a duplicate of an existing one ( permitted training) that respected the fact most of us cannot train on fells out of the door, so posted what training we could. You and mikeT are fortunate, but he continued to post on my thread about training, I thank him for that your thread was a little redundant, and in any case said little about fellrunning!
The reality rather than myth, is that endless political posts were made by stalwarts since time in memoriam and especially since 2015. And so long as you were anti Brexit, anti Tory, NHS underfunded etc, it was classified acceptable “ humour” . Those who knew the reality of EU saw and posted a different side. OnLy their posts are classified unacceptable as “ political posters not fell runners”: it is they have received the torrent of abuse. Any poster anti Brexit should be able to defend their view. I didn’t start those discussions.
I share travs disdain for the FB group.
Which is part of why I drifted here,
The Dave mole and Mattpos of this world seemingly only ever post to attack other posters.to bemoan not contribute, including his thinly disguised attack on me as “ first responder”
Why do they not post interesting stuff? I answered mattpos posts on fave races that shows I’ve done many.
I’d happily wage a contest on BG route knowledge ( if anyone asks) or nuances on races such as duddon or borrowdale.
I’ve spent a lifetime learning them. I’m clearly a fell runner.
They are not happening this year!! So hard to discuss.
As for non fell runners perhaps it needs considering FRA chairman is not other than casual.
In as far as anyone can tell. Does it disqualify?
Many can’t run as far as they did, me included. Many have had to stop running, as Geoffb has said. Age will come to you too, DT.
Does it disqualify them?
Well done Beasty boy. Fancy a round of golf and I'm yer man :cool:
"He may prefer one of the other definitions".
Like Teletext, Oracle is one dimensional and obsolete.