Kiss of life?

[Wheeze]

Back in the mists of time, I started the "Quiet Around Here" thread as an ironic challenge for forumista to post at a (rare) time when no-one else was active. Usually something daft like 3 am.

Now, of course, it is quiet around here most of the time. Indeed, forum luminary, Noel, was moved to comment "It's definitely quiet around here at the moment. Has the art of talking bollox around set subjects left us?".

The repeated batterings delivered by divisive and suppressive issues such as Brexit, the Pandemic and Safety seem to have finally beaten the life out of the forum, plus Facebook has stolen a march on the main way for members to communicate.

Back to those mists of time, non other than Gravymuncher opined that, in general, Fora would eventually blow themselves out once people got fed up with talking about the same old things time and time again.

So, are we at the moment now? Has our once vibrant and fun Forum staggered into the Grim Reapers waiting room. Should Brett be released from his chains to do something more useful instead?

I have my own views on this but before I spout my bollox, lets have a discussion.

I do have one initial suggestion though. Is it time to replace our avatars with a picture of ourselves, to give the forum more genuine personality? Swoop was always unabashed about this.

[millipede]

Not for me. I like the relative anonymity of the forum much more than people I know listening in on Facebook.

Where else could I talk to odd bods from Wales about similar interests?

[Fellbeast]

I had a solid bash at trying to post some fell running positive stuff but, in reality, no one was much interested. Equally I’d comment on other threads that I’d want to chip in on and most of the time killed them dead . Don’t get me wrong it’s not anybody else’s fault that they’re not interested in my ‘bollocks’ but at the same time it underlined that maybe I’m just not tuned in with the remaining die hards on the forum

Just rename the forum cycling

[bigfella]

Fellbeast, I was actually very interested in your running routes around the dales. I spent many a weekend in my teens walking and wild camping anywhere within a bus ride of Skipton. Nowadays I enjoy walking there with my wife when I can and the inspiration of a few well chosen routes is always welcome.

Your drone footage also offered a different view of some otherwise well known areas.

Negative comments are often from a minority, it's just that the silent majority are just that, silent. The thread about bubbles in Silva compasses could lead you to believe that its a major problem but there are surely many more forumites with perfectly good compasses, I have 3 of them.

[Mossdog]

Negative comments are often from a minority, it's just that the silent majority are just that, silent. The thread about bubbles in Silva compasses could lead you to believe that its a major problem but there are surely many more forumites with perfectly good compasses, I have 3 of them.

??? WHAT?? I think that sometimes we need a tongue-in-cheek emoji or some device to flag up that something is humour/light-hearted as a cue to members of the readership who perhaps take issues too literally, miscontrue and then take an uncalled for swipe. One of the great attraction of this forum is the often off-beat sense of humour, like the days before the B word was coined, and it's been encouraging to see how recently the old civility has returned to replace that post-B rancour (well excpet of the safety threads )

[JohnK]

Negative comments are often from a minority, it's just that the silent majority are just that, silent. The thread about bubbles in Silva compasses could lead you to believe that its a major problem but there are surely many more forumites with perfectly good compasses, I have 3 of them.

More on compass bubbles :-

https://forum.fellrunner.org.uk/show...126#post676126

Not entirely negative as it has worked for me in the past and saved quiet a few quid.

[Travs]

There's plenty of people who are interested in fellrunning posting on here.... I for one on the training thread... along with llani, and MikeT keeping the exercise thread going single-handedly... and various others chipping in when races come around... MrBrightside another...

There's no doubt it could do with some more regular posters, but this place is a goldmine of info and would be very sorry to see it disappear.

The facebook page is grim reading... the multiple threads about the recent WFRA "saga" descended rapidly into farce and several threads deleted as people couldn't get on without arguing (admittedly i fired a few shots myself, including at a past/lapsed member of the forum).... and there's been about 6 "what shoe" threads this week alone...

[Fellbeast]

There's plenty of people who are interested in fellrunning posting on here.... I for one on the training thread... along with llani, and MikeT keeping the exercise thread going single-handedly... and various others chipping in when races come around... MrBrightside another...

There's no doubt it could do with some more regular posters, but this place is a goldmine of info and would be very sorry to see it disappear.

The facebook page is grim reading... the multiple threads about the recent WFRA "saga" descended rapidly into farce and several threads deleted as people couldn't get on without arguing (admittedly i fired a few shots myself, including at a past/lapsed member of the forum).... and there's been about 6 "what shoe" threads this week alone...

To be fair you and Mr Brightside definitely post a lot of really good, if slightly obsessive*, fell running training and race related stuff although I'd argue that, like me, you're often shouting into your own little well on the forum and listening for echos. Llani Boy (despite politically being somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun ) posts across the board and I like his (non-Attila the Hun related) stuff a lot. As for Mike T, I already get to see his runs on f/b but with actual pictures

As for what shoe threads on the fell running facebook page, well they have 21,000 members in the group so if there's 6 "what shoe" threads per week, it would take over 67 years for all of the members to have a what shoe thread of their own

*Not implied as an insult by the way, I think everyone on the forum me included is probably an obsessive

[PiesAreGood]

Suppose I am in the silent camp, but I don't think I'll ever make it into a majority.

I value reading all the info and thoughts on here. I'll chip in when I think I've got something useful to add, maybe I should post more, maybe I should learn something useful to so I can mention it.

There is a veritable mine of useful stuff on here and the value of forums is that it can be found (dug up) easily. That no one is repeating the same thing many times doesn't mean someone isn't reading the original and benefiting.

MikeT provides my daily dose of envy.

[Marco]

I really believe that this forum could and probably should be the font of all fell running knowledge and experience. I became a member when I first got interested in fell running, but had no idea where to start (I have always lived in a flat area, and there was no interest or knowledge at the running clubs I joined). What little I do know originated from this forum.

I fully deleted my Facebook account earlier this year, as I didn't have the time to wade through an ocean of rubbish to find what I was interested in; I'd like to think that 32 years of designing, developing, implementing and teaching software programs had taught me something about the user interface, and the one FB uses is sh*t.

The response from Fellbeast's excellent routes was disappointing. Whilst I, and probably him too, was expecting that someone might step up and bring us routes from their area, there was just polite silence.

I think the main problem is that far too few of the members are actually prepared to post something of any content; pithy one liners don't count. I appreciate we can't all write as well as Tindersticks, or take photos as good as Fellbeast, but I know that we could all write something of substance and interest from time to time. And unless we do see more contributions from more of the members, there will only be one result