BLUEMOMENT

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In an extraordinary decision the YBW mods have banned discussion of one very specific subject in the lounge, namely climate change. While this removes the oxygen of publicity from a small group of loud and poorly informed conspiracy theorists, it does seem somewhat draconian when the trouble at 'tmill has pretty obviously been down to one or two posters out to cause mayhem. There was even some valid discussion and interesting information on occasion, from both sides - although in recent months the signal to noise ratio had become pretty intolerable.

So is this a pyrrhic victory for the Crimson Stalker, or a blessed relief for most of us? I vote we keep the subject mostly off this forum as well, although I trust we will never have to legislate on the matter. If anyone does desperately feel the urge to start a punch-up over climate change there is a perfect little forum for it lying around somewhat under-utilised HERE where I would be happy to debate with anyone who feels the urge.

I think "The Lounge" is a place better avoided.

On those occasions I am tempted to venture in I am always depressed by what I read there.

Words like "racist", "little englander," "zenophobic", "selfish and self centred", "smug," "sexist", "Monday Club", "UKIP"' "BNP", Enoch Powell and that man Tebbit all spring to mind: A pantheon of demons. I'm sure Oswald Mosley would have felt amongst friends there.

If the Church of England is the Tory Party at prayer then the Lounge is the Nasty Party at play.

There is an argument to be made in favour of keeping the lounge.

Easy to avoid the lizards if they are all contained in one place.

All a great shame imho. Personally, I found Scuttlebutt and PBO to be invaluable when I was at the lower end of the learning curve. I also liked the banter on Scuttlebutt, but the creation of the Lounge created an "anything goes" atmosphere, that has detrimentally affected the other forums.

I saw Julian's comment about cancelling his subscription, and wonder whether YBW is looking at this the right way. I like reading YM, but always buy at the cover price (just laziness on my part) and was recently thinking about taking out a subscription. Perhaps the solution to the nastiness on YBW forums would be to close the forums to all except to magazine (paper or online) subscribers. It wouldn't solve all their problems, but least the sad unboated trolls and cyberstalkers would be less inclined to take part.

Shard wrote:All a great shame imho. Personally, I found Scuttlebutt and PBO to be invaluable when I was at the lower end of the learning curve. I also liked the banter on Scuttlebutt, but the creation of the Lounge created an "anything goes" atmosphere, that has detrimentally affected the other forums.

Yep, the lounge bustd things a bit imho - it devalued the main forums. Unfortunately the moderators are now rather dim and can't spell - whereas Kim was a real journo. As for chat about climate change, dunno if that was ever a great place for such chat but then again, in the lounge - why not?

In future, I suggest that the word "toast" is used in place of "climate change"

Have to agree in part Jim but for entirely different reasons; I had thought that we had sort of agreed that it was bad form in general to discuss threads in another place. I certainly think so and that it diminishes us although it is in fact a far far better thing we do here.

However I have to strongly refute your suggestion that this is Nick's private enclave. We all, yourself included, post here when and how we see fit and it's only Nick's in as much as he pays the bills and does most of the hard work.

A stupid decision.

I think censorship is always, always wrong. If there's one thing worse than titties on a sailing site it's banning titties from a sailing site.

Then there's the practical issues. Banning a topic as broad as climate change seems fraught with problems. Can I say spring is early this year? Can I say this seemed like a cold winter? Can I say I wish I'd gone to Greenland in the 70's when there was more ice?

The solution will cause more difficulty than the problem.

I hardly ever read the lounge, and I'm glad I don't.

My 2p worth.

I'm with Full Circle on this one. I Don't know how you can say "it's a blessed relief for most of us" People reads the posts they want to read and visit the forums they want. No-one forces anyone to read it. You certainly visit the lounge regularly and contributed to most posts regarding MMGW. I think the Crimsom Cyber Stalker must be getting the better of you nick I think you'll be missing a bit of controversy and a good wind up after a few weeks
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Sounds like a real can of worms anyway where do you draw the line regarding what constitutes a MMGW thread? Does it mean you can't mention it in any post or hint at it or make a reference to it?

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Are youse lot having a go at me? I heard you were all bumlickers . . .

I used to be a bumlicker, but it tastes like poo.

Nick wrote:.
Are youse lot having a go at me? I heard you were all bumlickers . . .

Is that a tongue in cheek remark

I agree, time to draw the line. I thought Jim's clarity, persistence, good humour and patience with the cyberstalker and his sidekick were absolutely masterful. It was very well handled and critical in exposing what these guys were doing. OK, they were being deliberately offensive, but why keep it going?

Anyway time to chill out, before this gets any worse. I don't think you could any better than listen to this fine song, with words and music penned by the immortal C John Taylor. Perhaps we could all sing this on the CC2010.

There is now a post missing from this thread

Jings Jim yer quick man . . . I deleted that post less than two minutes after I made it because you are right - time to draw a line. Problem is once seen the page is cached.

Now, moving swiftly on to C John Taylor . . . I refer you to this site and the comment possibly made by a former member of a caravanning forum not unknown in these parts:

It's so easy, isn't it, to denigrate the memory of a great man and all round artist, who, sad to say, is no longer with us, and therefore not in a strong position to defend himself. It's true, he wasn't "hip", didn't smoke reefers, or use four-letter words in his poetry and songs. But he did bring happiness to the lives of his many devoted admirers.

We spend our summers caravanning throughout Scotland, occasionally venturing further south into England. Our neighbour's son copied all C John Taylor's beautiful works of music onto a cassette tape which we love to play and sing along with as we drive along our beautiful country roads to our next site. You would be amazed at how many people at the sites love and appreciate his work. I do not mean to be unkind, but I'd hazard a guess that C John Taylor is better known than WFMU, certainly within the British caravanning community.

No name attached to the comment, but it has the ring of a certain J. Wheel I thought . . .

Nick wrote:... it has the ring of a certain J. Wheel I thought . . .

Without doubt. His name is immediately under the post.

Incidentally, although best remembered for his paintings and songs, C John Taylor was a very capable poet as well. Just listen to the subtlety of his craftmanship in his poem composed in honour of The Prince of Wales. Amazingly, he wrote it at four o'clock in the morning, after completing a portrait in oils of Prince Charles.

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Sorry Donald,

I have removed the link in your post above as I seem to after clicking it have aquired a horrendous trojan called Vista Antivirus 2010 which I am now struggling to remove from my system . . .

If it was a coincidence and it came from elsewhere then I apologise for editing your post, but I didn't want to risk anyone else getting infected.

(Am posting this on garredfox's laptop, will report further when I have more info)