Not using

Not posting

Not the same thing!

Hi feva_sailor,

Without wanting to be destructive or discouraging, some of us that have been members of the forum from the beginning, mainly 'read' these days and only post occasionally, when we have something useful to say. In my view, this is because of the way that the forum has changed from a 'debating forum' to a 'chat room', often due to younger members posting 'rubbish' or 'chat' in order to increase their number of posts,  or for some other reasons best known to themselves. 

Also, some posts have been 'done to death', sometimes on many occasions under a 'similar' heading.  Often,  this is because new members have not 'searched' the forum first, before introducing a so called 'new topic'.

I notice that you have been a member since 3rd May 2006 and yet you have made 660 posts.  You are now suggesting that some of us should be 'deleted' because we are 'clogging the system up'.

Personally, I often do not read posts which are not easy to read due to a lack of writing skills, lack of punctuation,  they are written in 'text talk' or they are about cars, music or other none sailing topics.

It is also noticeable that some members spend alot of time pushing their own class of boat (often a minority class), which can turn people off as the same stuff comes up time and time again.

Sorry for the 'rant', please don't let me discourage you from reaching your 1000'th post by the end of the month. If you do, I wonder if anyone will think that you are 'clogging the system up'?.

Ian  (Yorkshire Dales S.C.)

Hi Feva Sailor

There is a lot more to YachtsandYachting.com membership than just the forum!

The crew database, campaign manager, news profiling and various other bits of the site use the login system. Deleting all these members would be a little silly and I don't quite see how users not posting could be 'clogging the system up'.

There are a vast number of people (56,718 at the last count) who don't register at all when using YachtsandYachting.com .

Yes, Stuart Jardine is related to me - he's my Dad. You might see him in the results of various events throughout the years (1948 to present day) ...

Mark

Feva,

It will make almost 0% difference deleting the old users - may even cause problems as the post "owners" will disappear.

Not a good plan.

Feva Sailor,

You mean you havent heard of the famous Jardine brothers. X boats sailors extraordinaire among many other classes as Mark says from 1948 onwards.

They are as well known to a slightly older generation as Ellen is now.

Oh and have to agree with you Ian. I thought the banter thread was set up due to similar comments last year. Unfortunately the clogging has returned.

Although not part of the "silent majority" I also agree with you, Ian. However, we've had other young members in the past, who've posted huge amounts of "lol-omg" messages and disappeared after a while. There might be hope!   

http://dinghyforum.gamalan.net/ - After all, I'm sure there are other sailing fora ready to welcome an over-enthusiastic, albeit a bit blundering new member!  

Anyone else bored with people criticising others grammar, punctuation and forum usage? It's been said before and I doubt will change much in the future.

I do think some forum rules would be helpful so at least those with less developed forum skills could be pointed to it. Rules like 'If you have nothing to say, say nothing', 'If your discussion is off topic create a new one' and 'If your discussion is personal use PM' etc

yea u r all rite, i fink tht we shld ban fva sailr so th frm cn get gd agin

I agree that the signal-to-noise ratio around here has decreased markedly in the last 6 months and it is noticeable that some of the people who used to come here to actually talk about sailing have gone away.

yeah,

howabout cutting the serial submitters who post purile chat , I'm afraid to admit to others  I even read this forum , and the chances of doing that are decreasing by the minute.

Some of the proffessed opinions too should carry warnings that those submitting are generally not experts and top of their classes , though there are exceptions I see.

I hate to think what a newcommer to sailing would pick up from this forum .

About time for a good shake up.

It is actually our job to police our forum, much in the same way as (IMO) we should assist people in understanding the complex sailing rules. 

If people post stuff that is wrong, it should be corrected.

This forum like most has always been about opinions of real sailors - if people come here (and most other fora) and think they're getting advice from experts then they need their heads examining. However most of the tips and tricks that the development guys come up with you'd never get from experts and top of the class sailors.

I think most newcomers would think it's like most conversations in there club bar - which I like.

This Y&Y forum has got to the stage where so much purile rubbish is cluttering it up that I will only dip in VERY occasionally to see if there is something of interest. There are actually much better fora out there now where people who post just for the sake of posting are quickly shouted down.

As a result the quality of info in the forum is far higher than is generally available here, where the nuggetts of really useful info are hidden beneath all the dross that passes for people's opinions. The ubiquitous feva_sailor is a case in point. After all, just how much expert advice can an apparent five year old have to impart?

this topic is being watched by me with great interest as the forum has changed alot since its "dark-age" days!

My personal view is its now almost to popular, if im too busy to check the forum for more than a day there is 2 sometimes 3 pages of active topics. I find I do not have enough time in the day (mainly because its summer) to read through the vast amounts of post.

I am in agreement with some sort of self moderation of the forum, in order to rid us of the garbage posts

Whilst I too dislike too much general banter I think this forum is okay, and  there isn't that much text talk anymore.  If you think the forum is lacking in interesting threads - start your own.  There's no point saying "I read the forum but there's nothing interesting on there".  Its up to you to make it interesting. 

Also I think Feva_Sailor comes in for some unfair stick.  Sure he posts a lot, and sure its not all well thought out, but he's young, enthusiastic and probably bored, and most of his posts are sailing related and they are never aggressive or rude.  If you think its been hot here, I bet its nothing compared to the UAE, so hardly going out weather.  Maybe he is used as the stereotypical example of what some don't like, but he is far from the only one, so don't blame it all on him.

 A Newbies opinion......There is a lot of stuff here both useful and entertaining, some of the humour is priceless. Generally a great forum.

  However, If I post inane rubbish please don't flame me, just ignore me.

                 If my spelling or punctuation isn't good, Please make an effort to understand what I'm saying. There's a lot of very expert sailors out there (I wouldn't include myself with these) who don't have the skills of Dickens or Keats. To ignore a pearl of wisdom because you don't like the setting is folly in the extreme.

  Great stuff,

       G.K.    ( formerly GaznJax)

Wrong way around, I'm afraid. If you want to be understood, you need to make the effort to be clear. That's the reality, like it or not. 

Some confusion between reality and personal opinion I think.

Not at all. This is the sound-bite society. You only get one chance to get your message across. Ever gone through a pile of 100 CVs to choose 10 to interview?Do you think they all get read equally carefully, including the barely comprehensible ones?

being selective about what you make the effort to understand limits the intelligence.... in my opinion

Back to the topic, I see there are 2900 + users. It would be interesting to know how many of them still browse the forum.

Well let's see. Why aren't I out sailing? Because I am writing the literature review section of a dissertation and have approximately 3000 A4 pages of relevant reseach to summarise, let alone all the other papers I've looked at briefly. Being non-selective is not an option.

Its a tricky one this one.  You both have good points.

Unless you are able to communicate your ideas clearly and concisely you will stuggle in this world to get what, or where you want.

However, not making an effort to see past peoples communication skills can lead to some very good ideas being missed.

Point is in the time critical environment (well lots of people think they live in one) of the modern world it is important to have at least basic comms skills that allow you to get your point across, this doesn't mean you have to demonstrate the skills and prose of Dickens.

Modern schooling has a lot to answer for, with the emphasis on freedom of expression etc I for one was never made to learn or apply English properly, something I am still having to correct at nearly 30.

It is not, though, acceptable to blame poor communication skills on anyone but yourself.  History is littered with people who have overcome comms difficulties, not of there own making, to achieve great things.  If you don't think your English is good spend longer concentrating on it.

edit: See I've had to edit it as on my third proof read after posting I spotted an error.  There may still be some mistakes.

Did you read my post?

I disagree (really? theres a surprise!). A CV is written for the purpose of the writer (or subject) to gain something from it - a job. But, when you add something to a forum (unless it's a question) what you write is for others benefit so it's those who don't try to understand (or deliberately misunderstand) who lose out... maybe.

What an altruist I must be then, nearly 1000 posts for the benefit of others. If I reach 10,000, do I get a sainthood?

It's not actually true though, is it? We generally post on boards because we like the discussion. In order to conduct an effective discussion, we need to be able to express ourselves clearly and succinctly. Communication in writing comes more easily to some than others, but failing to even make the effort to be as clear as possible is self-indulgent and selfish.

Trouble is by the time we get there there'll be to many saints already

Yes, but the odd spelling mistak or wierd pice of grammer doen't stop understanding, so we don't need perfection. However, if translation is needed, then the point is lost.

Personally, I like the forum to be wide ranging in its discussion, as it gives me a chance to see other points of view, and, just every now and again, change my mind.

I notice Feva sailor has gone quiet on this one, which is a shame, as behind the slapstick, there are some interesting views.

There are different techniques to writing a CV than to riting on a forum - init!!

Any CV is a reflection of the person (not just who you want to portray), whilst a forum posting while ideally being concise and to the point and adding to the thread could be excused for the odd spilling mistake or error grammatical in

There is no excuse 4 txt spk tho, or for continuous errors (grammatical or spelling) as this just show the poster to be an ignoramus of the highest order in my book.  It takes very little effort to ensure the post is correct.

Time for BNS et al to search for apostrophes in the wrong place and non deliberate spelling mistakes

Must have been a late night at the pub... Don't worry, it's happened to all of us; ask Dennis!

(you asked for it, and probably planted it there on purpose, to keep me happy. Thank you  xx)

Just for you BNS, just for you