BS: Dwindling BS section

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 03:57 PM

let me be more clear then. There are Members Of This Board that I would not give my name to and find to be pathological. Likewise I am sure.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Ed T
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 04:15 PM

GFS, using "cherry picked" statistics (that you seem to confuse as "FACTS") to make an over-reaching conclusion against a group of people is hardly anything a logical (or considerate) person would (or, should) promote or applaud. If you are intentionally doing so, you do yourself a diservice.

I suspect you are " better than that", and just got carried away in one way or another. Hopefully, I misunderstand the intent of your last post.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: akenaton
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 04:42 PM

"Cherry picked statistics"????
WTF!.....Please explain that remark.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,iPaddy Richter Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 05:13 PM

If Goofus's real identity were known to us all (he wouldn't bloody dare to reveal it for reasons we all understand but which will come out a bit different from him: I'm guessing that it will be "his professional career as a counsellor" - bwahahahaha!!), he wouldn't post the bollocks that he does. One tends to think that one might rest one' s case.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 05:33 PM

You've been lucky, I think, Steve. I once, quite innocently, in a relevant newspaper correspondence, quoted Macaulay to the effect that the Puritan hatred of bear-baiting was not because it gave pain to the bear but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

I came home to four [count them! 4!] death-threats on my answering-machine -- one from a guy claiming to speak for an organisation called "Animal Rights Extreme", who assured me I would be 'eliminated'. (But, would you believe?, the silly bugger forgot to leave his name!)

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Jack Campin
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 05:52 PM

[Gaughan]
I find many people in the folk world fairly opinionated in the final analysis, so it isn't that these threads can be combative that is the issue, but surprised they arent even more so. Performers tend to have strong personalities, even if they try to hide them.

Gaughan's forum isn't just Gaughan clones. There is a pretty wide range of opinion on it, but both dissimulation and abusiveness towards other members are verboten. It's not as active as it used to be but it's worked pretty well for nearly as long as Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Don Firth
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 05:58 PM

Mark Twain's ranking of degrees of misinformation:

"There are lies, damned lies, and ... statistics!"

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Amos
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 05:59 PM

THere was a time long ago when the dominant tone of the Cat was one of enevolent inclusion, fueled by the love of folk music but also protecting open dialogue both serious and whimsical on a world of other topics. When things got tense between opposing viewpoints it was routine for someone to inject a healthy dose of levity. The big difference was, that while people batted all kinds of ideas back and forth, they rarely resorted to the kind of ad hominem sarcasms which are prevalent in threads below the line today.

As Bill Day points out, it is a very different thing to dispute someone's logic or data, than it is to assault there personal character or inherent nature. Some of the more vitriolic posters here are so accustomed to insulting and being insulted that they probably think it is normal discussion.

It's not. It is essentially a form of prepubescent banter, resorting to the most primitive and unthinking of styles in order to defend some bizarre and distorted sense of personal rightness which has long since lost any real merit or need for defense.

I would challenge the respondents who frequent these hallowed halls to try an experiment--to post regularly on the Cat for a month without a single instance of insult or ad hominem slurs. It would be a most enlightening experiment if any of the usual suspects had the curiosity and spine to conduct it.

I am not aiming these remarks at any individuals, but at a practice of communication which has sadly darkened the atmosphere of a once-homey and friendly discussion site.

A.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Musket
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 06:17 PM

You wouldn't know a cherry picked anything. You seem more fixated with bum picked issues.

Sorry, just picking up on an Akenaton post.

Eyup Steve. Knowing names or nicknames is still knowing. I have known a bloke called Loll since 1987. I was back in my old local the other week as my eldest still lives nearby and had a pint with him. Still have no idea what his real name is.

Anyway, back to the Halloween disco. I hear Barry White playing.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw, once more iPadded up
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 06:29 PM

Well Amos, your first paragraph happens to be the exact description of the Gaughan forum. And do you know why? Well, it's precisely because anonymity is not allowed! Do go and have a look. Actually, I'm pissing myself off somewhat here as that forum is, in many respects, not at all up my alley, and I don't want to keep sounding as though it's the be-all and end-all. But see past the usual quota of eejits, ne'er-do-wells and rampant Scotophiles (shit, that's me banned!) and you'll find a polite forum but one in which saintliness is not held to be a virtue. As I've been saying, over there you do know who you're talking to, though there's no feeling at all that you're somehow broadcasting your personal data to the whole planet. It's a complicated place replete with redundant and semi-redundant sub-forums but it works. And it works because you are, in the final resort, not anonymous, and because you must be signed up before you post. Simple really.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,Steve and that confounded piece of Apple iSh
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 06:39 PM

I detect some gentle disagreement here, Musket, but c'est la vie innit. But just consider the advantages: Akenhateon must be seething because you and I are failing to act, ranks closed, in the quartet style he so loves to see. There's a good side to everything yeah!

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,Steve iPaderewski
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 06:45 PM

You heard Barry White, huh?

If Isla St Clair married Barry White, divorced him, then married Bryan Ferry, would she be Isla White-Ferry?

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,Steve, iPaddington unbearable
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 06:54 PM

Well Michael, I don't believe in the concept of contributory negligence. But you act like a twat and get death threats. I act like a twat and don't. Perhaps there's acting like a twat and acting like a twat. Just sayin'.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 08:47 PM

Guest/mg: "There are Members Of This Board that I would not give my name to and find to be pathological."

?? Most of us 'Cat posters remember your name and that would be doubly true for the members of the board, if by that you mean the Clones. Because nothing online is private, no one is safe. Might as well accept that.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw iPadding but not quaking...
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 09:18 PM

No-one is safe? Well I could always be mown down by a London bus just by stepping outside. But I still wish to step outside. As long as you don't post idiotic stuff or succumb to a phisherman or tell us all your PIN number I reckon you're as safe here as anywhere else. Even if we all know your name. Which doesn't mean completely safe, of course. I suppose we could just live in a convent or a monastery. That could be quite safe, though some of these Mother and Father Superiors, you know...

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 10:12 PM

Steve - nope, not persuaded.. still not gonna tell you my name...

but... my eyes are blue, and my hair was brown,
I live somewhere between Bude and Bristol
and I never have, or ever will, vote tory......

..and previous bands I played guitar in might just have attracted attention
from over enthusiastic jobsworth covert surveillance agencies
due to the singer's very public lefty political activisms..??

..if that helps you feel a little more at ease in my company....???

..oh, and I live dead opposite a flat full of B*P supporting skinheads
who no doubt have access to the internet,
and are probably far more sophisticated at tracking, monitoring,
and hunting down their 'enemies'
than many here might give their sort credit...????

A little over cautious paranoia goes a long way
in helping prevent parcels of burning dog shit being posted through one's front door...????

Not had any bricks put through the windows of this house yet though.. fingers crossed...

Last time, back in London, was quite traumatic
because the brick narrowly missed our brand new big telly.

I'm no way near as fit or fast as I used to be if it ever came to 'fight or flight'..

So I'll continue to err on the side of caution if you don't mind

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Janie
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 10:38 PM

From: GUEST,Troubadour. - PM
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 08:05 PM



....Mods, as the OP, please terminate this here!

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,#
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 01:14 AM

Oh, yeah.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Musket
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 02:15 AM

To be fair you would be rather unlucky to be knocked down by a London bus in Cornwall. Of course, as you stagger to your feet from the first one, another two in quick succession finish the job off.
😇

The only time I heard Dick Gaughan tell a joke was when he stated that if the English want their independence let them have it.

You know, looking around I'm not sure the BS section is dwindling after all. Plenty of threads that don't have silly or outrageous comments that need challenge. Granted, when some of us chip in, our following trolls do what they do best and follow us but most threads when they degenerate tend to drift into extensions of recipe threads or Mike biting.

It's only when pete brings Jesus to the party or the worm manages to slip in a bit of anal sex that threads get weird. After all, the Jim v Keith roadshow hasn't entertained us for ages.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 03:15 AM

Musket: "After all, the Jim v Keith roadshow hasn't entertained us for ages."

...as well as you???

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Musket
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 03:30 AM

Funny that you didn't address the following trolls aspect Goofus. You missed out there....

👹

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 05:24 AM

Steve: Can't wee where writing a letter to a paper making a perfectly valid point is acting like a twat. But I suppose to real twats like those 'Extreme' people the rest of us are twats at that.
.,,.,.

'most threads when they degenerate tend to drift into extensions of recipe threads or Mike biting.'

Ian -- What is 'Mike biting'? No mosquitoes round here at this time of year.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 06:23 AM

You say that, Musket, but one day, just before setting off from work, I was having a natter with another teacher. Probably about Ofsted or something. Anyway, he sez something like Ofsted finding us brilliant was about as likely as getting run over by a London bus in Bude. Twenty minutes later I was driving through Bude (you bloody know what I'm going to say, don't you...), and guess what was parked in the industrial estate...

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: DMcG
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 06:29 AM

Two weeks ago we came across a London bus in Salzburg Austria. That's the problem with mobile icons: they get to be more common elsewhere than the original (especially if you mean Routemasters)

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Musket
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 06:36 AM

Mike. Try not to wee when writing letters to newspapers eh? Many letters are getting piss poor these days as it is.

Although one I read last week made me smile. The guy wrote that the internet was down for a couple of hours so he went downstairs to speak with his family. They seemed like nice people....

Steve. Was it a routemaster?

Cards on table. I live a few hundred yards from a trolleybus museum and yes, here oop North, We have London buses driving past our house on open days. (They have branched out into old diesel buses too.) I keep trying, unsuccessfully to retire and one thing I promise to do is be a volunteer there, playing with the oily bits.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 06:37 AM

I don't want to know your bloody name, punkfolkrocker. All I'm doing is making suggestions for curbing the alleged bad manners and trolling. As it happens I was a bit of a leftie in the golden seventies meself (Blair Peach was a mate of mine in Teachers' Rank And File and the ANL -remember him?). I'm a bit more of a Prosecco and Tesco Simply Garnacha socialist these days but I still like to stick me bonce above the parapet every now and then - under my real name! Yeah, I know we don't all live in inner cities. We sometimes prattle on about the Big Principle of free speech. Nothing curbs free speech more than the fear of speaking out. Of standing up to be counted. That's when you know the terrorists have really got you.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 06:41 AM

It was one of those with a big hole at the back with a pole for the bus conductor to swing on as he laughed at your miserable attempt to run along the street to catch the bugger up.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 07:50 AM

We have London buses driving past our house on open days.

Such as this one I assume, Musket?

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Musket
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 09:15 AM

A pedant may spot a difference but the one on the right is familar. Obviously, no trams or trolley buses outside the museum road though.

Of course, and especially if M'Unlearned Friend Bridge is reading. My fascination with buses only extends to museum pieces. Not today's buses. Can't be doing with cohorting with the proletariate what?

🚎🚌🚍

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 09:23 AM

Steve - Blair Peach ?, bloody hell,... that names's a memory jogger...

I can see I've got a fair bit of google reading and reminiscing to do this afternoon..

ANL / Rock against racism was a massive life changing catalyst
for some of us provincial small town A level students..
Right just afer me and band mates were already starting to get politiced through doing
Govt & Politics 'O' level courses..

Reminds me, might still be a near unbroken run of 1970s NMEs in me mums attic..
That's something for the social/cultural historians to drool over...

Names - the daft thing is parents gave me and sibling Biblical names
even though they were young post war idealistic lefties
and refused to get us christened on principle....???

My wanky/wonky sense of absurdist humour must be passed down in my genes....???

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,punkfailedspeller
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 10:15 AM

'politiced' ??? obviously meant to be 'politicized' - thought I 'd corrected that... oh well....

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 11:11 AM

Musket: "Funny that you didn't address the following trolls aspect Goofus. You missed out there...."

Well I was being polite....I wasn't going to single you out.

I guess he thought that if he accuses someone, that it hides the fact that he is what he accuses others of being!!

Old common political hat trick, eh, Ian?

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Musket
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 11:18 AM

A hat trick is what I expect of a Sheffield Wednesday striker.

Allegedley..

Otherwise, very droll, troll.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 11:52 AM

'most threads when they degenerate tend to drift into extensions of recipe threads or Mike biting.'

Ian -- What is 'Mike biting'? No mosquitoes round here at this time of year.

..,,.,

repeated from previous thread, as not answered yet.

I think I should be told...

≈Me≈

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 12:00 PM

Mike baiting ?

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Musket
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 12:04 PM

I reckon he has posted the most self explanatory post ever.

I didn't necessarily want you to answer your own question but thanks anyway.

😂

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 12:06 PM

Just read this from top to bottom and I can see why postings are down in this section take look at youselfs.
Been a member here many years especially, when good DIscussions took place rather than name calling like children. Many kept there identity secret but those who where not bothered went to gatherings sat in pubs talked about and played music and all where know by their mudcat i D . just because you put a real looking name up does not make you real!

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 12:14 PM

Oh no!!..Another politically based avoidance of giving a straight answer!!

Avoid an answer...change the question, attack the person asking, or raising the question, and then attack them (falsely) of being some sort of racist or bigot....old, old and tired and worn out, 'so-called liberal' tactic.

I think the referendum on the phony version of what is being passed as 'liberalism', in the upcoming elections, in the U.S., should tell you something about how sick and tired the public has gotten over the stupid political bullshit, the people have finally gotten to....and the narrow minded blockheads still don't 'get it'!

GfS

P.S. Stop scratching your head, pretending that you can't see why....

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 12:21 PM

Musket, your posts are becoming more gnomic & incomprehensible than ever. Who are the 'he' referred to & the 'you' addressed in your last one? On what topic?

You really can be the world's most unconscionable boring·old·fart when you so resolutely set your mind to it.

To avoid misunderstandings: that was not intended as a compliment.

Either afford rational answers to direct & rational & perfectly comprehensible questions, please; or go away and play with yourself -- in any sense of that phrase you may care to comprehend.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 12:23 PM

Oh...and check this out....three days before the 'election' that will shift the balance of power away from the Democrats, and other 'so-called liberals'....and not one thread about it......

Interesting!

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Musket
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 12:24 PM

My dear Goofus.

Don hasn't posted on this thread so why are you here?










One trick pony...

What's the weather like in Dumbfuckistan?

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 12:27 PM

Once again ---


Ian -- What is 'Mike biting'?


ANSWER!!!!! ANSWER!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,Steve iPaddy fuddyduddery
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 12:42 PM

Mike biting is what amplified harmonica players accidentally do when they're slightly pissed.

The great thing I've noticed about the interwebbie thang is that there is no obligation to answer silly questions. I've also noticed that the more times you ask for an answer the less likely it is you'll get a sensible one. In other words, knock it off, Leo. You're a mane in the neck.

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,pete from seven stars link
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 12:58 PM

A LONDON BUS in Austria......perhaps it got left behind from a " summer holiday".....

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,achmelvich
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 01:01 PM

yes i remember the anti-nazi league, rock against racism and blair peach. i also remember 'the leveller' - a grainy but interesting left magazine at the time (not to be confused with an ex-poster on here) those days were the only time in my life when it has been trendy to be a lefty. i'm still a lefty but have never been trendy since. it's quite worrying to think how much time i now spend in the 70s and early 80s when music was good and society was fairer, people had decent houses and the politicians weren't all identical. i'm becoming a melancholic old bore - waiting for my grandkids to come along and ask 'and what did you do in the thatcher wars?' whatever i did then it has to be better than what we do now - waste time squabbling on the machine, signing sodding e-petitions and complaining about being let down by labour and the guardian

peace, love and revolution

pete barnes - if you insist and if it matters...

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 01:10 PM

@ Steve·the·Officious ····························


Grr·ROARrr·Rrr!

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: The Sandman
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 01:33 PM

no comment

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: Ed T
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 01:42 PM

Whoz you? Well, there is a test:


what's your real identity? 

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: olddude
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 01:57 PM

What a fucking pathetic excuse for a thread this is now you see why people leave. Is there anyone with common sense to close it. I guess not. Boy I miss spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Dwindling BS section
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 02:21 PM

That's right!....Get your identity figured out by your local cartoon!

Political hacks....aren't you tired of them yet???...I know!...try the 'War on Woman' hoax some more....or try to say that the reason people don't like Obama is because of his race(s)...God forbid if you say the reason you don't like him is because of his incompetence and general failed policies, whether it be domestic OR international!!

See, if you criticize him for anything, the REAL racists will accuse you of being unfair to him and racist....even though the ONLY reason they voted for him was because of his race(s).

Now who exactly are the racists????

If Akenaton expresses health concerns, in regards to homosexuality, he is automatically branded 'homophobic'....how childish is that???

If Keith posts about Israel, it could only mean one thing...he must be anti-Hamas!

The stupid and oft ridiculous claims that the 'so-called liberals' that somebody MUST be a victim, and that they are the only champions of the underdogs, is nothing but delusional myths!....

....and they aren't even honest enough to see it for what it really is, and wise up...(and why not?...everybody else sees the bull-crap. They target a group, trying to convince voters that if they don't agree with their fraudulent assessments, of victim-hood, then you are labelled a bigot or something else equally as stupid!

..Speaking of STUPID.....try looking in the direction of those who blindly blather forward, pointing fingers, calling names, and trying to demonize those who are using common sense....common sense...??..you know, that thing that political ideologues can't seem to get a grasp of!

GfS

P.S...and the 'Dwindling BS section' has suffered from the bozos who coral themselves together into one boring chanting chorus of old talking point puking, and mess up the forum!....and the people who they should have been listening to, complete with substantiating, factual links, have gotten tired of talking to the intellectual and moral equivalent, of eight year-olds....with dyslexia!!