Pour encourager les autres

edited August 2008 in About this site
My favourite book is Franny and Zooey. On the first page, there is a description of students waiting on a railway platform, >*talking in voices that, almost without exception, sounded collegiately dogmatic, as though each young man, in his strident, conversational turn, was clearing up, once and for all, some highly controversial issue, one that the outside, non-matriculating world had been bungling, provocatively or not, for centuries.* Which is pretty much how I feel about the tone on this site these days. This site used to be useful (well, not that often). It also used to be funny. It's become negative, sniping, personal and full of tedious, undergraduate certainty. Oh, the certainty. It's so boring. More succinctly: ![](http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png) People I know have been coming up to me and saying that they used to post here, but don't anymore. It feels a bit like a really good party that all the interesting people have left, driven away by the strident voices. This is a roundabout, reasonably pompous and self involved way of saying that I don't know what to do next. We've talked about suspending a handful of accounts, turning the site off, or trimming the site membership right back. These are all options. Something's got to change. I want the old site back. In the words of Bill & Ted, "Be excellent to each other". And for fuck's sake, bring the funny.
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Comments

  • edited 12:56PM
    hear hear, you big nob jockey
  • edited 12:56PM
    Someone already tried to point out that the negativity of certain people was bringing everyone down and they got shouted down! I think if you've got an open forum then you have to relinquish control of tone. If you want it to be more for your mates to have a laugh then you can trim back membership or have criteria for being a member.

    But broadly I agree that the negativity is very wearing and ruins the sense of community which is obviously essential for a forum of this sort.

    I still think the word 'member' is hilarious.
  • edited 12:56PM
    @andy -- are you certain it's become negative, tedious and full of undergraduate certainty?
  • edited 12:56PM
    @Joev - not a doubt in my mind. At all. And you're a complete idiot for suggesting it. @ ford - i love you. @ Emma - you're right. This was a forum for our mates that morphed into something a bit different. That was great when it happened, but I'm struggling to work out how we balance being open enough to be useful whilst stopping it becoming a school playground. Our first strategy was to treat people like grown ups, because the alternative is banning & moderating the site and none of us like the idea of that.
  • edited 12:56PM
    We could vote to evict people like on Big Brother.
  • edited 12:56PM
    Might I suggest - Finsbury Park Fight Club?

    Bagsy me being Referee.
  • edited 12:56PM
    @andy – a complete idiot? wow cheers mate -- and here I thought I was being funny. Apologies that my humour does not conform to your standard or if my timing was off and I misread your mood but to me your post sounded exactly like the sort of thing you’re complaining about.

    Not everyone who visits stroudgreen.org has the privilege of being in on the party from the beginning or being part of the in-crowd so if that is what you want stroudgreen.org to be than it shouldn’t be open to just anyone, including me.

    The site is useful to find out about what’s going on in the neighbourhood and I enjoyed some of the threads but to tell you the truth I don’t understand half the things people are talking about anyway. I have no wish to be a gatecrasher so I’ll respectfully make my exit.
  • edited 12:56PM
    @ JoeV - I think that Andy was continuing the joke that he initially made and that you followed up. That's how I understood it anyway.
  • edited 12:56PM
  • edited 12:56PM
    Been thinking about these recent interactions on Stroudgreen (not just this last one!) and I have come up with a theory. I think that reading the posts on Stroudgreen is like reading a play or a script for TV. Many people write posts in the same way as they speak, as this is more informal and suits the medium. However, it does mean that there is no nuance of facial expression or tone and this leads to misinterpretation. Sarcasm and deadpan humour rather lose their effect or produce the absolute opposite. An example that came to mind for me was if one read the script for Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series) one could think that it was a rather inane tale about American teenagers with stupid vampires added in for schlock value. When actually, IMHO, it has moments of real comedy. Which leads to my next idea: We do not know each other in real life and thus have a very narrow means by which to judge each other. For example, from my posts I could be construed as a smiley-hippy type, who loves Whitney Houston, puppies & other small animals and watches children's television whilst wrapping up forever friends bears for her friends. When in fact really I am a morose, depressive indie-type who, as a small part of her make-up, rather likes birds and wildlife, has a slightly shame-faced love of Shakira (which does not mean I like Whitney, Mariah, Celine and their ilk!) and S Club's "Don't Stop Moving" and a former addiction to stupid Age of Empire games (i.e. I finished the old ones and they haven't brought out a new one for a while). My point is that perhaps we need to start imagining that all the people on the site are genuinely nice human beings who don't mean to say hurtful things to each other. Perhaps we've had a bad day and SG.org is where we like to let off steam. Perhaps we have a rather dry sense of humour that doesn't really translate into the text on a forum. Perhaps we like to say smiley things rather than relate the horrible things that happened today. Add whichever other "perhaps'" you can think of. Flower power to you all. Lots of love, Lxxx
  • edited 12:56PM
    Lucy, you make a good point.

    I'd like to make it clear that my calling Andy a nob jockey is in no way a reflection of my true thoughts about him.......
  • edited 12:56PM
    Apologies, hadn't realised my last post was so looooooooooooooong! You'll be glad to hear that's me done for the day - clearly have not had enough to do.
  • edited August 2008
    @joev - sorry, that was a joke.... I thought: *"are you certain it's become negative, tedious and full of undergraduate certainty?"* was a pretty smart dig at my post. *"@Joev - not a doubt in my mind. At all. And you're a complete idiot for suggesting it."* was supposed to be a joke in the same manner....
  • edited 12:56PM
    Can Andy and JoeV kiss and make up please? publicly? in the Noble?
  • edited 12:56PM
    @andy -- sorry andy. you caught me on a bad day.

    @colette -- I'm game, but only if tongues are involved and we do it at X-it, Home, or Venezia they need the business.
  • edited 12:56PM
    Age of Empires has eaten up days of my life. But not as many as Championship Football Manager.


    ******** down wid da H8rs*********
  • edited 12:56PM
    SG.org has eaten up Days of Our Lives.
  • edited 12:56PM
    oh, by the way - the Noble is for sale again. £99k. christo and co if I remember correctly.
  • edited 12:56PM
    i think lucy is exactly right.

    i also think that people having strong opinions and arguing them does not equal negativity, it equals good debate. what use is a conversation where everyone agrees?

    for example, the comments about restaurants (the main reason mrs r_c and i ended up on here) and other services on sgr and its environs is a good way to gauge the full spectrum of any one place - look at the healthy porchetta vs pappagone rivalry that simmers away on here! it's genuinely informative to see a variety of opinions on any one place. if a bunch of people feel the need to dis a place, there's probably a reason for it, just as much as if a lot of people praise somewhere. it's actually useful, perhaps even valuable to get that kind of input.
  • edited 12:56PM
    The Noble up for sale? Oh, no. Say it ain't so, Joe.
  • edited 12:56PM
    @poxy -- It ain't so -- cheers
  • edited 12:56PM
    @ Geoff - what are your sources?

    The amount of business my social group gives that place, I can't believe it's not doing well! In fact, it has been packed the last few times we've been, midweek as well. Maybe they've outpriced themselves with the food?

    Going there tonight actually, maybe I will ask the Richard Herring lookalike behind the bar if he knows anything...
  • edited 12:56PM
    There's nothing on christo.co.uk.

    I refuse to believe it. As Emma said my group of friends puts a small fortune over that bar. I can't believe it's not a viable business, it's now comfortably busy each night.

    I do know that someone at The Noble reads these posts maybe we can get something from the horse's mouth.
  • edited 12:56PM
    It was in the metro ads bit the other day. I am pretty sure it was the Noble - although it was described as 'Crouch End'... Sorry, Christie and co. <http://www.christie.com/search/brief/2/30654?1218536002>; Businesses are put up for sale all the time; it doesn't mean that they are not a going concern/viable/good etc.
  • edited 12:56PM
    Oh, don't get me wrong. The point I was trying to make is that I'm surprised it's up for sale as I thought the current owners were in it for the long run with what appears to be a very successful business.
  • edited 12:56PM
    Mr Pegg should make an offer.
  • edited 12:56PM
    AAAAAAAAH I can't believe the Noble is for sale. I'm sure we could put together a Pegg-led consortium to buy it.
  • AliAli
    edited 12:56PM
    But the same people who have contrived to get it to where it is would not be managing it ?
  • edited 12:56PM
    I went in for Sunday lunch the other day and went straight out again as didn't want to spend £14 on a main course. You can go to Primrose Hill for that - and you get a better breed of c**t there, too
  • edited August 2008
    Distressing news. Was meant to go Noble on Tuesday night but it was *closed*! Apparently there was a sign in the window saying the closure was due to the manager being unavailable or such.

    I would love to buy the Noble.

    Edited to add: We had to go to the Old Dairy instead. They ran out of cider (draught and bottles), house red, and toilet paper in 3 of the 5 ladies' loos. Really odd place, they just seem not to care at all.
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