i did contribute....

Not in the minority. Period. Don't let the number of verbalizations be your judge. In a way, the 50+ has been under attack. Eventually it will survive.

Ah! Reality TV, Amatuer Porn, Internet Forums. It doesn't get any better than this. Who needs professionals when we can be entertained by such drivel.

Ignore the smarmy asshat. Just another delusional aging man that poses as a racer and attacks the little folk that actually have a life.

Yeah. Speaking of bullying, does anyone else think its fair that an educated and urbane British gent does battle with a gap-toothed no-class tobacco-chewing gun-toting spittle-slinging Bible-thumping Kentucky hayseed who doesn't even own a pair of shoes (although I recently purchased a pair of Shimano sandals and they are rather nice, I might add)?

It's bullying if you ask me and it hurts my damn feelings. I'm going to slink off and find some stupid cat pictures. Don't make me post them.

I just laughed spit all over my keyboard. You owe me!

Gents, lets simmer down and cut out all the friction please.

Grazi.

I think that if you view an internet 50+ cycling forum as a private club or personal support group or if you try to use it in place of having a social life, you will be sorely disappointed. It's not the fault of a bad forum or bad people on it, just that a semi-anonymous group of people with very loosely-related interests is not a good means of achieving those ends.

There's a lot of content here on BikeForums. Some of the forums are of interest to me, some are not. Of those forums that are interesting to me, some of the threads are of interest, some are not. I scan through and I read and respond to what is of interest. A 50+ group encompasses a lot of ground, say maybe a 30-year period of age, and all kinds of cycling activities, so we don't automatically have a lot of common ground. And if you post something that is of no great interest to me, that's okay, I generally won't worry about it and I'll scan on down to the next post.

When I was in college, one of my friends in the dormitory just seemed to take it as a matter of course that a fellow was going to get into a fist-fight every few weeks. And I guess he did, too. But, then, I was the same age as he was, and I hadn't been in a fist-fight since 3rd grade. I think it works kind of like that with arguments, too. It takes two people to argue. If you find yourself continually getting involved in arguments, it could be that everyone else in the world is argumentative, or it could be that you're part of the problem. And if that's the case, complaining probably won't fix it, either. Just live and let live, and if people disagree with you, that's okay.

Meanwhile, I'll scan on down through the 50+ topics here, and visit the Road and Long Distance and Utility and General and Texas Forums and see what I can glean from them.

Oh, here's an Argument video for you all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkzjBfTDH20

That's my approach. We're all grown-ups here, so I think we really shouldn't need to call on overseers to regulate our conversations. This is an internet forum, after all, and there are bound to be "impolite" comments or personal responses that not everyone thinks are appropriate or nice enough. I'm of the opinion that objectionable posts should just be ignored.

There is nothing wrong with having a logical well thot out opinion backed up with experience.

People that get their knickers in a knot at someones opinion are the ones that are wrong. The people that think they can go thru life with out being offended by somone elses opinion are the ones that need help. They are the ones that almost always restort to name calling.

Amazing. Absolutely Amazing. The planet is still turning, the fire smoke is still assaulting my nostrils (it is continuing to advance, but the other direction), had a wonderful river cruise with a bunch of other Love INC folks on the riverboat last evening, I still only actually KNOW one person who posts on this Board (with fake names some of you might be neighbors for all I know). In short I'm reminded by real life not to take this too seriously

Perhaps an emergency pie ride is needed!

Seem the recent hot, humid weather has caused many cases of chaffing. I use Chamios Buttr, work wonders.

I hope that COD makes it back to the forum eventually. I don't really worry too much about other posters although I might respond now and then if they get under my skin (but not really that often). I guess I got used to unmoderated usenet forums when I first got onto the net so I just don't see that much going on in here to irritate me too much.

I can certainly understand how some people have little interest in silly arguments over trivial crap though. Especially folks our age.

There was a boo-hoo thread like this about a month ago, in which I made a variation of this exact comment. And within an hour, the thread was gone. With no word from anyone as to why.

This is just an open internet forum. To imagine that it is, can be, or should be, something else, is just futile.

You shouldn't have included "gap toothed" there, he is British after all.

As Billy D says above we should reduce the friction. Send over some of that unique if bland Kentucky Jelly. He can put it on a crumpet or something.

Or some of that corn malted firewater from the cumberland plateau. Run it through the still twice for good luck

Mods certainly seem to have jumpy trigger fingers when it comes to 50+ posts with any slight disagreement in them.

I think as long as we've got a couple of threads we can cavil and grouse in we'll be fine.

To add to what I posted before, it seems that these days too many people are too easily offended. If they keep it up I may become offended too. I will be offended by all the people that are offended!

**********????

FYI... as the OP for that thread, I asked the moderators to shut it down. I hadn't followed it as I was away, and upon my return felt it was serving no useful purpose.

With all due respect, you are one of the offenders

Back OT - I hope. It's not only the 50+ forum. I posted a request for advise on flat protection to the general forum and was slammed for being sissy for complaining about 4 flats in a few weeks. The thread devolved into guys bragging about getting 15 or more flats a month and 4 was nothing to complain about. Sorry, I was asking about what to use, armored tires, liners or flat protection tubes, combo of 2 or all 3 solutions, not debating about the "merits" or bragging rights to the most amount of flats someone got.

It seems to be this way nearly everywhere on the internet. Anonymity breeds contempt and brings the trolls out en masse. So I take it with a grain of salt, ignore the worst offenders, put others on my "ignore" lists (when the forum supports it) and move on. Life is too short to waste on this kind of crap. Frankly I'd rather be out in the sunshine riding