Of that I have no doubt...

To be fair, I'm pretty sure I spend more time on BF than I do on my bike. Such is the nature of having a desk job and quite a bit of free time while doing it.

smd4 You seem to have picked an odd hill to defend.:foo: "blinded by rage...." :roflmao:

Pissed off enough to make up quotes. So …yeah.

Sure. But you’re not starting a whole bunch of pointless threads.

How could you possibly know that? Certainly, I agree he likes starting threads, and he's not shy on offering his opinions, but AFAICT he offers them up as opinions. Then he has to come back and tell the Knicker-Twist Brigade that indeed it was just opinion - and of course they ignore that.

I'm pretty darn opinionated myself, but I ******g LOVE cycling!! But, you know, there are 24 hours in a day and with the exception of Sundays I don't ride more than 1 1/2 hours of that.

Oi.

This poster (and I sort of like his style, even though his style is sort of the worst of Socrates' style---being a royal pain int he butt just to get a conversations started (though with a lot less depth and insight) but the guy is Not stupid .... and he is trolling but very gently. he Knows his approach will cause consternation---as proof, see that every one of his threads had garnered the same reactions.

It is the people who "fade" Deason ... the people who support him and make a bunch of side bets, so to speak, people who argue pointlessly with other posters based on some tangent off a tangent of the debate caused by the initial post, who amuses me most---they too, are actually trolling, actually posting just to stir up controversy ... often while arguing about the definition of "trolling."

I can step back from the debate and the personalities involved and just read the thread, and it is easy to see Why people are posting .... and when they later deny the obvious it makes everything more obvious.

As many have noted, Mr. Deason's posts lack internal consistency---as a couple have noted, one of Mr. Deason's first posts was about how he was too afraid to ride on the road ... now he is planning a five-day road tour?

Whatever. It is all entertainment, people. Except for myself I have no way of knowing if anyone on this site even like cycling, or even ride bicycles ... not that I doubt most of you do both, but it is plain that a lot of people get most of their validation from picking online fights. I am not different. I comer here because so many threads devolve into the se ridiculous pseudo-comic debates. I visit other pages here, or other sites, when i want a peaceful, mature discussion of matters relating to bicycles.

There are a lot of people here I really appreciate for their cycling knowledge and experience, some for their personalities, some for their technical knowledge, some for mixes of all those. Even the minor trolls are mostly okay ....

I mean, no one would find it odd if a poster took clips of all the nonsense debates we have here and asked "How can this be fun?"

Yeah, no. Words mean things, and even saying "I can't see how YOU can enjoy this activity" simply means he doesn't understand how this is an enjoyable pursuit. And he didn't even say that! That was ME pointing out that even saying that is not saying "no one else could possibly like loaded touring".

I can't see why anyone would like baseball. That doesn't mean I believe they don't really enjoy it, because I know for example my Grandfather loved the game so much that after he retired from being a mediocre professional ball player in the Teens, he was an umpire at various levels for 57 years. But me, I don't get the attraction, so "I don't see how this is fun" is not a statement insisting nobody could find it so. I'm not saying what you think or what you should think.

The other thing is, you take all this far too seriously.

Valid point.

HEY!! I LOVE baseball! You have quite the nerve telling me I can’t enjoy it! You don’t speak for everyone. Stop stating your opinion as fact!

Oh, and one other thing: Troll!

I like the entertainment here. But sometimes I too like talking about bicycles. Could you please list those other sites?

Time to have a nice healthy breakfast and get back under the bridge till some goats happen by......

"I don't like it, but chacun à son goût."

"So now you're saying my son has gout?!?"

Nah.

If that is your meaning, it's poor communication.

"I don't see how this is fun" is really a partial (incomplete) phrase.

It could either mean: "I don't see how this is fun <for me>" or "I don't see how this is fun <for anybody>".

It's ambiguous.

Given the OP's posting history/style (overly opinionated), people are likely going to lean towards the former meaning.


"I don't see how this is fun for me" is roughly the same number of words and removes the ambiguity.

He could have (should have) made that clear in the first post. (It would have taken much less effort than saying it an additional 4 times,)

Nah, What he said at first was (at best) ambiguous.

Which is why I specifically pointed out that EVEN IF he had said "I don't see how anyone can enjoy this", he's STILL not saying "Nobody can enjoy this", because he's just saying he doesn't see how it could be fun. See my baseball analogy.

The thing is, he then repeatedly says that if others like it, that's great, which at least to me removes the ambiguity in favor of the first interpretation, but a number of folks allow those repeated clarifications to run off them like water off a duck.

A NORMAL response to the repeated clarifications would be, "Oh, that's what you meant. That's very different then. Nevermind."

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a310a19c60.jpg

Instead, we have people telling him what he meant, which seems presumptuous in the extreme.

His extensive posting history does do much to encourage that response.

Nah. That he had to clarify what he meant four times suggests a deficiency in what he said at first.

What he wrote was still ambiguous. And for no good reason.

Your alternative is still poor (ambiguous).

Since there's apparently evidence that some people enjoy it, it's either judgy (assumes the person's opinion is something people should care about) or it admits a lack of imagination (deficiency) on the person saying it (not likely something people would intending to convey).

If what he meant was "It doesn't seem like something I would enjoy", why even say it? Who would really care?

"I don't see how anyone can enjoy this" lets one say "Nobody can enjoy this" in an oblique way.

Again, it's easy to avoid the ambiguity.

Let's assume for the sake of argument that you're right about his initial post being ambiguous, a clarification resolves the ambiguity and from then on any misinterpretation is on the other person,.

Yup. People read what they want to read. I think they like to get mad and degrade other posters. Makes them feel tough and smart. Lol.

Actually, saying "I don't see how anyone can enjoy this" is saying "Since I am rational and sensible, only senseless or irrational people could enjoy this."

"It is incomprehensible that a normal, rational, sensible person could enjoy this."

Nobody says, "There is obviously something wrong with me because I don't think that would be fun." What people say is, "There is something wrong with people who find that fun." If they mean the former, they say the former. (And even then the meaning is usually the latter ... No, I am not sure what "Irony" means, are you?)

It's funny ... we all converse daily with other people and have no problem understanding the nuances we refuse to notice here, because they screw up our self-righteous debate positions.

At this point no one even cares about the original post, we just have pairs of posters squaring off to try to out-argue each other.

Maybe my advantage here is that I don't take the OP too seriously, nor any of the rest of you ... nor myself.

Imperfect communication skills? Comedic hyperbole? The limits of nuance in printed communication?

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...036a8d7dcf.gif


I saw a cartoon many, many years ago. Two identical-looking couples are sitting on identical couches facing each other, and one of them says, "I can't think what people see in wife-swapping parties."

Writes the master of SAT words.

I think I made a good case that it was ambiguous.

It could either mean: "I don't see how this is fun <for me>" or "I don't see how this is fun <for anybody>".

I won't argue otherwise. Regardless, the OP has a history of overly opinionated/polemical posts. What went on in this thread is somewhat a result of that. That's on him.

There's lots of evidence that, whatever it is, it isn't working for him.