LMH: Do you mind people stealing your ideas?

[Mountain Goat]

There is also one solely for admin and moderators.

That must be a real funfest!

Do you all rip your misbehaving posters apart? Do you ever have to discipline your mods?

I always wanted to be a prefect, but kept losing my badges...

MG

[Hells Bells]

MG, .It gets very interesting at times, (like last week for example, when I was been picked on by the Canadian poster), but we normally agree. I will admit that there has been a bit of tension on occasions.

[janskov]

Maybe some people are "steeling" ideas, text, pictures - I don't care. I have never in my private or professional life protected any secret knowledge. I have always shared and educated whoever was interested. And it has given a lot of satisfaction and a lot of friends.
There are leaders and there are followers. Sometimes the followers will be successful (don't mention Microsoft), but mostly they will always be busy catching up.

[Jimbo]

Partridge wrote

It also sums up why this is such a lovely forum, very supportive and keen to help = many friends and a warm fuzzy feeling, worth quite a lot in this day and age.

Am I the only one who finds the concept of internet forums a bit strange? Not for our kids who grew up with it but for those of us with a bit less tread on our tyres who grew up in a different world.

Not long ago, I would have met photo colleagues with elbows and knees at 'push and shove' press jobs, down the local lab for chat whilst waiting for films to be processed or at the pub on a Friday, all of us putting the world to rights after a long week.

Now we form personal and professional relationships on internet forums. We dispense and accept advice, argue the toss with people we'll never meet, never shake hands with or kiss, never share a glass of wine with or a fireside. We'll never meet their family or their friends or their dogs. 'Local' has become 'the world' - but an eerie world.

Maybe the future will be like this. We'll never meet anybody ever again, just sit alone in darkened rooms at a computer screens tapping away to invisible friends. We'll send guests a virtual tour of our gites and they'll sample all its delights without ever leaving their homes. Legs will disappear, we'll evolve huge fingers and eyes ...

Scary huh?

Jim

[Mountain Goat]

people we'll never meet, never shake hands with or kiss, never share a glass of wine with or a fireside. We'll never meet their family or their friends or their dogs

Jim, good stuff, get's one thinking. But there is another side.

Forum friends can and do meet (and their family and dogs), and we're not tied (if we were) by barriers of 'class', education, money, racial background* etc which can interfere (certainly in many Brit social gatherings).

I believe the world has opened up for the better through the Internet, and Mrs G (psychologist as the day job) continually points out how Forum life mirrors 'real' life and a complete observational gold mine of material for a social psychologist (no, she's not a member, but does get a bit of feedback).

One can also ditch the straight-jacket (bad choice, but could be appropriate) of normal social conventions. Just look at the similarities (and differences) of walking into a strange pub, full of the regulars, and trying to make contact/friends and behave in an accepted manner. 'Chatting' about politics may be akin to a lead balloon, but try starting to talk about your views on 'our' behaviour in Iraq - or at least on your first visit (pub or forum).

MGoat

* Vote Goat!

[Mountain Goat]

HelenB

like last week for example, when I was been picked on

Mmm, I kept out of that one, you have my sympathy....

MG

[Giddy Goat]

Yes, there are dangers lurking on the internet, which we hear about in the press all the time. As my family keeps pointing out, how do you know you're really talking to the person you think you're talking to? Their point is valid - there's a couple of people here for example, posing as goats. But I reminded daughter that she met her boyfriend on the internet. She replied 'yes but that was on the University's dating line, and it's only accessible to verified students at the campus', to which I replied, there are a lot of intelligent loonies at uni', and so the exchange went on.

If people are honest in their posts, I'd like to think that you still get to know them quite well - perhaps, in some ways (though I realise the dangers of the written word) more quickly, as MG says, without the usual distractions. But it would still be fun to meet some of my kindred spirits here in the flesh, and I have already met one - you know who you are! .

[Alan Knighting]

GG,

I agree about meeting and knowing people but any hints and tips I am able to give are for the consumption of all, not just the questioner. It’s called “being friendly� and we’re all friends here, aren’t we?

Fluffy

[Giddy Goat]

Yes, Fluffs, that's a 'given' on this forum; we're very lucky here, and most of the regulars seek to keep it that way; I was just responding to Jimbo's very eloquently expressed reference to the artificial nature of forums. Understand his point, and agree, it does take some getting-the-head'nhorns-round. The world is changing in so many respects and at such a pace.

I feel another thread coming on!

[Alan Knighting]

Dear All,

A while back there was a New Zealand couple holidaying here. They liked the area so much that they have called their new company “Aquitaine�. There’s recognition for you.

The catch phrase for the new company is:-

“We have great ideas to protect what you created�

That might ring bells for those who think we are too open with our postings – not that I think we are.

Fluffy

[Partridge]

Partridge wrote

Am I the only one who finds the concept of internet forums a bit strange? Not for our kids who grew up with it but for those of us with a bit less tread on our tyres who grew up in a different world.

Maybe the future will be like this. We'll never meet anybody ever again, just sit alone in darkened rooms at a computer screens tapping away to invisible friends.
Scary huh?

Jim

I do know what you mean but is it really such a huge move from the older concept of pen friends. Yes, this involves more people but same thing, you use the written word (a positive thing) instead of the spoken to correspond, people stop posting in the same way pen friends might stop writing to eachother, some correspond privately and if the want is there will meet up at some point. I think it is unfortunate that the 'saddos' for want of a better word have made people too suspicious about something perfectly innocent.

[Alan Knighting]

Partridge,

If I read you right I totally agree. Nothing is “instead of�; it’s all “in addition to�.

It all enhances one’s ability to communicate; it doesn’t detract from it.

“A long time ago by the light of the moon� (Hogie Carmichael) I sat UK Law Society examinations. At the top of the paper it said that one could not answer the questions by using a ball-point pen, it had to be a fountain pen. Wasn’t that pretentious nonsense, the same pretentious nonsense that suggests that you can’t correspond properly over the Internet?

Fluffy

[vrooje]

I am suddenly amused that we are having a polite and useful discussion about the use of forums as a mode of communication -- on a forum.

Forums are not particularly new, at least on an internet timescale.

And we are, I think, far more "civilized" in our use of a forum than most. (I'm really not trying to sound arrogant... but I don't just mean that we are more polite; we also use complete sentences and generally don't substitute text-message-words for real words.)

Has anyone ever used MySpace or Facebook? These are somewhat newer means of web communication, and are far more open to abuse (I believe) than a forum. Like the forum, anything posted there is completely public unless a user goes out of their way to forbid access, but the communities are much larger. Also, people post far more personal details, things you wouldn't share with a stranger (yet that's essentially what they are doing -- sharing with friends and strangers).

And now (us) youngsters are starting to clue in to the fact that posting anything and everything can hurt you, as more and more people find their job applications rejected because the company googled them and found their naked-drunk pictures on MySpace.

At least we in the forum are aware of how exposed we are. I think that's all that's required to prevent most problems.

[la vache!]

On the privacy issue - have you noticed how a few of people on the forum have suddenly removed their photo avatars???

[Partridge]

Susan

Now you come to mention it, yes, why is that ?