We often seem to do "grumpy" threads. Or in any thread someone gets upset, or snippy, or just generally morose.
I thought there might be some value in a positive thread. If you don't, fine, no worries, move along, nothing to see here.
For me, I find things here that make me laugh.
I learn all sorts of stuff from folk who have skills and interests that are way in advance of my own.
I like some of you, or at least your personas, very much.
I can't think of another forum where you could ask a question about, well, pretty well anything, and get good responses.
I also like the spontaneous way people will offer to help. Often someone says they have a spare doodad and anyone can have it. Or they offer to help out with a car viewing, or a delivery, or a check on a house.
Honestly, I think we're a pretty good bunch, on the whole, and I'm glad to be a part of it.
So my question is - what do you like about this forum? Why do you keep coming here?
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who is pollyanna? is she a contributor?
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Intelligent and knowledgeable advice would be my No1 reason.
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>> who is pollyanna?
Only Pollyanna I know is Pollyanna Woodward from The Gadget Show.
Hubba Hubba.
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Oh lord, sorry. I made a rash assumption then.
Pollyanna is a children's book of 100years ago in which the eponymous girl is relentlessly optimistic. It's been filmed a few times, and of course nobody can watch it dry eyed.
Well, I can't anyway. Sorry, my fault for assuming folk would just know it.
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Know it... we had the LP at home when I was a kid!
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I'm drifting my own thread already. But was that the Disney one FL? With the delicious Hayley Mills? Although her younger sister was the more scrumptious in my book.
Edit
Maybe I should add I like the way discussions here don't always go the way you predict at ALL.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Thu 31 Oct 13 at 21:29
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>> Know it... we had the LP at home when I was a kid!
That was polydor you idiot.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 31 Oct 13 at 21:34
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>> Pollyanna is a children's book of 100years ago in which the eponymous girl is relentlessly
>> optimistic.
>>
I hate people who are always optimistic.
I don't like that sort of thing.
That really makes me grumpy.
Where does the Pollyanna person live? I am going round there to throw stones through her windows.
I am REALLY angry now!
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>> It's been filmed a few times, and of course nobody can watch it dry
>> eyed.
>>
www.last.fm/music/Hayley+Mills/_/Pollyanna+Song
Childhood sweetheart.
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>>
>> Childhood sweetheart.
>>
Yes. Thank you. Not very good is it.
This, however, was a cracking version.
www.imdb.com/title/tt0314519/
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>> >> who is pollyanna?
>> Only Pollyanna I know is Pollyanna Woodward from The Gadget Show.
>> Hubba Hubba.
>>
tinyurl.com/pu49q7v
Wow...!
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"tinyurl.com/pu49q7v
Wow...!"
No no no. Young + blonde = Yawn
Mature + well-lived face = fantastic hump and something to talk about after.
i.e. Suzi Perry
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>> So my question is - what do you like about this forum? Why do you
>> keep coming here?
Thread drift.
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I have to say the technical answer on the Max Headroom thread amazed me !
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Not only can you get an answer to a question on virtually any subject, very rarely if ever do you get a misleading, wrong answer.
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Based on my impressions of the individuals here, there's not one regular I wouldn't be happy to enjoy a pint and chat with..................'cept me !
I've met 4 off here and I know the names of maybe a dozen more. I'm sure if I was in the area of any of them I'd be welcome for a cuppa. The same applies the other way ! My EMail's on my profile.
Ted
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I can't help but have a mental picture of most of the regular contributors on here. Most if not all will naturally be wildly inaccurate of course as they are nothing more than an assumption created in my imagination.
In most cases though they wouldn't ( the mental pictures that is ) be too different to any normal cross section of the population and a bit like characters in a novel they ( you ) have all become a certain person in my mind's eye.
The bit I do find disturbing though is that an odd one appears not as a regular human but like the original Reggie Perrin series some of the characters take on grotesque surreal images. I shall never reveal what those images are, or indeed who they apply to in my clearly warped psyche as it would serve no useful purpose and might inadvertantly give offence.
I do though sometimes wonder if we ever found ourselves in a situation where we knew that we were all in the same room at the same time, whether I'd be able to identify a few anyway from what little I know of them and indeed whether anyone would be able to spot me.
Anyway, to return to the original question, why do I persist in returning here? Mainly to be entertained or informed I suppose. There are some really knowledgeable people here and some very witty ones too. I dislike it when too much conflict arises but I guess that's always going to be a feature of the human condition.
I freely admit though that I get more back than I can give. I claim expertise in nothing much really but, if nothing else, perhaps I have a little knowledge or interest at least of a quite a few things so it's always good to get specialist advice or commentary from someone who genuinely does seem to know what they're talking about on subjects where I have at best only the sketchiest of views.
What I do notice though, and I don't suppose C4P is unique in this, is that the same arguments ( perhaps they could be called discussions but often they are well disguised as arguments ) tend to be had repeatedly by the same combatants ( sorry should that be "contributors" ? ) and no matter how skilled or convincing either protagonist may be in defending or promoting their view it almost never results in the other party declaring at the end game, "You know what, you're right and I was wrong !" Usually it ends in some degree of huff being taken on one or both sides.
Which is a shame really but perhaps to be expected. Internet forums are fairly unique in that it can be an opportunity for spleen venting with minimal risk of incurring a retaliative personal injury !
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>> I can't help but have a mental picture of most of the regular contributors on
>> here.
>>
Well, I only hope you have got me down as the grumpy one. That's what I enjoy most of all!
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>>.......Which is a shame really..........
Is it, really?
I have two very good friends. In truth, probably just the two. We have nothing in common, we agree on pretty much nothing. We have had the same arguments more times than I can count over the 30 years or so we've been friends. If we are within geographical reach, then we're doing something together.
We never agree, will almost certainly never agree. We enjoy scoring points off each other, regularly gloat over various disasters, and will poke fun whenever possible.
That equality and lack of threat, animosity or resentment between us is part of what makes it a friendship.
If I behave this way with my very best friends, then part of the attraction of this forum is that I believe I can behave the same way in here, at least to some extent.
There are people in here that I disagree with at a fundamental level. People who I cannot imagine I would ever agree with on certain subjects.
But I wouldn't wish any person to leave this forum. Its fine, just the way it is. And there isn't anyone in here I wouldn't happily enjoy a pint with. Even Geoff. (although I'd make him pay for the first round).
And conflict does not bother me, at any level. Either as a participant or a witness.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Fri 1 Nov 13 at 01:24
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>> So my question is - what do you like about this forum? Why do you
>> keep coming here?
Usually learn something, not necessarily what I expected.
But mainly I want to be around for the conversion of Zero to a love of correct spelling.
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One or t'other of us will be 'a mouldering in our graves afore that happens.
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Ted, you ever show up on my doorstep and I promise you a slap up meal, not just a cuppa.
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Very generous, FM. No ardouwillies though, thanks !
Ted
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It's a good question. It's a funny old forum isn't it. Certainly the demographic of the average poster has changed in the ten years (come January) that I've been here (or somewhere similar).
But it's a small world too. One of the regular posters on here, his daughter is a good friend of mine. Another regular lives near and knew one of my father's former neighbours.
I come here for No FM2R's brilliant putdowns.
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It's the only forum I have ever found where I would genuinely like to meet the contributors.
Even on specialist forums devoted say to particular classic cars etc, I value the advice and knowledge, but the people sound very dull.
I have a feeling though it is a fantasy, and as Runfer (I think it was) says, might well not recognise anybody anonymously. I read a comment once from someone who had met the Telegraph satirist, Michael Wharton. (Peter Simple column). He said you might imagine he would be very funny, and full of dry comments and hilarious impersonations. But in fact he was a meek little man and not very amusing or interesting. All his genius was in his writing.
Best things about the forum?
Expertise
Wit
Good nature and tolerance
Intelligence
Thread drift (I've just realised the song I have in my head is Polly Wolly Doodle all the day, not Pollyanna)
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>> Expertise
>> Wit
>> Good nature and tolerance
>> Intelligence
>> Thread drift (I've just realised the song I have in my head is Polly Wolly
>> Doodle all the day, not Pollyanna)
EWGIT D...hmm who's D?
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I am feeling quite Pollyannaish today. There is good news about the health of two very old friends, both of whom had reasons to worry. The electricity has been on for a day and a half. And by the simple expedient of asking for more money than my publisher would dream of paying, I have managed to get the proper rate for a smallish but worthy (and I hope enjoyable) translation of a work by a very good and original French anthropologist. Had I asked for the proper rate, they would have paid too little as usual. Not that the proper rate is anything like enough, but these small triumphs do count.
Were any of you to meet me today, I would be so bumptious and full of myself that all your worst suspicions would be confirmed, and I would be sent to Coventry.
Smirk.
I recommend the cartoon at the bottom of p. 16 in the current Private Eye. Reminds me of quite a few people I have met and whose stuff I have had to deal with. And of myself, a bit.
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I have to remind Humph of an occasion a few years ago when he was saw a suave looking guy filling a car on a forecourt and he was winking at him etc...in the mistaken belief it may have been someone from here....
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He wasn't all that suave...and there was no winking involved !
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>> winking
One of RP's well-known typos probably.
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Actually, it's coming back to me now. It was quite a long time ago when some of us were regular posters on "another" site.
I had stopped for fuel somewhere off the M40, near where I think a certain person lived at the time. That certain person had a job which may well have required the occasional wearing of a suit at the time too and that certain person had also mentioned that he had a private plate.
Well, at the next pump was a chap of about the right age with a reg number I can't exactly remember but it nigh on spelled "PUGLY"
There may well have been a nod and a sly wink or two from me on reflection, which was not ( hardly surprisingly as it turns out ) reciprocated.
Instead he looked mildly disturbed which in fairness to the gentleman concerned was a reasonable position and reaction...
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Dear God; between J9 & J13 and the Reg began P1... on a silver Merc?
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It was either a silver E Class saloon or a silver Jag XJ I'm pretty sure.
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Oh dear.
Can you be more specific about time/place?
Mark.
Lived by J9
Worked by J13
Drove Silver Merc , an E Class saloon, Reg: P1 ...
Once told wife about bloke in petrol station that fancied him - would have been around 2008/9
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Early morning, either Oxford services or the one north of there "Cherwell Valley" maybe. Southbound. Probably 2008
Oh God !
Sorry !
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Fri 1 Nov 13 at 19:19
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He had his chance and he blew it.
;-)
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>> and he blew it.
I thought that was the way to your heart...
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Do you ever find that when you are especially happy, there seem to be a lot more people around that look vaguely familiar and make you feel you must know them?
I once rounded a corner (on foot) and nearly walked straight into a woman coming the other way. Simultaneously we each said, "Oh, hello, ...." and then stopped, puzzled. I had been convinced for a moment I knew her, and she me likewise, but after a few seconds reflection it was apparent neither had the faintest idea who the other was.
Often goodwill and joi de vivre seems to radiate out and infect other people too.
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I think it's also an age thing Cliff. When you have been around a while you've met or at least been in the same place at the same time, somewhere, as an awful lot of people.
They may have been nothing more than the briefest of encounters but somewhere in the depths of your memory you remember them, or they you.
I've not lived in Edinburgh or been a regular visitor to it for most of my adult life but I grew up there. It's a big city and the chances of randomly bumping into someone I know are extremely slim but more or less every time I do find myself there, I see faces which are at least familiar and catch myself nodding a greeting or getting one in return without really knowing who they were.
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I once rounded a corner near home on my way to work, and greeted a girl who lived near there with a very cheery good morning and a broad smile, and passed on as I was late. I've never made anybody look happier at 8am whilst walking to work.
Problem was, the girl it should have been was abroad...
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The Pollyanna thread - Zero
