Depends on mood and time. If I see someone b*tching, moaning and complaining (standard these days) - I will stop and go check a different thread or shut down ST and move on. Also, if I am pressed for time - might just skim and not read full post.

Beyond that, usually read a full posts - unless someone typed out War and Peace! F that!

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In search of the righteous life... we all fall down

I agree. Plus, people who do the 'humble-brag' type post.

Now where to start on that......Here are three examples for me.

*If it is clear that the poster is a Troll and is here for no other reason than to 'cause trouble for his/her own entertainment
(That is starting to be commonplace here)

*If it is clear that the poster does not know what the hell they are talking about but consistently argues like they do..
(One guy here recently bitched and argued on a thread only to then say he does not do triathlons anymore and hasn't followed the sport for years)

*If a poster has an axe to grind on a particular subject or against an individual/group/race/company and every post is shaped towards damaging their target.
(One particular poster springs to mind and he has joined the growing list of blocked posters)
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It is interesting that you started this thread as I have been thinking a lot about this lately. I was wondering about the demographic here on ST (one of my questions regarding gender split was answered) and looking at the number of ST members I was wondering how many awesome people aren't posting because they just can't be bothered with the bullying and bitching that goes on here on an increasingly regular basis.

I posted recently that it seems people don't actually want to get to know each other personally here,they don't want to know each others back stories. That,to me,has stopped the social part of this forum and has made it more combative which,I am sure, in turn stops the casual posters from joining in.

I don't think I do. I will read entire posts, and entire threads. I will only exit a thread if the noise to signal gets too high. But, I won't do that in the midst of a single post...only after a preponderance of posts exceed my tolerance for stupid.

I haven't been around much lately due, in part, to the issues noted above...but only in part, as there have been other life factors that have been responsible, as well.

TL; DR

To that end, I've been heavier with the moderation hand than I'd personally prefer to have to be...but when people forget rule #1 of "don't be a jerk," well...the door be over there, and you don't have to go home but you can't stay here.

I KNOW WHO I WANT TO TAKE ME HOME

Sorry. Old habits die hard.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Depends on which forum we are talking about. In this one I can take some verbal abuse, and even some crazy points and theories. The one thing I cannot abide by is looking at 6 inches of text, all in one long, unbroken sentence structure. For some reason it just hurts my brain to try and read 30 lines+ without a break in them.

Dont care about punctuation, caps, or spelling. I just dont want to read Kerouac's stream of conciseness original manuscript of "On the Road".

The other forum I tend to give a sentence or two to certain individuals, and can tell from there if I should continue. Havent blocked anyone as of yet, figure everyone no matter how bad, may eventually be like the broken clock...

Whinge to length ratio

Man, I really enjoy figuring out who people are or at least who knows what they’re talking about.

Funny, because I often wonder “who is ThailandUltras?” You’re an Aussie, long time in the sport, connected, knowledgeable…probably lots of great stories.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

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Hahaha,lots and lots of stories,some are promised to secrecy to protect those who grew up and now have families and respectable lives. I know that there are lots of awesome people here and wish some of us could meet up in person but that is hard to do.

So much context and tone is lost on these forums which ends up leaving a lot of comments misunderstood. If people knew who they were talking to and from what relative space/context they are coming from then life would be a lot rosier here.

There's a poster on here who fits that description to an absolute T...who despite contrary advice from experts, continues to talk absolute rubbish.

Sorry

To hydrosloths question do people read every thread

I also read more carefully or screenshot the posts from posts from people with high level. Then you search their posts for nuggets or goggle selective words

For me, an individual post starts to unravel when it’s talking at someone, instead of with someone…although, admittedly there are also times when such posting becomes a train wreck, and well, i assume everyone knows that saying…

I think ST can be a gold mine, but it can be Babylons Tower just as easily.

Very well stated.

Thanks for the earworm, Ryan LOL

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

You were #1 on the list of "who will understand this reference and comment on it."

Glad to know my instincts are still undefeated.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

When people attack Lionel and Talbot with no apparent reason. It's same as you go to someone's work place and talking shit that person without any reason. Not cool at all and I don't even want to open a thread and be associated with psychopaths like that. I've seen some mentally ill people here hiding behind keyboard attacking.

This thread (Ironman NZ Holy Cow!) is a perfect example of when I stop reading not just a thread, but all of Slowtwitch. I was recently researching Ironman New Zealand and just wanted to read about other's experiences. However, this thread has pages of posts from just 2-3 people on a totally different topic. There's just so many negative vibes here and in other threads, to the point where I don't want to engage with this community anymore. And I don't think it's just me, anecdotally I've heard others speak about similar sentiments about Slowtwitch.


I do come back because there are some still some supportive and collaborative community members here. By lately I've been taking 1-2 months off the forums because I find other communities more positive.

relatedly, i get turned off posts/threads when people needlessly escalate the nasty language/personal attacks. there's a weirdly consistent use of really vivid fellatio allusions here - you can't mention you like a certain athlete or brand or performance without some posters immediately going all "slurp" this and "suck" that.

that kind of thing cheapens the tone to me and makes a post/thread feel really adolescent or tacky. by that point i'm switched off.

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____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

I gotta say, as the OP, my reasons are much more shallow than anything thus posted.

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

I consider it simultaneously a feature and drawback of Slowtwitch forums. It is rough at times, but you get more "real" debate hidden in the quasi-toxicity. And even the toxicity isn't that bad compared to unmoderated forums. Though all our tolerances are different on that front.

<cough.cough> LetsRun <cough.cough>

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I think these 3 sum it up quite well. I know I stop by much less and post much less than in the past.

These probably contributes to the post & new thread count dropping so much over the last few years. I see a lot of former prolific posters on this forum posting prolifically on various FB threads related to triathlon while hardly posting here anymore.

Over the years I've been on here I've met >300 ST members. Have homestayed, stay with or roomed with > 50 of them over the years as well. Good times.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Thanks!!! I endeavor to maintain some reasonable consistency

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin