You could learn how to spell “Janet” here too.
jaretj
the solution to your problem is simple…skip over the posts that are not tri-related. Personally I enjoy the off topic posts…These same posts I wouldnt give a second look if they were not written by people that live the same lifestyle I do. Between work and 15-20 hours(tri related statement) I donmt have time to shoot the shit unless its here. Tibbs, TTT, T.D, cerveloguy etc…keep em coming.
what is the address for Gordo’s?
I think it is more frustrating than anything else. But it doesn’t suck at all. This forum, and my blog, are two of the very few places where I air my opinions(I never start off topic thread, but I do contribute to them), and I truly appreciate it when someone offers me a rebuttal that equates to more than calling me a Nazi cave-dweller, or a judgmental, elitist pig, though perhaps in slightly different words. Calling me names won’t change my mind; making a convincing argument just might. The responses I got to my post on the expensive gear thread last week were largely personal attacks due to a poor reception of my thinly veiled sarcasm. That offers little to the discussion. The counterarguments I received on the gay marriage thread are all very compelling. I’m still cogitating upon them.
I always try to be respectful of others, and make logical arguments, although the nature of the forum(short posts, scathing disagreements) is not my best format. As my very long posts attest, I need a lot of words to make a point, and when I try to be concise, a lot is lost. Also, I ramble. Most people find me to be intelligent and witty, if we are talking over a beer or a cup of coffee. In this medium, much of what I post can be taken out of context, misconstrued, or just come across as offensive.
One of the reasons I don’t post on a lot of tri-related thread is that there are so many more knowledgeable people here than me, and if I can neither contribute anything of value, nor ask a related question, I say nothing.
As both jaylew and triplethreat point out, intelligent and lively discourse is valuable to us as a community. There is more to life than triathlon, and while training is a huge part of my life, I find that I anjoy learning more about the other people who participate in this (for me) mostly solitary sport.
All that said, I am happy to listen to people’s ideas about how to maximize the benefit of using a Computrainer, or running a triple with a 12-27 cogset at Lake Placid, or how I can swim better, or…
I don’t completely disagree with you, Ready2run, but I don’t take the same hard line opinion that this forum sucks. What’s shocking are the angry replies you’re getting in response to your post.
Everyone really needs to relax. I agree with the other posters who think this forum will return to more tri-friendly topics when the season starts in a couple of months.
I would also add that there are a lot (too many?) new posts started every day. People who are looking for serious answers to their questions have there post pushed to the second page before anyone can see it. Just an observation.
He has some great race reports (valuable research material) at his personal site - www.byrn.org
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What’s shocking are the angry replies you’re getting in response to your post.
Name one … said in a super-friendly, very-relaxing, almost taking a nap it’s so relaxing, friendly voice.
I think most of the posts asked the guy to repsond to an on-topic thread and get involve din the discussion rather than complain about the off-topic threads. As he said that, 70% of the threads were on topic … he replied to none.
It does somewhat confuse me how speaking directly and “anger” get confused so often.
Maybe it’s me, I was raised by the type of guys (father, uncles, etc) that you didn’t ask “Do I look fat in this?” if you didn’t want to hear an honest, straight-forward answer. If someone gets offended with the answer to their question, whose problem is that?
“The cult of Gordo” – I know exactly what you mean. I lurk on Gordo’s forum quite a bit, and have posted over there occasionally (including yesterday). I do think that Gordo’s forum is “better” for pure training advice, whereas when it comes to gear (especially bike gear), USAT debates, etc., this forum is the one to choose.
We must also keep in mind that this forum could be called the “cult of Empfield.” There is indeed a certain bias on Gordo’s forum towards his training philosophies, and there is a definite bias here towards Empfield’s bike fit/bike design protocols. I think it is natural for forums to take on the identity of their “owners.” You just need to keep that in mind as you read and post.
That being said, for pure training advice, I like Gordo’s forum. For everything else, I like it over here. And I spend way, way more time here than I do at Gordo’s.
RP
My only real suggestions (in case Slowman is listening) would be:
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Move the forum to a faster server. It really does seem to crawl on some days.
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Move away from Gossamer forums to something a little more streamlined like InvisionBoard (http://www.invisionpower.com - which is free, too!). This may help issue 1.
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Have a few different forum categories and a front board to choose from. Maybe an on-topic forum, and off-topic forum, and a classified ads forums? That way people could just weed out all the stuff they don’t want to read just by going to the appropriate place.
Just my $0.02. Of course, this is a freely available service to me and I’m certainly not complaining. I just thought I’d offer my suggestions since I’ve worked in the past with several different forums.
Ironic that this thread went up when it did since I had briefly considered psoting a thread that discussed why I think this forum is so good. Here’s why:
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We have some heated and spirited debates when people express frank opinions. I like that.
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It always stays civil. I like that too.
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The topics are diverse and interesting.
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The participants are animated and generally well-spoken, usually well informed.
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I almost always learn something.
If the topics have veered well away from “which wheel should I use, what training shold I do…” then I suggest that is becasue of the seasonal nature of the sport. When we get into the meat of the season I think it will revert back to a more “nuts and bolts” dialogue. In the mean time what’s going on now is fine with me.
I gotta say, I luv this forum also. I know some of the posts have been getting off-topic, but I don’t mind.
How many of you are actually out doing serious tri-traing? Not me. Mine can’t start up for at least another month, and even then it will take a close to another month before I can really put my nose to the grind stone. When I’m back to tri-ing I’ll go back to hard-core tri-trash talk’in. In the meantime though, moaning about winter and the lack of spring just isn’t that appealing. Why not argue about the incredibly cold Political parties flashing their boob at the half-time show causeing your penis to go numb?
-Come Spring, Total Tri
I know some of the posts have been getting off-topic, but I don’t mind.
How many of you are actually out doing serious tri-traing? Not me.<<
How many of you people actually have JOBS? Where you do work and not surf the internet all day? Count me as one of the ones sick of the crap and I’m am spending way less time here. It seems some people seem to have to respond to every single post, multiple times. The noise to useful info (or even playful banter) ratio has skewed too far for me. I have way too much work to do.
And yes, some of us are doing serious tri-training.
clm
It’s off season for all you US people isn’t it? Probably has something to do with it too.
Yes it’s off season but since my last race I’ve been busting my butt six days a week to get ready for next season.I probably take more days off during Tri season. Off season means I can do 5K’s, 10K’s and 1/2 marathons.
What am I trying to say? I don’t know. I’m tired I think I’ll crawl in my cave and take a nap before work. Bottom line ,do I think this board sucks? No. Could it be better? Maybe.
Nighty night
Dave
I like this forum and appreciate Dan for hosting it. However, I also must admit that I have been hanging out at Gordo’s site more than usual…(It is not just about Gordo… Frank Day and the rest of the product experts hang out there too and answer questions) maybe because I am training pretty hard or maybe because I am a little burnt out on all the long off topic threads. I tend to discuss those topics with friends and family and leave the net for gleaning info from the tri experts. I am sure most people here hit lots of different tri forums as well and take what they need from each. On a lighter note…I now know more about Copernicus and Felt Customer service (or lack thereof) than I ever wanted to
How many of you people actually have JOBS? …Count me as one of the ones sick of the crap …I have way too much work to do.
Cathy my love, you need a job like mine. Either that or learn how to relax a bit more.
Yes, the server is slow…yes we are off topic…you know why? Because we seem to be friends as friends more than “people on the internet”. I conder everyone here a friend, and when my dad died, I turned to you all as friends. When I am down, I know I can count on good sage advice from others who have the same prespectives, goals and loves that I have. I know how to ride a bike, I know that ShimaNO sucks, I know how to run and swim too…I just cant to it as fast as some others out there. Beyond that, I myslef, and I think many others are here to have friends, opinion and support. I think I am not alone in that. If I really want to know what the fastest wheel is I can just look to any of the technical sites out there that are concerned with the grams that spoke prep adds to a wheel and thus off sets any weight improvement by the rim…and who has the lightest rim strips anyway?
Plenty of triathlon threads but also way too many off-topic ones. This is a triathlon forum, yes? No matter how important or interesting a topic is, if it’s not a triathlon topic it belongs somewhere else. Perhaps if the responses weren’t so long, so very, very long (like triple long) it wouldn’t be so off-putting. On the bright side: I’ve gotten really good at speed-scrolling!
I agree with too much crap but would have said “Beginning to suck big donkey…”
I am glad I could have participated in the Poll for Am I a Christian…and Another Poll for Am I an Aethiest…what is next…A pole on how big is your Pole?
A faster server would be the best thing that ever happened to this forum. I have 1.5mb dsl and it takes me forever to load a single page.
I’m sure if Slowman set up some sort of Paypal account, a lot of the 4000 dollar bikes owners here would be more than happen to donate a little pocket change for a new server. I also heard HomeLAN has great hosting.
Other than that this forum rocks. Lots of diverse topics, and Triple’s every-post-a-novel is entertaining (altough I get tired of reading sooooooooooo much).