Forums, what do you love & hate about them?

For me, this forum’s had a great effect on me – since joining the forum, as well as becoming more aware of aircraft preservation in the UK, i’ve started volunteering down at Bruntingthorpe, and been extremely lucky enough to fly in six Austers and an Aeronca, and also met a lot of great people, a fair few of them i’d count as mates

Plus, if it werent for the foRA what would James find to write about :p ?

Oo you calling a writer? I’ll see you outside…

But seriously, as TT says, there’s been a definite benefit to a huge number of people, and as QldSpitty said, the chance to learn new things.

Much as some have rightly pointed out some of the ego problems bringing a downside to the forums, it’s different and counterbalances the ego problem that a lot of ‘real’ rather than ‘virtual’ aviation has – that is ego by some who, by dint of self-perceived status, think they’re better than the rest; something that’s been debagged here once or twice to some big ego discomfort.

The help everyone gives each other is enormous, pettly squabbles notwithstanding….our projects have certainly benefited as have other peoples, I’m certain – the key in the aircraft preservation movement, it seems to me, is communication/contact/information- anything which increases this is A Good Thing.

Plus, if it werent for the foRA what would James find to write about :p ?

TT

And Canadian English, Eh, – also available in Fronch (And that’s Quebecois French – Quaite different ma blonde…)

The thing is there are three types of english.The Queens English,the American English and the bas@rdised Aussie Ocker English.:D
The wealth of accumulated knowledge is the best thing about forums.Never to old to learn new things.Worse things I think are Trolls who like stirring the pot,questions not being answered or people not being thanked…(Anyone who I have forgotten about..Thank you)

Hates? only one really – the number of stickies at the top of every page 😡
I have a few dislikes, the most prominent are the people who belittle others – particularly over spelling or grammar. I usually take the time to self-check my posts and I have to admit it does reduce a little my enjoyment when people do make mistakes but I try and not comment on it – that’s downright rude. Incidentally where is the spellchecker on this forum?
If someone makes a factual error it can be pointed out tactfully/diplomatically or ‘bull in a chinashop’ rudely – the former is far more preferrable.

There isn’t one as far as I know, which is why I suggested (hopefully “tactfully”) that sea vixen might like to use MS Word as a quick and easy way to enhance his online credibility (if nothing else). If no-one comments, how do we each improve on our knowledge and/or skills?

The Good ….the extensive knowledge available , the friendliness of some ..

the Bad ……the way some people treat those who may not be as
knowledgeable OR who ask ” foolish ” questions.The way
some people have absolutely no sense of humour!

The ugly……grudges ,snobbery.

Hates? only one really – the number of stickies at the top of every page 😡
I have a few dislikes, the most prominent are the people who belittle others – particularly over spelling or grammar. I usually take the time to self-check my posts and I have to admit it does reduce a little my enjoyment when people do make mistakes but I try and not comment on it – that’s downright rude. Incidentally where is the spellchecker on this forum?
If someone makes a factual error it can be pointed out tactfully/diplomatically or ‘bull in a chinashop’ rudely – the former is far more preferrable.
Different senses of humour can be a problem and it is a shame that Galdri (and maybe others) do not post because of it. If I am trying to be funny (amusing that is) I usually put smilie/s at the end of the sentence to indicate what has gone before was intended to be humourous.
I have mixed feelings about the comment on the way some threads can veer off sideways. It IS enjoyable BUT it means one needs to keep watching nearly all the threads and I spend too much time here!!

Roger Smith.

Sanp…

Just joking,

My spelling has improved since I started posting on Forums I make silling mistakes but can never spell Merschmitt correctly,

Mrs. Smiedt?

Cees

Sanp…

Just joking,

My spelling has improved since I started posting on Forums I make silling mistakes but can never spell Merschmitt correctly,

i do think since i have been posting on this forum my spelling has improved, most of the time now i do preveiw my posts before i post, and put right some of the mistakes, most of the time it is a typing error.
i think most of us make the occational mistake, some more then others, but it never bothers me. it is good i feel to have some freindly critazisam now and again. i just do not let it get to me. if people want to be out and out rude to me i just dont answer them. so far this has not happand yet..

Grammar. Spelling.

“Where’s your grammar?”

“In the front room, watching tellie.”

Slightly more seriously, there’s no requirement anywhere to use good grammar or spelling on this (or most) forums – however a lot of people will not bother with posts that are difficult to read, and carelessness or haste can (and has) caused unintentional confusion over what was intended rather than understood.

English is a very flexible and diverse language – and it works the way it does so’s people can communicate, funnily enough.

My spelling’s naturally appalling (That’s why Nigel Molesworth, the gerilla of 3B is my avtar – cos he kno about spellink) and I could use many excuses – however, thanks to some gentle leg pulls by some forumites whose views I respect, I now try and proof and spellcheck all my posts – it does note remove all mistakes, certainly not literals, but it does increase clarity and credibility… however I still write here in a more informal manner than I would do in magazines or books – horses for courses. If you want to post on the fly, it’s fine by me, I really don’t mind – it’s an open forum, but personally I’ve raised my own standard for reasons I think are good. (And, incidentally, my spelling has also improved by the continual rectification of my Safari spellchecker – a win-win.)

Oh, I also enjoy the way a thread wanders off topic like a particularly mature river, or a particularly mad relative… 😀

Hate? People who call them ‘forums’ instead of ‘fora’ :p

Moggy

Grammar. Spelling.

Oh ‘for a’ a thesaurus at times like this. 🙂

Humour is a problem on these forums i agree, we all have a different sense of humour. There is nothing we can do about it sadly unless we ban all humour from this place which would make it incredibly boring. We just all have to realise before we post something that not everyone shares the same sense of humour.
I have certainly read things on here that have been funny to others but have made no sense to me and English is my first language. It would be interesting to see more opinions on this spelling/grammer/humour debate from others for whom English is not their first language. Maybe out of all of this we can improve this forum in some way and maybe others out there will sit up and take notice.

Talking about spelling and grammer we have to realise that not everyone speeks English as their first language. There must be members on here for who Eenglish is not their first language. As long as we can understand what they are saying, does it realy matter? Personaly it does not bother me, i know they are trying.

Thank you Ollie! English is certainly not my first language, not the second (Danish), but a third! Sometimes, I really struggle to make a readable post on here (on a serious matter), and then find that it has been misunderstood.

One thing that is worth keeping in mind, and I’ve found to my cost, humour is not universal. What I find very funny when I think about it in Icelandic, is not funny at all when read by english speaking readers.

That is why I rarely post any more, I do have an opinion on a lot of things that go on here on this site, and would like to participate, but my humour is completely different to you guys and, if it is on a serious note, my posts frequently misunderstood as being hostile or rude. What would work in my language certainly does not work on here, I have to live with it

When people have put you down all your life and have taken the chance to ridicule you and make fun of you at every given opitunity it hurts it gets deep inside your head it is no more or less a form of bullying you never forget.

I did not set out to p!ss you off, but with dislexia its hard to fully understand some postings and no matter how many time you read it it still ends up jumbled in your head much like a box of puzzle pieces in a box, no matter how hard you seach for the right bits you can put them or it in to the propper order.

I find it to put the words in my head in to written (or typed) form its just one of those things,

lets face facts MS Spellcheck is not 100% right all time, when I have used it there has been times where I have beleve I got the word right only for spellcheck to give me a word completely diffrent.

Talking about spelling and grammer we have to realise that not everyone speeks English as their first language. There must be members on here for who Eenglish is not their first language. As long as we can understand what they are saying, does it realy matter? Personaly it does not bother me, i know they are trying.

No offence but…

Why should I have to use MS Word Spellcheck just to post on a forum,

Fair point. But I might just as well ask why I should have to squint at my screen to work out what you’re saying.

Nobody is perfict we all have some form of disability or aera of our life which no matter how hard we try you just can not improve on, for some its a mental problem for others health some have both,

I suffer from a nerurological illness that will never be cured, I have fought against it all my life had had to undergo major operations on my neck and spine to remove tumours that thankfully have all been benign, I never know when or where anothr of these tumours will grow, currently there are over 200 throughout my body some are underthe skin whilst most form on the surface of the skin showing as unslightly purple nodules smothering my body, the condition also effects parts of the brain resulting in various forms of dislexia fortuantly this part is only mild in me resulting in silly spelling and grammer mistakes such as getting leters round the wrong way in some words.

You have my sympathy, but I don’t see the relevance of your own specific health problems. A few seconds to run your post through a spellchecker would render the problem, and this discussion completely moot.

I do attempt to check what I have put but using a spell checker would defet the object of me trying my best to me it would be a form of cheating myself out of what I have tryed to do.

So is it that you don’t see why you need to use a spellchecker, or because you feel to do so would be holding back your own attempts at improving your language skills? You’re contradicting yourself somewhat here. I also don’t agree that it would be cheating yourself; it’s perfectly acceptable for anyone to use a spellchecker together with their own judgement in creating readable English of a decent standard.

If people cant accept me for who I am than it your tough cookie and if you dont like it make an complaint to the moderators to have me removed, however we do live in a country that should be morfe tollerant towards those that have disabilitys I may have all my arms and legs working I may be able to see and hear just because somebodys disabilty is not visable dose not mean thay are not disabled.

Strange that this is all about you all of a sudden. My post was a friendly piece of advice to sea vixen about one of his “problems with the forum”. Now we’re getting your life story and defensiveness about what you see as a disability. Dyslexia is not a disability, but rather a learning difficulty, one that can be overcome. Many people do so. Spellcheckers help many of them. It was just a suggestion; there’s really no need for the offence you seem to have taken to it. Use one, don’t use one. Just bear in mind that some posters and lurkers will inevitably set less store by what you say when it appears in poor English, or possibly even ignore it entirely.

I can live with the odd misspelling or grammatical error. It’s laziness, like not capitalising ‘I’ and txt spk like ‘m8’

I have to agree with you there Moggy. I admit my spelling and grammer is not great. Text talk drives me mad, and i am of the generation where most people would use it.

I enjoy the fact that a forum brings together people from all over the world with different areas of expertise etc and in general they are more than happy to share it and help others.

i agree, sometimes i type and submit replys straight away, Charles Darwin one of the greatest minds that has ever lived couldent spell or use grammer very well, but we owe a lot to him.
i have too admit this forum is fantastic, i enjoy being part of it. most of the time people are very polite and helpful, also it is great to be able to talk to people who have had first hand experience in the world of aviation.
at the end of the day its the members that make a forum good or bad, is it not..

To be fair to Darwin:

Journey of HMS Beagle: 1836
Microsoft Word for Windows available to purchase: 1989