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Off Topic The "Discuss Anything Else" Thread

Discussion in 'Horse Racing' started by OddDog, Jun 23, 2013.

  1. QuarterMoonII

    QuarterMoonII Economist

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    We find ourselves living in a century where the political classes of the Western World have been taken over by the incapable and democracy has now become more of a matter of selecting the lesser of the evils. No wonder the Russians and the Chinese did not bother to interfere in the 2020 US Presidential election as neither candidate presented any real threat to them. The Chinese can continue on their way to global economic domination through their continued support of dubious regimes across the developing world in exchange for plundering their industrial commodities.

    Sleepy Joe got inaugurated as the 46th President and promised that he would govern not just for those that voted for him but all Americans. That does not fit very well with the available evidence of the actions of the Democrats in the last year. During the campaign, populist Biden happily agreed that male criminals who identified as female should go to women’s prisons. Nothing like pandering to the woke virtual signalling minority vote.

    Is the Vice President, quite possibly in line to be the first female President, a different woman to the one that advocated no action against BLM anarchists as they rioted in cities across America last summer? I am not familiar with the part of the Constitution that says it is alright to rip down statues, vandalise property and try to rewrite history; but she used to be a law maker in California so she must know better.

    Biden claims that he wants to heal a divided society and bring America back together again. But that does not seem to tally with his economic plans to provide stimulus to “Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American-owned businesses, women-owned businesses”. He seems to have forgotten that he – and much of the electorate, especially the Republican electorate – are stale, pale and male. It did win him crucial votes in Georgia though.

    On this side of The Pond, failed Prime Minister Theresa May took to the Daily Mail to criticise her successor. She tried to go back on her Party’s word to implement the result of the EU Referendum whilst her successor went to the electorate, received a clear mandate to “Get Brexit Done” and completed the task. May was full of praise for the incoming US President but he will be no more unifying that his predecessor as he fawns to the militant identity politics enveloping the West.

    May is clearly going to be the Conservatives’ female Ted Heath, bitter and moralising from the backbenches as someone she sees as an inferior Prime Minister has delivered on a commitment that she tried to obfuscate. Once the plague has subsided, one trick pony Boris will probably be joining her when one of the incapables knives him in the back.
     
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  2. NassauBoard

    NassauBoard Well-Known Member

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    Oddy, do you know of a way of muting threads? This is popping back up top of the racing forum and I don’t want to see it.
     
    #11002
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  3. Toby

    Toby GC's Life Coach

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    Did the ERG and Boris not vote against May's Brexit plans repeatedly?
     
    #11003
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  4. OddDog

    OddDog Mild mannered janitor
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    I don't know of a way of doing that but I will ask around.
     
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  5. NassauBoard

    NassauBoard Well-Known Member

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    Cheers Oddy, I know its silly but I don't find it very appealing when the top two threads on my phone are this one and the other non racing thread. I understand people want to chat about politics and stuff but its tiresome when its the same old stuff.
     
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  6. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    That's a very interesting question Nass. I think the answer is most likely no. I guess it's a bit like all other aspects of life; if it's of no interest, don't look at it. I'd be surprised if any forum has that option to be honest
     
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  7. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    PS; Let's see if Oddy can find a way. I guess on a phone it is more irritating; I only view via laptop
     
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  8. NassauBoard

    NassauBoard Well-Known Member

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    It is a shame you can't mute things with certain phrases, like you can on twitter. I find the mute user very useful, but that doesn't stop the threads popping back to the top even if said user has posted.

    The problem is that this thread is the top of the forum (mainly because we are posting on it - <laugh> ) it doesn't make the place look welcoming and lets face it, if you were a first time reader you'd probably be thinking "I will go post on twitter instead"
     
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  9. Resurgam

    Resurgam Top Analyst
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    There is an 'unwatch thread' option if that helps.
     
    #11009
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  10. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    Well done Maestro. I thought that just muted the notifications. If not you have solved it. Must try this out
     
    #11010

  11. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    I think that just unwatches a thread you have previously set to watch; so doesn't solve Nass's problem (I think)
     
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  12. NassauBoard

    NassauBoard Well-Known Member

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    yeah, unfortunately not. Nevermind, I will just carry on mumbling that the thread is killing the forum when it pops up.

    <doh>
     
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  13. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    <laugh>.

    Have you tried taping over the top half of your phone?
     
    #11013
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  14. OddDog

    OddDog Mild mannered janitor
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    We could just lock the thread for a month and see whether it makes the forum a better place? We have had this sort of debate before (e.g. round the boxing thread - which for me should be on the boxing forum) and personally I wouldn't have any of these "off topic" threads at all. There is a General Chat forum and all sorts of other forums and I can't help thinking these off topic threads detract more than they add in terms of making this a place where horse racing fans want to engage on horse racing discussions. The Daily Thread should allow for a level of chat about other things happening each day so why do we have to have untold numbers of "off topic" threads?
     
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  15. rudebwoy

    rudebwoy Well-Known Member

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    all the other forums that have a functioning quota of posters have different threads so as to not clog one up with every topic people in a group wish to discuss ........
     
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  16. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    Worth raising Oddy.

    When I started this forum I started it with the concept of it being a forum for horse loving folk to discuss anything, obviously predominantly horse racing topics. I think that has worked very well and keeps people interested - on the forum, rather than having to go to other forums. Obviously they are free to do that but choose not to for some reason. I don't think the concept is the problem. In fact I know it isn't. Problems arise on horse racing threads as well (I could quote some serious ones but not here). Massive problems occurred on the BBC forum which was purely horse racing. I think we can draw the obvious conclusion from this and I believe the introduction of stricter moderating will solve the problem
     
    #11016
  17. OddDog

    OddDog Mild mannered janitor
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    That may be, but as a Horse Racing forum our prime objective is to provide a forum for discussion on horse racing topics and I feel we have got the balance wrong at the moment. The Fat Jockey forum is light years ahead of us in terms of horse racing content and discussion. As an example, their Champion Hurdle 2021 thread was started on 22.05.2020 and runs to 155 pages.
     
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  18. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    And you think that removing non horse racing threads will change that Oddy?

    There is nothing stopping us from starting any horse racing threads

    Maybe we should all move over to fatjockey and see what happens
     
    #11018
  19. NassauBoard

    NassauBoard Well-Known Member

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    I think that’s a good point, my view would be that if someone wants to discuss something off topic then they should open a thread. If it goes on then great, or it could disappear into the ether.

    instead we have to guess what **** people are going to post in here. Is it going to be pandemic? Or is it going to be Ron talking about his breakfast?
     
    #11019
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  20. OddDog

    OddDog Mild mannered janitor
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    To be fair we used to have that situation Nass, but there were complaints that you couldn't see the horse racing threads because of the deluge of off-topic threads. Which I suppose raises the existential question again. Personally I am disappointed at the lack of horse racing input on the forum and I am not interested in moderating off-topic threads which attract wumming. So maybe Fat Jockey is the better place for me to be.
     
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