The new improved (?) not606 site is in the process of being beta-tested and members are welcome to have a look at it. The link below takes you to a thread on the Horse Racing board where Ron, one of the techies helping Mick to build the site, has posted an explanation for the move: http://beta.not606.com/threads/the-reasoning-behind-the-move.279889/#post-7164286 Feel free to explore the site, you can log in as normal and post if you want to, but remember that when the site is updated periodically by copying the live site across, anything you have posted on the new site will be lost. You will also notice the presence of Google robots on the site, which is a bit disturbing. There are obviously differences in the appearance of the site which we will get used to, but there are a few functional changes as well. One example is that Xenforo, the template for the new site, does not support the Rep function. Please comment below and I and the other mods will pass your thoughts on to those building the site.
Google robots!!! Are we being taken over? Am I the only one who doesn't know what that is? Signed in but didn't see any robots phew!
I would ban jump racing in a heart beat. My horse owning relative tells me that horses actually enjoy flat racing, unless they are mistreated by the jockeys. Some of us could probably go an occasional temporary ban on eating, with healthy side effects.
I can believe horses enjoy flat racing...running in a herd is natural to them and that has been reinforced by breeding.
The relative is as gentle a person as a person can be. He's even gentler with his horses, so it came as a bit of shock when he said that he wouldn't ban flat racing. I said I would ban any form of horse racing because it isn't really a sport and is cruel to horses, in my opinion. It's just something to bet on. He actually agrees with that thought. He reckons that if the Royal Family [tug those forelocks now] didn't patronise it, it would have the status of greyhound racing, and consequently wouldn't be able to survive. Of course, I agree with that too.
The main imperative of life is to pass on your genes...to do that you have to be successful at something and occupy a niche. Horses are rideable (and edible if you aren't British), so they are bred by us and generally well looked after. Cows produce milk and meat. Sheep wool and meat. Therefore, they are successful species as they are plentiful and don't face extinction. If they weren't useful, they'd only be found in zoos here as we certainly wouldn't want too many large herbivores wandering about.
Again, according to the relative, most British people who own horses shouldn't. 1] They don't know how to ride, 2] they have no idea of what the horse wants and don't know how to look after them. One phrase he's told me time and again, that sticks in my head these days, is that people don't have problems with horses. Horses have problems with people. It's a bit of a truism amongst horse training and rearing experts. As to your wider point about the usefulness we make of animals, I completely agree. It's sort of lucky for the horse these days that leisure riding is fairly popular. BTW, don't tell anyone, but I've eaten horse steak. It was fab.
Animals like horses, cattle and sheep have been bred to suit us and therefore need proper looking after. Horses used to be hobbled on Portsdown Hill when I was young...often a very sorry sight.
How did this thread become a debate about horse racing? I was trying to get opinions on the new not606 site and you've all gone off-topic on me!
Chilco, any chance you could explain the structure of Not606 in brief terms - who runs it, do they pay to run it, do you help to run it, it it a labour of love, etc, etc. No agenda, just interested. Vin
No problem mate. The site is owned by a guy called Mick, username MalteseMick. He pays for all the software development and space on the servers, but gets money back by selling advertising which appears when you view the site as a non-member, or just don't bother logging in. The advertising offsets the running costs but I believe the site still runs at a loss, which may have to be addressed at some point in the future by asking for donations. Mick has two super-moderators who do all the dirty business like banning people and all the day-to-day admin. Then most, but not all, of the individual boards, for all the football teams, and the other sporting boards like cricket, Formula 1, rugby, etc., have their own moderators, who deal with merging and deleting threads, sticking and unsticking threads, etc., etc., as well as keeping an eye on the general level of behaviour on the boards and requesting bans when needed. As you know, this happens very rarely on the Saints board. Then we have Beddytare, who is our Article Editor, a rare and distinguished title on not606, as I believe he is the only one. He acts as an extra mod, but also elevates some threads, mainly the Match threads, to the status of Articles, which usually get listed on Newsnow and other searchable sites. To get an explanation on why the site will be moving house, please click on the link above, and leave any comments on this thread. Hope that helps!
Marvellous explanation. Thank you. And I guess big thanks to MalteseMick as well. The world's full of good people who never get noticed... nice to hear about him (and you lot, of course!) Vin
