Can we be a little more accepting of our differences?

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Why would we remove the link if it demonstrates how forum unpleasantness can easily get out of hand, as stated "On this forum we are pussy-cats! Well trodden down and kept in order by our hard-working administrators" i would like to think members generally don't think they are down trodden and appreciate what we do to keep the place friendly as the search engine results state -


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@Chippy_Tea : I wasn't being cynical saying "our hard-working administrators" - I meant it! I was handing out a "pat on the back" ... honest 😇: Dealing with forum "Trolls" and the like is flippin' hard work and I consider this forum to be something of a refuge, especially when things turn ugly on other forums.
 
@Chippy_Tea : I wasn't being cynical saying "our hard-working administrators" - I meant it! I was handing out a "pat on the back" ... honest 😇: Dealing with forum "Trolls" and the like is flippin' hard work and I consider this forum to be something of a refuge, especially when things turn ugly on other forums.

I honestly didn't take it any other way and thanks for the feedback it is appreciated by all of us thumb.
 
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I've seen the odd random shirty post but nothing that would make me put anyone on an ignore list. I figure the poster may be having a bad day, or have had quite a few beers or both?
 
@Chippy_Tea : I wasn't being cynical saying "our hard-working administrators" - I meant it! I was handing out a "pat on the back" ... honest 😇: Dealing with forum "Trolls" and the like is flippin' hard work and I consider this forum to be something of a refuge, especially when things turn ugly on other forums.
Here here - all the admins here do a hard and mostly thankless task extremely well :hat:
 
I have received a lot of helpful advice, both directly and indirectly, on this forum over the past 18 months or so, and I owe a lot to my fellow members for this. It really has helped me out as I have got stuck in to my homebrewing.
I am trying to not be critical of others in the way this comes across - hopefully it shall be taken as wel-meaningl and not upset anyone.

It may be that what I am seeing has always happened (in fact, I am sure it has), but I am just noticing it more. A real bugbear of mine of late has been other people dismissing the experience and preferences of others as though what they're doing is pointless, daft, or a waste of money (or indeed all three). We all brew in different ways, on different budgets, using different equipment for reasons that suit us as individual brewers. Particularly when it comes to new brewers, I feel we have a duty not to simply imply our way is best and everyone else is silly, but to provide information which can be used by the person inquiring to make the choice that fits their requirements profile (as in, time, space, budget, desired result). I have found myself of late feeling like if I even mention I just bought a Brewzilla, that I have to justify my reason for it before someone comes back and says something along the lines of "What a waste of money, my setup cost £50 and I make great beer". The same goes for process preferences. For example, some use liquid yeast and love it, some prefer dry for different reasons. Some like to whirlpool, others don't. Some use tap water, some bottled, some RO.
Some like to bottle exclusively, others like to spend more on kegging? Great, you may have bottled for 30 years and always had great beer. If someone else wants to spend £300 on a keg set-up (I know, I know, it'll always end up more than £300 by the time you've bought 10 more kegs, a maxicooler, a gold-plated beer font...), let them do it, and let them enjoy it without being dismissive of it.

When I was first trained as a software tester, the first thing to learn is that it was not my job to say "this product is not good enough" or "this cannot be released" or "it's rubbish", rather my role was to provide information so that those who needed to make the decision could do so with the information I had provided them.
Similarly in life more generally, some people tend to spend all their money on cars. To me, buying a car is like buying toilet paper - I do it because I have to and I don't get excited by it. That said, just because I am not in to cars, I can see why some poeple are, and why they like to spend their money on them. I don't poo-poo them for it just because I am happy with my £700 '07 plate Vauxhall Astra that gets me from one place to another in a way that suits me.

So in summary, can we please be understanding of our differences and not make eachother out to be weird just because we are all different? (<--Whilst I am talking there about homebrewing, perhaps apply to life too.)
My own set-up is extremely basic and perhaps owes itself more to the Dave Line school with some more modern improvements, particularly the equipment. In Dave's time, manufacturers were not supplying the home-brewer with such things, so floating bins in baths of this or that were the best they could do. Each to their own, I say, but I would just gently add that reading some tales of woe from those who have lashed out serious sums on modern automated equipment just makes me a little sad because brewing really is quite a simple process and I wonder sometimes if the latest gizmos might encourage a fascination with minutiae which detract from the sheer delight in being able to make far better beer than the commercial brewers. We are lucky in so much that we can make beers that taste as we like them to be, and not rely on a mass market to like them in order to make a commercial venture worthwhile. There was a micro near me a few years ago and they had to give up brewing their interesting beers in favour of - to quote - "something like London Pride to pay the bills".
 
I've seen the odd random shirty post but nothing that would make me put anyone on an ignore list. I figure the poster may be having a bad day, or have had quite a few beers or both?
A bad morning, perhaps. Certainly not too many beers at 8.30am. Mrs GIF would be asking me some serious questions, and rightly so athumb..
 
I've seen the odd random shirty post but nothing that would make me put anyone on an ignore list. I figure the poster may be having a bad day, or have had quite a few beers or both?

I don’t have anyone on my ignore list either. There are a couple of forum users who probably come close but I tend to just scroll passed their nonsense and move on.

I often think about commenting or calling someone out but then think - what’s the point. It won’t change what they think and out of the two of us, I will be the one who thinks about it more.

Also, you don’t know what peoples mental state or background is. People have different triggers. Innocent comments can wind people up because it hits a nerve.
 
That was kind of pathetic wasn't it? Glad we don't have stuff like that on this forum.
But of course we don't have the likes of Graham any longer. I shouldn't speak ill of... . But he could be a right g** if you caught him wrong. I didn't even know him when he got hold of my early work on me "treatise". He didn't spare any niceties on me!
 
Why would we remove the link if it demonstrates how forum unpleasantness can easily get out of hand, as stated "On this forum we are pussy-cats! Well trodden down and kept in order by our hard-working administrators" i would like to think members generally don't think they are down trodden and appreciate what we do to keep the place friendly as the search engine results state -


The Homebrew Forum - Homebrewing Forums
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk


Friendly homebrewing discussion forum for the United Kingdom & beyond. Homebrewing forums for beer, wine, cider & mead. Beer recipes, brewing recipes & beer ...
How could anyone possibly have a problem with anyone from Stan Laurel's birth town??
 
I totally agree with you JR. The 60s and 70s seemed idyllic - now, Im finding what I see around me totally depressing. Im actually finding iii difficult to find anything I really enjoy an Luckily, my Mrs still goes out to work and leaves me to my own unhealthy devices!
 
A nice sunny long weekend is enough to cheer anyone up. While the banter about equipment is like water off a duck's back as far as I'm concerned, there are one or two contributors who, through no fault of their own, irritate the tiits off me. I simply put them on my ignore list and then you can choose to view their content or not depending on the context. I have no doubt I'm on a few ignore lists, too. 😅

I was having a look at this morning's cider discussion and all the flash electric scratters and hydraulic presses. What a bunch of limp-wristed nancy boys (and girls)! What's wrong with the time-honoured tradition of treading your apples and squeezing out the juice through a pair of grandma's old drawers?
Maybe, according to modern rumour, it depends when you were growing up. When I was a lad in the early 1960s you were encouraged to develop a thicker skin than is perhaps now the case. It meant that you didn't get upset so easily and neither did anyone else. Now it seems, the slightest thing has some cause for complaint. I am an old-fashioned straight-talking person and would never take offence at an opinion. That doesn't mean that I delight in being insulted but these days the two seem to be easily confused. Maybe putting someone on an 'ignore list' is akin to university students no-platforming speakers who they deem to hold the "wrong" views"?
 
I totally agree with you JR. The 60s and 70s seemed idyllic - now, Im finding what I see around me totally depressing. Im actually finding iii difficult to find anything I really enjoy an Luckily, my Mrs still goes out to work and leaves me to my own unhealthy devices!
A good friend of mine - older and wiser- once told me the best time to live in any society is when it's just beginning its decline. After that it really IS downhill.
 
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