Any Real experts here ?

[skier-hughes]

here here Fly.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I've always found it surprising when "those" types of threads have turned nasty and abusive - posting experience and expertise on an inter-web-highway forum is largely a selfless use of one's time; and the two (sharing and abusing) seem to me to be mutually exclusive.

The Beka thread was a case in point. I really just don't get it... To make newcomers feel uncomfortable and unwelcome to the extent they leave is surely the complete opposite of what we want to achieve. Moo very eloquently describes the journey many of us have made with property conservation - sadly Beka may well be lost to the gypsum/UPVC/DPC brigade forever. And that is a lost opportunity for us all.

Peace and love to all.

Robin (white belt amateur)

 

[Pford75]

Agree with the sentiments expressed above.

 

[Cloudscape]

Please understand that this is said calmly and as impartially as possible.

I feel that it's not exactly cricket to talk about [Moderated] like this when she has no way of replying.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

She's using her blog to reply. Seems fair to me.

 

[Flyfisher]

The Beka thread was a case in point. I really just don't get it... To make newcomers feel uncomfortable and unwelcome to the extent they leave is surely the complete opposite of what we want to achieve. Moo very eloquently describes the journey many of us have made with property conservation - sadly Beka may well be lost to the gypsum/UPVC/DPC brigade forever. And that is a lost opportunity for us all.

Very well put!

 

[Gareth Hughes]

The Beka thread was a case in point. I really just don't get it... To make newcomers feel uncomfortable and unwelcome to the extent they leave is surely the complete opposite of what we want to achieve. Moo very eloquently describes the journey many of us have made with property conservation - sadly Beka may well be lost to the gypsum/UPVC/DPC brigade forever. And that is a lost opportunity for us all.

Very well put!

I think the problem with the Beka thread, as it has now played out, was that she asked what appeared to be an innocuous question ('how should I renovate the inside of my “converted mill”?'), but didn’t provide enough information, at first, for regulars to provide a better answer than the vague ones that characterised the first part of that thread, which were frankly little use. She did, however (even if unwittingly) provide enough information, eventually, for some of us to identify the property in question, which painted a slightly different picture to the one she had originally provided.
A regular here, some years ago, found my home and work phone numbers on the basis of information I had “supplied”, and others certainly “know where I live”, and while I don’t now regret that, it taught me the lesson that, if you wish to retain total anonymity (which I don’t), in the information age you really shouldn’t be making “public” appearances anywhere.
I’m very sorry that Beka was upset and seems to have left, but equally, you can’t force people to use their common sense. It’s not as if the media haven’t been full of stories about identity theft, listed building photograph databases online, and such.

 

[still_adrianth]

There can be advantages to anonymity and lack of indemnity insurance. From what I've seen, even good surveyors need to hedge their bets in their written reports, understandably. When we were buying a house, a friend recommended paying a surveyor to give a verbal report so that he/she could say everything they really thought. We did all the usual formal surveys, but once we had the keys we did ask a local structural engineer to look in. We fed him coffee, and he strolled around for an hour giving the most valuable advice we've ever had. Maybe we were lucky that he lived round the corner and never billed us, but my point is that unaccountable advice from an expert can be a valuable addition to formal surveys.

This forum gives a bit of that, I think.

Adrian. (mostly lurker, but this is the only forum I read all the time)

 

[biffvernon]

bluntly abusive emails

She claims she has never sent you an e-mail, doesn't know your e-mail address. Truth is a slippery beast.

 

[Lime]

Re the beka thread.
What was asked was reasonable enough but it didn't stop there did it?
The initially post was finished with a ya-boo sucks to our conventional attitude to double glazing and modern building methods used on older property.
That is what caused the thread to flame.
If newcomers wish to post they should do it with respect to others just as they wish for themselves.

 

[Schoolmarm]

What has been happening? I have had no laptop for a few days :? what blog? And where is me luffly Ev?

 

[biffvernon]

luffly Ev got banned so she started her own blog.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

luffly Ev got banned so she started her own blog.

Sticking my neck out far enough to get banned myself, it's interesting that she does seem to have a hard core of supporters here who mostly coincide with those who have given (I'll exclude myself from this) the most consistent and genuinely useful advice (even if it is sometimes phrased in terms that would make a maiden aunt blush).

I do hope the mods don't see a bland, anodyne forum with no-one getting upset as a means of generating more hits on the site and therefore more revenue from those who advertise here...

 

[Pford75]

Gareth - Your advice as a CO is always interesting and has on several occasions got me to look at something from a different perspective. Likewise, Biff and others have provided (and continue to provide) great insight and assistance across a range of topics.

But, please don't characterise the contributions of those who disagreed as anodyne or lacking in usefulness. I won't name them publically, it's not my place to do so....but there are lots of regular contributors to the forum who sometimes held a different opinion. I've met and spoken to some of these members personally and there are PM discussions which aren't always public......but suffice to say these people have also contributed a lot to the forum and sought to help posters out.

I also know that some board members have felt too intimidated to post in the past for fear of the likely response....hopefully those people will now feel able to share their views/perspective without fear of the consequences.

Whilst the mods have the final say on these matters, i'm sure they are heavily influenced by the views of the community (which in the long term is the key driver of a successful website), rather than page hits and ad revenues.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Gareth - Your advice as a CO is always interesting and has on several occasions got me to look at something from a different perspective. Likewise, Biff and others have provided (and continue to provide) great insight and assistance across a range of topics.

But, please don't characterise the contributions of those who disagreed as anodyne or lacking in usefulness. I won't name them publically, it's not my place to do so....but there are lots of regular contributors to the forum who sometimes held a different opinion. I've met and spoken to some of these members personally and there are PM discussions which aren't always public......but suffice to say these people have also contributed a lot to the forum and sought to help posters out.

I also know that some board members have felt too intimidated to post in the past for fear of the likely response....hopefully those people will now feel able to share their views/perspective without fear of the consequences.

Whilst the mods have the final say on these matters, i'm sure they are heavily influenced by the views of the community (which in the long term is the key driver of a successful website), rather than page hits and ad revenues.

I don't think that your, other others', contributions are anodyne or useless, but I do think a bit of grit in the oyster is necessary from time to time (even if that's not a biologically correct analogy). And, yes, sometimes Nemesis (like others) did tap-dance, or rather clog-dance, all over the fine line of diplomacy. But I do wonder a bit how those who have been wary of posting here manage to cope with the hard knocks that life in general deals out, where there aren't moderators to decide that "enough is enough". I'm inclined to say "aaw, diddums, and did the nasty lady tell you you were a fool for buying a listed house and then expecting to be able to do whatever you wanted, then?", quite honestly (not to you, but to the fragile butterflies who seem seem to come and go with such regularity and will continue to do so even without one particular prescriptionist's "nasty medicine".

 

[Pford75]

Agree with your sentiments....but people are often braver with their words and insults than they would be in the real world. If someone were to personally insult me to my face, I do have other options for how to respond. :wink:

 

[Jon Maine]

Well. got a bit heated here in my abscence :|

Interesting reading and varied opinion.

Ev suffered no fools here thats for certain. I guess carrots are better than sticks.

 

[Schoolmarm]

Ev suffered no fools here thats for certain.

And so say all of us

 

[middi]

I don't know why Evelyn has been sent to the sin-bin , as we know that is the sole privelege of the moderators to justify. Nevertheless, it does prove the effect she has (or had) on this forum due to the fact that we are discussing it.
I get the feeling that many of us felt like strangling Ev. at times, but only to the point where she was still fit enough to keep contributing to the forum and anxiously await to read the content of her next post. Admittedly some of those posts were not for the faint hearted.

I must admit that the hint of sarcasm sometime adopted, and totally tolerated among "us" regulars (?) when posting, may well be construed as arrogant by newcomwers prompting another arrogant reply. Escalation of verbal abuse follows.
It gets so hot at times in the forum "kitchen" contributors either get out or get "nudged" out. MORE HUMOUR REQUIRED PLEASE !!!!

Well, we are all adults (?) and free to make decisions if it makes us happy. ( insulting each other not excluded)

( Middi, in judgement mode,sitting on the fence with his own interpretation of the truth :wink: )

( does anybody know if or when Ev, will be reinstated to the forum ?)

 

[biffvernon]

( does anybody know if or when Ev, will be reinstated to the forum ?)

I gather the ban was for a month, but I also gather that Evelyn is so upset with the way a couple of forum members and the moderators have behaved that it will be difficult to persuade her to return.

I think it regrettable that her work on this forum has come to an end and I have made my position clear to the moderators.

Maybe I'll get banned along with Gareth.