Challenge

[Kitch]

How long can you go for without posting on Nopesport ?

[AndyO]

Starting from when?

[AndyO]

I tried, honest

on the trend to negative views about Nopesport, I have to say I still try to log on regularly, because it keeps me in touch with the sport when I haven't been competing so often for a number of reasons.

It is noticeable and disappointing that some of the originals no longer post, or at least do so less often, and maybe Harry is right and they just got careers and don't have the same time, or maybe they are posting elsewhere (Attackpoint or other social media). Posting on any site doesn't have to be to the exclusion of any other site of course, but it will help if people find it entertaining and relevant. I just (for the first time, from the link from the Tom Owens story in the OMM thread) looked at the forums on the FRA site, and reading the thread on the BG Jokebook was absolutely hilarious. Nope used to have threads like that and there is still lots of wit around. We need to try to get back to that sense of fun and - well, anarchy that there was.

One suggestion that might help would be to change the Forums. We have already lost the Junior forum due to a lack of interest, but the Discussion forum gets pelters for having too many moans from boring old buffers ranting on about Rules etc. Why can't we have an Events forum (like Attackpoint) and a separate Rules and Rankings forum for those who are happy to debate these points? With these out of the Discussion forum the Travel forums could be incorporated into the Discussion forum as they are really time limited by their nature anyway.

I don't see much actually wrong with Nopesport to justify some of the criticism it has received, and you might even argue that it is a sign of relative success that it has been adopted so readily by more senior posters. Orienteering is an inclusive sport that appeals to a big age range and we shouldn't be concerned that Nope reflects that. If the small changes I have put forward can help members to read the forums that they want without seeing stuff they find not useful, that's got to be a good thing?

[mappingmum]

Why can't we have an Events forum (like Attackpoint) and a separate Rules and Rankings forum for those who are happy to debate these points?

Like the idea, although I think Ranking should have it's own forum.

[awk]

Like the idea, although I think Ranking should have it's own forum.

Don't think it would be that busy. There is only one thread in the past 3-4 pages (I haven't looked any further) about rankings, which is long because it started back in February 2010, and because rankings discussion concentrated on it rather than spreading across loads of others (e.g. the World Champs, which generated more pages of posts in just 2 weeks rather than 18 months): there have been over 1000 threads on other topics started since that date.

[haloite]

To quote ER from another thread "I have been deterred very often from posting because of the tone and nature of some posts." which is why I would probably do rather well in the challenge! Nopesport Forum seems generally good for info. about various matters, but if you are not a "regular" poster I find that you are often treated with aggressive responses from those vociferous "regulars" who seem offended that anyone with less than a billion posts dare to try to get involved!! Which again, is why it must put alot of people off trying to contribute

[madmike]

Haloite, I've recently been thinking about this very point and I think you are spot on and as you say Mummy Rockaldo alluded to the same issue on another thread which was what got me thinking along those lines.

A few years ago my first couple of posts were jumped on by the usual suspects and I didn't post for a while.

Then someone asked a reasonable question about an event I was organising and a couple of idiots jumped onto the thread and made crass comments, which got me so angry I posted lots of responses and the next thing I knew i was posting nearly every day on a whole variety of topics.

Without the crass contribution I would probably have been driven away by the rude/unhelpful comments so their intervention was fortuitous (but not by design). I also perceived it as a clique that I wasn't invited to so shouldn't post.

Perhaps something we should all bear in mind in the future. I for one resolve to try and be nicer.

[Tatty]

Nice to have you back Mike. How's Italy? I guess you're over this weekend for the OMM. Can't keep a good man away

[madmike]

Hi Tatty,
life good here but very wet at mo - not enough orienteering so need my Nopesport fix regularly. Up at o'dark o'clock tomorrow to fly to London to meet partner and pick up OMM kit and then off to bonnie Scotland. Trying to explain orienteering in general, and mountain marathons in particular, to the Italians has been challenging, I think they have concluded I'm a dangerous lunatic

[Mrs H]

I must have slipped into a parallel universe If you look back to the early days of nopesport, while brimming with youthful energy and enthusiasm it was extremely raw and rumbustiuos and cliquey doesn't even come close to it. "Nice" is not a word I would have used in connection with nopesport - but "fun" was.

Several things have happened since then. the main part being the original team have (mostly) grown up and moved on - some have moved away from the psort completely (I wonder what Samsonite is doing now?) and who could have predicted that Eddie (variously incarnated as Dikalot and Lord Fred) would now be BOF's development manager - it's a bit like that line from Back to the Future when Marty tells them who the president is in 1985!

Another thing that happened was that anonymous posting was ended and a certain degree of accountability crept in. Prior to that anything went and ER if you think there is any amount of sexual bias now then I don't recommend you look back then. but being of a robust nature myself none of that bothered me and I enjoyed the edginess of the whole thing which I think did a lot for what I described as the "youthing" of the sport.

I''m not surprised the juniors departed - their forum should only have been visible to themselves and they have found more efficient and discreet ways of communicating - although there maybe a way back if anyone is interested.

As for the moaning and complaints - well sometimes they are useful - if like me you are organising a big event and want to avoid some pitfalls but maybe they should be rigorously confined to a separate forum where you don't have to look at them if you don't want to.

In general it's been a lot of fun and I personally have made a lot of friends and learned a lot of things through nopesport.

To be honest fun and friendship are 2 of the 3 reasons why I do the sport - the other being The challenge (of the race/navigation not not posting on nopesport!) So I'll keep on orienteering and posting if it's all right with you.

[EddieH]

Not being particularly keen on social networking et al. it was ages before I even looked at Nopesport, and I cannot remember what made me decide to post, but I do remember getting a note from Kitch saying something like "welcome to Nopesport [b]at last[/b]"

[Gross]

Nopesport used to be a great windup..... now it's too serious

[Tatty]

Must echo what Mrs H says

[Becks]

Samsonite now runs an independent record label as well as his day job and about a bazillion other things, so he's a bit busy these days. Still doing great though!

http://gerrylovesrecords.com/

[ic]

Yes, good question... I had to look it up though. I did manage 2 years 9 months and 12 days from late 2004. This was immediately followed by a further absence of 1 year 8 months and 4 days, but I ruined what would have been a reasonably long absence by a single almost critically important post in mid-2007. How disappointing. Hope this adds to the discussion...