Roody

The truth is, most threads on LCF are started by five or six people. You, dear lurker, by not starting threads yourself, give those people the power to drive the discussion.

I am one of the few that does start a lot of threads. I start threads on topics I'm not even interested in because I want to get more lurkers involved. I do this because I care about this forum and I don't want it to fade out. You're welcome.

Believe me, I would LOVE for more people to start some threads on topics that interest them. I don't know if they're lacking in confidence or a little lazy, but almost all of those who complain that threads are "off-topic" fail to ever start threads themselves. IMO, that's a little disgusting. How much right do you have to put down others when you're not making a positive effort to do better yourself?

So instead of whining and disrupting, how about starting threads on topics that you are interested in? This forum isn't going to write itself!

Artkansas 

Ummm. I don't believe it's the lurkers who are whining. They are lurking.

Ekdog

But there others who never or rarely start threads and who limit themselves to lashing out at those who do.

Roody

I think the number of whiners is small, but the number of lurkers is large. The whiners just go on my Ignore list, which is longer than usual at this particular time. My point to the lurkers is that if they get some value from reading this forum, they will enjoy it even more if they start some threads. And it isn't fair to rely on others to do most of the work.

surreal

I think that this forum is ppl'd with folks who exhibit behavior that will dissuade "lurkers" or other peripheral participants from starting a thread, b/c who wants to start a thread on a forum just to have some clowns demand annotations for any/every assertion made in the OP? The tactics employed in these "discussions" are designed to stomp out any/every lively discussion before it even gets started. The only threads that last more than 5-10 posts are circular pedant-fests, typically involving 2 or 3 opposing blow-hards as they demand, produce, and shoot-down web links that are supposed to support their positions.

The short way to say that is, there's not a lot of room for "fun" on this forum.

fietsbob

meh

surreal

Can you produce a source to back up your statement?

fietsbob

sure , you pick up the first round?

Ekdog

I think you are exaggerating. Sometimes it is appropriate to ask that a source be provided in order to determine if someone's claim is factual or not. This happens in just about any forum, not just this one.

I-Like-To-Bike

Dang, maybe pigs will fly someday. I am in agreement with your observation. Requests for a source are often an attempt to separate the wheat statements (supported by some sort of evidence or at at least a reference source) and the chaff statements (wishful thinking and guesswork.)

Some posters can not abide any skepticism about unsupported statements that appear to be only wishful thinking and/or guesswork posted as facts or truisms.

Ekdog

Yes, we agree on this one.

Roody

I enjoy this forum more than any other I've participated in. The people are generally polite, open minded, and interesting. Almost every day I learn something new. Most days I find a good laugh here also. I love the wide variety of topics that fall into the area of carfree living.

I do hope more people will start threads, which would make the forum even more interesting.

But you have sort of done that here. I mean, you haven't demanded annotations but you have disputed assertions made in the OP. And of course that's a perfectly acceptable thing to do.

I agree that people shouldn't have to provide links and citations for every assertion, although assertions are often much more convincing if some outside support is provided. Personally, I ask for citations in two situations: a) I want to do more reading about the assertion because I found it to be interesting or confusing, or b) I'm unclear whether the poster was expressing an opinion or observation, or if he was asserting something as an objective fact.

Machka 

Ummm ... WOW.

Roody ... step away from the computer. Go ride your bicycle. Travel. Take up a hobby. Join a gym.

If you are posting stuff you're not even interested, it is time to take a break.

Maybe the reason people aren't putting an effort into starting threads here is because they have busy active lives and don't spend hours dwelling on what new topic they should post. Maybe they just want to come here for a bit of fun, and a good laugh, now and then.

Machka 

+1

And if people just want to lurk ... that's fine.

ro-monster

I love LCF, although I start very few threads. In fact I don't even post that often. But that's mainly because most of the time, I don't have anything very interesting to say.

Ekdog

With all due respect, I think you are the one who needs to lighten up, take a break and get some excercise.

wahoonc

Remember we are still stuck in winter mode up here in the Northern Hemisphere... and it has been a long cold one. I normally start putting things in my garden under the cold frames around Valentine's Day. Didn't happen this year, the cold frames were buried under 8" of snow! Our average annual snowfall is around 2" we have around 18" this year. Our average last frost is April Fool's Day. Our average temps have been running way behind this year too.

Aaron

Machka 

Yeah ... I can tell!! Cabin Fever is setting in.

But there's always skiing and snowshoeing. Or holidays to warmer places. We try to go somewhere warmer during winter as often as we can. Or nice warm cozy night classes at the local community college, library, or wherever. I've frequently occupied myself that way through the long, long Winnipeg winters.

However, I don't know if I could move back to a place with 7+ months of winter.

no1mad 

Makes no sense to invest in skis or snowshoes when one typically sees little to no snow, nor can everyone just go on holiday to warmer climes- work schedules, familial obligations, financial considerations, pending major medical procedures that insurance will only pay part of...

Machka 

What about the gym then? Several places I've lived in Canada have offered 3-month or 6-month memberships, which worked well to get me through the winter. And a lot of "gyms" now are multi-purpose centres that offer swimming, cardio equipment, weights equipment, walking tracks, racket sports, and more. Some even offer all that in semi-tropical settings (lots of palm trees etc. around the place) so that for an hour or two every day, you can feel like you're escaping from winter.

Even though it is very early autumn here, and winters aren't that bad, we've joined our local aquatic centre. It's nice and bright and comfortable and we can go and pick our choice of exercise for a couple hours in an evening without worrying about rain, cold, traffic, darkness ...

And spinning classes once or twice a week are a great way to stay in shape over the winter!! I have the option of 3 spinning classes each week ... and they're tough.

[HR][/HR]

All the places I've lived (even the little town in the middle of nowhere Victoria) have offered a variety of community courses quite inexpensively. They're a good way to lessen the effects of cabin fever. Learn how to paint, decorate cakes, cook Thai food, speak Italian, weld, make jewellery, do yoga ... all sorts of things. It's a good way to get out of the house, meet new people, have some fun, and learn something.

surreal

I was under the impression that Roody wanted to know why so few ppl start threads here, so I gave him my best guess. Discussions cannot flourish here b/c the boors who have dominated this forum expect a comprehensively annotated dissertation, and if they don't get that, they start in with the kangaroo court antics. "Objection! Inadmissible!" "Sustained!" It's one thing to want some stats and studies to back up some esoteric fact or spurious assertion, but most ppl on a forum like this have discussed transportation cycling more than a few times, so we probably don't need to link articles to support the same concepts and widely held beliefs that some of us have already been discussing for a decade or two.

What's worse, virtually every source linked will have at least one of you fact-checker types calling the statistical validity of the study or the basic premise of the article into question. I'm supposing that you're fighting your reflex to demand a citation here b/c you know that half the threads on this forum will strongly support my claim.

The fact is, this is not a forum about LCF. It's a study in tedious, drawn-out arguments about nothing. I like to browse it b/c I enjoy the ostensible main topic, and at times, it's entertaining, but in the end, actual participatory discussion here is a disappointing time-thief. It's boring to start threads here; it's pants. There are too many folks on here that post just to argue, deny, and shoot ppl's ideas down on a technicality-- even if they have to invent that technicality.

You can continue to deny this all you want but if you do, you'll forever be wondering why so few ppl participate here.

GetOuttaMyWay

Maybe the reason why the lurkers aren't starting new threads is because they come here for info on the "how to" aspect of LCF and find more "why you should" content instead.

shipwreck

Its not so much the constant argument for arguments sake that keeps me from really being more involved, nor is it the demand for citation, without which this would quickly become a morass of unverifiable opinions and pipe dreams. Its not even that I am not car free, but extremely light, as in gassed up less than ten times last year, and that was just topping the tank off when going to the airport and back.

Its the almost total lack of any common ground with the core posters. Most of them are urban dwellers, complaining about or discussing bike lanes, sharrows, dealing with stop lights, whether its better to just walk to the grocery or ride...
I bet that a lot of lurkers here are in that situation, where they either live in a small town with no real issues as are addressed here, or like me, miles from pavement with nothing but high speed highways to ride to the nearest bike lane free town to get to grocery's, library, post office.

The rabid anti car bias of some of the most common posters, from the view point of rural farm country dwellers is amusing as well. Its a lot more fun to read a thread filled with a few folks pointing out logical and logistical facts to the pipe dreamers than it is to get personally involved.

And Roody, I would rather read a legitimate thread started by someone than have a bunch of filler threads started by you, who admits that they are of no interest to you.

Slowhead

One person on this forum usually ruins the experience here for me.

surreal

This'd make sense, except that this forum already is a morass of unverifiable opinions and pipe dreams, not just about CF topics, but about data collection and analysis.