On 6 Jan 2022 at 11:01am Nevillman wrote:
I don't want to harp back to some mythical bygone age but there used to be a higher standard of debate on here with different contributions from more people. For a while the debate moved to the Lewes present Facebook site and although you can never be sure how much symes is censoring, there really is much less there as well. Theoretically I think the internet is a good place to discuss things as you can read, comprehend and fact check arguments before making a considered response yourself.
Have people moved to other sites to do this or are they happening on Twitter or somewhere else or are most people just fed up with the whole debating thing? Serious answers to this would be appreciated as I would like to find somewhere to discuss issues with someone other than green (no offence green I enjoy your posts).
On 6 Jan 2022 at 11:06am Green Sleeves wrote:
None taken, I hear you and agree. I totally admit I am only really clowning on Tom Pain these days on here as he is absolutely guaranteed to take the bait and respond without fail. If there were more people discussing and debating stuff on here, I would "troll" TP a lot less and engage more sensibly again with others.
On 6 Jan 2022 at 1:29pm Frank wrote:
Unfortunately since Webbo was forced to censor the forum and everyone had to register themselves to be able to post it has all got very boring. The rise of TP has drowned out any serious debates and he never fails to try and dominate discussions with his tedium. This place used to be full of wonderful characters (I met the real Mrs Twine the other day). I think there is no way to come back and recreate those days but please rename Lewes Forum to Tom Pain forum because that is what it has become.
On 6 Jan 2022 at 8:28pm Tom Pain wrote:
Mrs Twine! You lucky fellow. Well I'll leave you the ball, the court is yours Frank.
On 6 Jan 2022 at 11:46pm Basil wrote:
I miss the Good Old Days when we had lots of posts about the tables outside Bill's and which councillor Charles Style was inviting to parties to make sure he got planning permission for the 'North Street Quarter' (I think we all know). It really was fun then. Does anyone remember the meeting in Lewes Town Hall when Style sent his wife along to say what a good chap he was? That was the one where the councillor whose name we all know said, 'This development will go through.' Happy days indeed.
On 7 Jan 2022 at 7:46am SomeLewesian wrote:
My proposal is that most of the people who might once have engaged on public forums such as these, get enough of that at work through Teams, or Slack, or similar.
Any further discussion happens socially distanced with their friends.
On 8 Jan 2022 at 10:58am David Stanley wrote:
People aren't really interested in questioning their own motivations. It is often rather painful. Attention span gets shorter and goodwill declines.
On 8 Jan 2022 at 11:00am Nevillman wrote:
I'm talking about the regular anti cyclist rants or the discussions about north Street, beggars, racism in Lewes etc. As I say they are no longer on symes site either at anything like the same quantity. Where was any mention of the boxing Day hunt or the roadworks at earwig corner?
I've never heard of teams or slack somelewesian and am surprised that these discussions now take place on a work based system. Is that generally true or have people just got fed up with these discussions. Has the novelty of being able to express your opinion publicly like this gone?
I'm sure Tom hasn't helped with discussions on this site but if there were enough other people on here ignoring him then could he have killed the site off alone? I'm not sure. What do you think? It's all right. He's said he's not participating in this thread. Let's take advantage of it.
On 8 Jan 2022 at 11:26am Tom Pain wrote:
Just a word to thank you for your open minded kindness Nevillmoan.
On 8 Jan 2022 at 2:11pm SomeLewesian wrote:
Not so much that "those work based systems" host the same discourse, more that the novelty of having a forum to view (vent?) ones opinion has worn off due to a saturation of opportunity elsewhere.
On 8 Jan 2022 at 5:29pm Frank wrote:
@SomeLewesian: I have never heard of 'Teams, or Slack, or similar', I assume it's an age thing. Many of the 'characters' from the old Lewes Forum were of a certain age and I think were eventually scared off by the abuse, registration and the final nail in the coffin: the egocentricity of TP. I would imagine that they are the 'socially distanced with their friends' now which is a shame and certainly not a 'saturation of opportunity elsewhere'.
On 8 Jan 2022 at 6:07pm David Stanley wrote:
There was quite a lot of stuff about the hunt on Lewes Present and the other Lewes fb pages. Almost everybody is anti nowadays except a few forelock tuggers as far as I can see.
On 8 Jan 2022 at 7:09pm Nevillman wrote:
I agree with Frank and sadly don't know where the other opportunities to discuss topics are either. Please can you let us know where they are somelewesian.
I did see some stuff about the hunt on Lewes present David but not a huge amount and symes was up to his usual tricks of deciding what he would and wouldn't allow people to say. That is no basis for a forum and I am in fact banned from it anyway for questioning symes about his censorship.
As for your comment Tom please allow me to confirm that I am not open minded on the subject of whether you are an asset to this forum or not. You are not. Like Frank I suspect many have left the forum because of your posts. I have spent considerably longer trying to understand your posts than I'm sure you have of others. I can't help feeling your style would be more suited to a blog. Why don't you try that?
On 8 Jan 2022 at 9:03pm Tom Pain wrote:
For an experiment, why don't you start a blog? Having been banned from one site, perhaps looking at yourself and wondering why might be a more constructive activity than focusing your attention on me and suggesting I should be banned from this one.
On 8 Jan 2022 at 11:08pm Nevillman wrote:
I most certainly did not suggest you be banned from this forum. I am a passionate believer in free speech and would defend your right to post on this forum to the end. I have never objected to anything you've said either merely pointed out that as with your last post you show no evidence of having read the post you are responding to and that unlike in this case it is almost certainly in the wrong place and interrupting and often destroying a debate on another topic entirely.
On 11 Jan 2022 at 10:39am SomeLewesian wrote:
@Frank I see your point. Yes, perhaps a significant number of people have just decided to re-evaluate what is important in their lives, and having everything pointlessly interrupted with crack-pottery is just not on their list any more.
There is also less happening. Ask a lot of people "how was your Christmas?" and rather than a range of stories of places visited and people met, it is a story of staying in to have some time with close ones.
Perhaps the forum is more an extension of in-person events and discussions - which happened less, and so fewer posts. Maybe it will pick up again as we all venture out more..
On 15 Apr 2022 at 7:00am SomeLewesian wrote:
I found them. They're all on Nextdoor.