Just a quick one, I posted a reply last night to a reply I had received in one of the topics I was currently engaged in. It was at about midnight or maybe 1am. The replay didnt appear, and the original comment dissappeared at this time.
Its not a huge problem to me, I was wondering if there was anything amiss with the reflector. Neither comment was inflamatory in any way shape or form so ther would have been nor reason for a deletion and someone would have had to had been reading mine before I posted it as it never even made it to the reflector :).
The original post may have been by M(G)1AZC but I could be massively wrong about the callsign for which I do appologise.
The post was about whether an “non-prolific” activator/chaser’s opinions were any less valid than a prolific one. To whihc I replied that I agreed that the opinion wasn’t any less valid just the imposition of my view through a one man one vote system could penalise someone with far more to gain or lose than myself.
Ian, I did not remove that post and there is no indication that any other member of the MT did so, so we must put it down to one of those odd glitches that happen from time to time.
I agree, it looked as though the posts had gone back to an earlier time, as though a backup had been restored or such like. I am not too worried about it. Just thought I;d point it out in case there was anything that needed to be looked at before any problem became worse.
It was me. I am on night shift offshore & had some time to kill. After posting the comment & pondering for a while, I deleted it so as not to perpetuate the thread. I also deleted an activation report which raised no replies a few days ago, leaving a copy on the relevant database page, instead of cluttering the reflector.
73, Derek
G1ZJQ
On further thought, deleting all my posts will free up some bytes somewhere & clear up much drivel that seemed good at the time of writing. I shall avoid posting from now on & stick to database only.
I thought it was a very fair and well made point being made and my reply was only my point of view
I didnt realise till now that if you deleted your post,then it deleted my reply. It makes sense though as the reply is gibberish without the original question.
Many thanks for clearing it up and ensuring I donk think I am going tottally crazy
The post was about whether an “non-prolific” activator/chaser’s opinions
were any less valid than a prolific one.
It’s an interesting point Ian. I strongly believe everybody’s view should be respected even if you don’t agree with it. But validity brings a whole new set of issues. I’ve been up twice as many summits (give or take) than you for SOTA. I don’t think that makes my opinion twice as valid as yours. There again, I don’t how much mountaineering/hillwalking you’ve done outside of SOTA. It would be churlish to base any validity criterion on such a limited data set.
Where the profilic activator’s view becomes more valid is where you have someone with limited experience on the hills who is suggesting something which is at best foolhardy and worse, down right dangerous. At that point experience really does need to be respected. But there again perhaps you only appreciate the danger due to experience.
It’s a subject fraught with problems and contradictions. All you can do, as I said, is treat all opinions with respect and if you disagree, politely say why and ask for the other person to persuade you why they are right. That also requires that in a forum environment like this that you’re good with written words and can express your argument lucidly which is not easy at all. I’ve looked back on things I’ve written and sometimes I think it would make more sense if I’d just hit random keys. Some of the statements made on the reflector in the past can be read as being rude, insulting and abusive when that wasn’t the intent. Sadly, there are also some people who are simply rude, insulting and abusive. But that doesn’t include thee and me!
Very good points, Andy, and the only part that I have the slightest problem with is “Where the profilic activator’s view becomes more valid is where you have someone with limited experience on the hills who is suggesting something which is at best foolhardy and worse, down right dangerous” and that only because you assume that extensive experience in the hills goes hand in hand with being a prolific activator. This is not necessarily the case!
I must confess that I worry sometimes about the scenario where somebody with no hill walking experience gets bitten by the SOTA bug and in his/her inexperience bites off more than can be chewed. An experienced hill walker has probably survived a few epics and knows that our hills can sometimes shed their benign aspect and throw something nasty at you! John YSS has written an excellent introduction on the website which everyone should read, but you only really understand the advice when you have experienced the down side!
because you assume that extensive experience in the hills
Yes, I should have clarified what I meant by prolific activator and someone like John was exactly who I was thinking about, somebody with extensive hillcraft.
No off for a nice stroll with Sarah although the WX looks rather grey and cool.
Totally agree with your point. Its a very difficult dilema for me to state an opinion on something where things like driving and petrol costs come into play when I dont do that much and so costs for sota are not as much as an issue for me as they are for some. That was my main point reagrding the prolific activator.
Open debate though is good and I have been swayed by many good arguements on here. Long may it continue.
When all is said and done, it’s a hobby and I beleive that everyone who makes points either one way or another is doing so to make it more fun. It is hard sometimes to get the spirit of a message across and sometimes they can appear rude, but that is one of the pitfalls of forums, you can’t glean the facial expressions or the glint in the eye of the person writing and can miscontrue meaning all to easily.
The more experienced (and I include myself) also have a habbit of using emoticons without thinking about whether the reader can interprete them. Perhaps we should post a sticky list or the more common ones (smiley face if you read it sideways).
