Random Stuff!

[Coathanger16]

Hi everyone,

Thought Random Stuff! is the best place to post this rant as there isn't a dedicated page for this topic, but I want your thoughts on this

I've reduced how much I've been posting recently on F4A for what I believe is good reason.

I've noticed, and I won't name names, but the BHX forums are becoming a bit belligerent. By this I mean the game of airport top trumps seems to be getting out of hand (I feel sorry for Ray, He's stuck in the middle trying his best to stop it boiling over)

I've also noticed what I regard as hardly significant facts and figures that are like splitting hairs are dividing people in a normally very welcoming community.

I believe as a community people on here should stop being so hostile to each other, and stop with the childish "my airports better than yours!" argument, it's quite frankly immature.

Each airport is different from the next, they all have unique advantages and drawbacks and this is why I think the facts and figures are all a bit useless, no true direct comparison can be made between two routes from different airports as there is always a multitude of factors that influence a routes performance other than total pax count or yield, and those other factors might I add are hardly ever taken into account.

We should all let the people who are paid (silly money) to stress and argue over the figures do so, rather than yourselves.

I hope you can all appreciate my viewpoint and why I felt the need to type this out. I've probably opened up a whole new can of worms here but I'm just trying to shake some respect back between each BHX forum user. I hope our community within F4A can return to how it was when I first joined.

Again, top work to you Ray staying on top of things and stepping in when arguments get out of hand.

If you disagree with any of what I've said, I'd love to discuss this as that's what forums are for. But please keep it friendly!


Edit: Sorry leaving it this late at night to say something! I was in two minds as to whether make this post

Fully agree with this sentiment.

I've recently been on other forum sites (on other topics), and if you think things have been bad on F4A recently you ain't seen nothing!

Seriously petty stuff on other sites even getting to the point of members accusing other members of false identity/posting using multiple profiles.

Made me think how lucky we are on F4A that things are for the most part very well mannered and welcoming.

Maybe me being petty but when I first posted on another site there were no comments about me being new, no welcome to the site and barely got any replies (probably as I wasn't a 'regular').

Compare that to F4A and whenever someone new join's and makes a post I still get surprised by the number of people that welcome them to the forum.

Think maybe the recent 'spats' on here have been because not much is going on, certainly compared to when I joined when there were regular posts on the Route Development & Rumours page about actual new route rumours. Hopefully once the B word is taken out of play things may return to normal!

 

[Ray Finkle]

GP, I think many of us feel the same and it is a real shame that for some people it has to be that way.

Overall I think we have a very friendly and welcoming forum and we try our best to keep it that way. FFA is not heavily moderated and that is the way that all of us would like it to remain. For that to happen we are reliant on posters showing courtesy and respect to each other along with restraint when the wind up merchants surface. For me personally it is always a tough decision when deciding whether to intervene. A healthy debate is one thing and something that is to be encouraged but it can be a very fine line between stepping in to stop things getting silly and effectively censoring someones opinions. We may not always get it right but we try our best.

You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

 

[GliderPilot]

great to see the community coming together again already, its the people that keep me coming back to F4A!

 

[Ianbutty]

We have our disputes but it remains within reasonable bounds and we maintain dignity and respect..

Anyone reading the idiocy on the BBC HYS about the A380 will no doubt agree that when we get shouty we ain't as bad as that.

I am off from Souf'end on Sunday. Squeasyjet to Malaga. Yummy.

 

[JENNYJET]

To argue is to put your case and back it with evidence whilst also taking in and dissecting the opposing argument. That is what was drummed in at Law School. To get abusive, ratty or dismissive does nothing but reveal weakness. A good number of trials are lost this way.

I am NOT referring to any individual or subject of interest but urge members to keep our forum friendly and robust if necessary, this is why I belong despite my inability to visit the airfield for health reasons.

 

[JENNYJET]

On another immediate matter, am I alone in being unable to get FR24 this morning? A big beast overflew my place en route to Brize, 4 engines and a T tail. C5 or C17 yet FR was unobtainable to check it out.

 

[Jerry]

On another immediate matter, am I alone in being unable to get FR24 this morning? A big beast overflew my place en route to Brize, 4 engines and a T tail. C5 or C17 yet FR was unobtainable to check it out.

Fr24 doesn't usually do military in my experience.

 

[finchy168]

Here's hoping the Mighty Moors get a good attendance today with Blues not playing.

 

[JENNYJET]

Not usually Jerry and thank you, but the large transports are picked up e.g. traffic around the US bases in Eastern England together with Brize Norton and Fairford. I actually wanted to check what was on the ground subject to getting access to the website!!

I regularly pick up the RNAF KC10s over the North Sea and RAF Voyager, in support of QRA incidents, yes sad but I do have a lot of time to spare for keeping track etc.

 

[JENNYJET]

I have set a reminder on my FREEVIEW for 8PM on BBC4 tonight.

Planes that changed the World, the story of B747.

 

[BHX492]

Question: on the last day of the United airline did the plane move gates

 

[Brum X]

Its always home sweet home for me when I exit New Street Station and see our iconic 60's skyscraper.

I left Lichfield in thick fog and arrived into Birmingham in dazzling spring sunshine. Our weather is weird at times.

 

[wolfheze]

The Rotunda for me has been THE symbol of Birmingham since I was a small child. To think that there was talk of it being demolished some years ago. Never been in it myself but my sister worked there after leaving school. Quite often she would go for a drink after work and can well remember the tense wait with my mum and dad on the night of the pub bombings to see if she would arrive home ok. Luckily that night she'd gone straight to the bus station.

 

[Ray Finkle]

The Rotunda for me has been THE symbol of Birmingham since I was a small child.

I just wish they'd finish it

 

[JENNYJET]

Yes, The Rotunda IS Birmingham. A shame it has not been a tourist attraction, the view from top is probably quite good.

What I cannot remember is that other Rotunda that lives in Los Angeles? A record company I believe?

 

[finchy168]

Capital Records

 

[JENNYJET]

Thank you Finchy, I see it often enough in the movie Volcano but my memory is fading these days!

 

[Ianbutty]

Hoorrayyy. The BBC has run a good and well balanced piece on the great city today:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-47310204

The headline at first looks like an "oh here we go again" piece, but actually it highlights the need for all to benefit from prosperity and the efforts rightly being made to do so.

Love the financial sector boom who's who section.

Kick in teeth right at the end for the Blues, Baggies and Villians fans though. Cant just helping pointing out how rubbish we are at football.....we know!

 

[JENNYJET]

Interesting piece but why ‘‘brutalist central library'' ? I am old enough to remember the old library, dark, Dickensian and run by dragons but architecturally beautiful to look at, similar to the old General Post Office the sat proudly atop of Hill Street.

When the 'carbuncle' opened I was won over by the bright air conditioned environment with an easy to navigate reference section bright enough not to get eye strain. It provided a contrast to the GrecoRoman Town Hall.

With the water feature outside it became a pleasant respite from the scrummage that was New Street and the smoky busses.

The 1970s were not so bad in Birmingham city centre.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Kick in teeth right at the end for the Blues, Baggies and Villians fans though. Cant just helping pointing out how rubbish we are at football.....we know!

You're pretty good compared with us. You have to come to the West Country to understand the meaning of being rubbish at football. That's the only football-related subject in which we are champions. Nowhere is worse than us - going all the way back to the late 19th Century.