What was this about the season of goodwill and tolerance?

I suspect that isn't too hard. Remove people with less than a few hundred posts and it probably gets trickier. Personally I don't see sarcasm as a bad thing anyway - and if it annoys iaink whilst still being within the rules, so much the better.

Here are what I think are the problems we have:

1 - Lack of new posters. I don't think this is because the forum has gone downhill as such, more that less people are emigrating now than a few years ago.

2 - Cliques. Inevitably there are lots groups and sub-groups here. This isn't a problem in itself, however, some of the groups ignore posts from outsiders rather than engaging with them.

Perhaps you should exercise some caution where you choose to apply your quote modifying "humour". Not everyone will see the joke.

1. I agree

2. As I said to Miss C, we are all (ok 99% of us) members of cliques. Its inevitable after you've been here a while. I do agree about certain members not engaging with the prols, but is that necessarily a bad thing?

See now I disagree with this - I suspect many of the so called cliques that are being referred to consist of members that have been here for a while.

With that in mind the majority of them (95%) are in Canada and have been for a while.

Newbies ask immigration questions that only those going through it presently are anywhere near 'qualified' to advise, so the established members refrain from answering due to lack of knowledge.

People who haven't moved ask questions like "why is Canada great", "why is Canada crap", "do I need thermal underwear" blah blah - and again the long standing members have seen these questions so many times that its tough not to resort to sarcasm.

Can I give a tip to a new member - yes absolutely, I would say that if you would like to get to know someone send them a bloody pm! That way you get to know the real person and i'll wager my life savings (granted thats f**k all) that you'll get a kind welcoming reply and won't feel so ostracised from the visible 'in' groups.

Sorry Iain, if what I did was against the rules sanction me. Otherwise I just don't understand what you're driving at.

There's lots of 'humour' on here that I don't find funny. I don't feel it should be pulled or stopped its a PERSONAL thing

I've seen threads where people (not even newbies) have tried to join conversations and have not got replies. It's not all the time, but just about often enough that I notice it (fwiw, this doesn't apply to you)

anyway - haven't we done enough navel gazing for one week? where's our BE awards? I have my speach prepared.

Ooh point taken, i'll just have a smoke and put the results up

Am I in a clique? With whom?

Now dbd, surely you aren't that naive.

Quiet you, those pleas of innocence do not cut it here.















now go take off i2c's thigh high boots and stockings and get novo et al a drink

LET ME SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU.

Under the rules you know so well by now, dont do anything you even remotely think might possibly cause the recipient of you humour to take offence or which could be seen as antagonistic, AND, if by some lapse of judgment on YOUR behalf that should happen, then man up and apologise to them.

(NB. That's not a sense of humour failure on their behalf, its a lapse of judgement on yours to not foresee the possibility of that situation),

See bodgerx above for just one of a hundred possible examples.

Well, yes, I don't think I'm in any sort of posting clique. I do see some posters IRL but we don't primarily discuss talkboards. I reject the notion.

People in cliques don't normally think they are in cliques though do they. Reject away, it makes no difference to us clique-boy.

They do on Gossip Girl.