International I Hate Sports Club

Hello everyone. This post is going to be a little long and irrelevant to any matter on this forum but I feel inclined to make it as a way of showing how friendly a forum we are compared to certain others on the internet.

I have been a member of an Ashes to Ashes forum since 7 May. The name I will not mention, but I'd hardly say they've been particularly kind to me as a member. I sometimes find myself submitting posts in certain threads, going to check out that thread later and find my post is mysteriously gone. That has happened today already. Obviously I don't put any shitty comments towards other users in there or mention anything wildly irrelevant to the topic yet somehow, my posts keep disappearing. It's somewhat insulting to me. I have also been threatened with a ban on one thread for using German in my posts - they obviously seem to have it in for Germans over at that forum. Personally I love Germany and hope to go over there sometime in the future. I was actually planning to go over earlier this year at some point (which I believe I mentioned in the able2know sports haters' thread) but as such, financial problems prevented me from doing so, plus February is not a particularly good time for holidays anyway. I'd rather go at a time of year when it is warmer, or at least not bloody freezing. Anyway, returning to the point, I was warned officially by one of the forum mods for talking German. A bit excessive, oder?

So, certain posts of mine mysteriously vanishing and a contempt for the German language on behalf of the forum mods getting me a warning. Hardly kind treatment of a member. Nonetheless, I continued posting as I do like Ashes to Ashes. It was a great show when it was on, it made many otherwise dull evenings exciting for me and Gene Hunt is one of the greatest TV characters in British television. As a fan of the show and prolific new poster I thought I'd have a good reputation there but something that happened today really took the cake. I clicked on a certain thread talking about 80's cars and saw that somebody was planning to have this car get sent in for an MOT and hopefully drive it on the road:

Link

I of course submitted a comment expressing my surprise at how this would be allowed and received a reply saying it was 100% legal. Yeah sure, the owner was planning to cover up the light bar on top but what about the insignia on the side? Personally if I was out driving this thing, even with the light bar covered up I'd expect to be pulled over by a real police officer due to the car's real resemblance to a police car, even if not a current issue police car! So I submitted a response to THAT comment stating that I was surprised at the legality of this and now I have received a new response from one of the forum mods me to "Stop bugging the owner" and that my posts could be interpreted as "trolling". What a load of old crap! I am merely stating an opinion that I am surprised a car like this would be accepted for an MOT and allowed on the road given its resemblance to a police car! I am not "trolling" anyone! It's obvious they've never had to suffer the 4channers unlike our forum has; they seem to be incapable of understanding what a real troll is or does.

Anyways, to sum up, I shall not be posting on that forum anymore. They seem to have a contempt for me even though I have done nothing to deserve this and have often identified myself as a hardcore 80's and Ashes to Ashes fan. Yes, I talk German a lot on forums over the internet. I see no rules against it. On one comment welcoming a new user to the site I put something along the lines of "Herzliches Willkommen" on my post and when I returned later, it had vanished and I had to type out another message with no German, which was kept on, surprisingly enough. Several posts of mine disappear for no good reason. And now I'm called a troll for being surprised at how a car with more than a slight resemblance to a police car is being classed road legal. Well, thank you very much, everyone! I won't post on there if this is all I'm going to get. A few days back they made a birthday thread for some guy who signed up 16 months ago and never visited or posted once since, yet they didn't do the same for me or several of their other regular members. How nice! To sum up, I received better treatment over at the SPORTING NEWS forums than on their website. The guys at the SPORTING NEWS actually seemed to have a sense of humour when it came to me, unlike these people who clearly have it in for me. Perhaps this is why I should stick to posting about things I don't like rather than stuff like Ashes to Ashes which I genuinely do like. People seem to take me more seriously then.

Anyways, this goes to show what a kind forum we have running here. We don't threaten to ban people or delete posts just because the user may have thrown in a few foreign words in their message. We can differentiate between real trolling and a mere disagreement. We make birthday threads for our respected regular members who are interested in contributing to our website and getting to know the other members instead of people who sign up well over a year ago and don't leave a single post or even visit since. And we certainly don't accuse people of trolling when they're just stating a different opinion or are just having a little joke with us. I fail to see what I'm doing wrong on that website but perhaps they just don't like me. Perhaps I'm too boring or square for them. Perhaps they're too social IRL for me. Perhaps I'm a bit excessive in my 80's interest. Well, as a fan of Ashes to Ashes, I was glad I'd found a forum full of people who shared that interest. But it seems they don't want me round. Now I've reached 100 posts on there I think I'll sign off permanently. I managed to attain a new rank on there with 100 posts but some mod will probably go and pick off some posts of mine out of spite and get me back down again. Alienating a new, friendly member eh? I'm beginning to know how Andy, Tony and SportsGuy92 felt, and they were actually against the ideology of this website. I was all for talking about Ashes to Ashes on there but now I've been spectacularly blown out. Well BE LIKE THAT, then!

Sorry if my post was a bit long and rambling and doesn't serve much use to this website. I suppose the point I'm trying to make is how friendly the forum here is compared to others. We allow people to openly disagree with us and even insult us and even swear at us and won't instantly ban them. Yet on some places all you have to do is say you don't agree with something or other and make more than one post to prove this and you get a warning or even banned. Anyways, I'll shut up now. I'm glad to have found this forum, where it takes more than a few words of German and a disagreement with another user to earn a bad reputation for oneself.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

Good decision on discontinuing to post there. I could maybe understand someone asking to avoid speaking in a certain language whenever possible to avoid confusion, I may not side with someone who makes that kind of request, but it isn't a terrible point of view, however threatening to ban someone over just speaking a certain language briefly? Come on, they're being a bit excessive there. And accusing a respectable member of trolling just because they questioned the legality of driving a car with sirens and police symbols all over it? That's just crazy. I have no idea how a person could become a well respected member on that forum based on your post, because from what I know, you did nothing wrong, yet you still got treated in an almost hostile manner. Again, good decision on parting ways with that forum, it isn't worth your time.

And 4channers/sports bores, you accuse us of being intolerant? Obviously we are nowhere near intolerant compared to the guys running that forum.

Well, out of curiosity, I logged back onto my account late last night to see if I'd had any more posts deleted for no reason. I was right; two of my posts had been deleted since I last logged on about four hours beforehand putting me back down into the double-digit range and the lower rank. I can't remember the exact comments which were deleted but I know for a fact in my most recent posts I had spoke no German and stayed on-topic in each thread and been civil. I bet the fascists running the forum found my comment on this thread and decided to try and rub me up the wrong way even more by knocking my post count down a bit.

I also went and left a civil comment on their YouTube profile page a few weeks back. (Perhaps we should open a Sports Suck YouTube page?) Said they had a good forum, complimented them and tried to be nice, and as I expected, that comment has been deleted too. Thanks a lot, numbnuts!

I suppose this is what happens when the less-popular people like me try and fit in with a more social internet forum. We try our best to have a laugh with these people and seem interesting, and all our efforts are pushed back in our face and we get a load of crap chucked at us in return. Yeah, perhaps high school should have taught me not to bother with these socialites. I suppose the 13 years between the end of that and now have kind of made me forget things, eh? I'm trying to be things I'd never be. I'm trying to make friends with people who quite frankly couldn't give a fuck about any efforts I make to seem like an interesting, friendly guy. I'm called a troll because I think some car covered in police symbols and lights shouldn't be driven by an ordinary civilian on the road. The people who run the forum are oh so friendly to their long-time members who know the ropes on the forum more than well enough, but when a new guy with a slightly unique streak to him like me comes along, he becomes public enemy number one.

I should probably stick to forums like this where we talk about certain issues in society, in this case the negative effects of sporting obsession and culture. I feel I have a place here and I thank people for responding to my posts, taking an interest in what I have to say, wishing me a happy birthday which few others bothered to do and accepting people for what they are other than how they conform to the expectations of others. I am quite clearly suitable for the Ashes to Ashes forum given my strong interest in the show but they obviously don't like me.

Perhaps they typed my name into Google and looked at my posts on here. They probably laughed their heads off at the fact I was one of the main bully targets back in high school. They probably laughed at the fact I'm 29 years old and still living on my own. They probably laughed because I'm not exactly the social hit all of them seem to be. They probably laughed because I'm meant to like sports being a relatively young male. They probably think I bring a bad name to their social champion of a forum with my presence and seek to marginalise my post count. And the funniest thing is, they claim to be "the friendliest forum on the web" and "all are welcome". Well, sure. Just make sure you're popular IRL then you won't get your posts deleted whenever you make them!

I thought they'd have a place for me. They tell people to pull up a glass of "house rubbish" (champagne, probably) and come in. Yet as with every bloody social situation I get into, things go wrong for me. And it is just me. Everybody else has a blast and I am the only one who gets disregarded and not allowed to get a word in. I'm sorry, it's gone on for too long now, this. I'm tired of it. They don't like the fact I'm no social star? Well that's too damn bad, because it's people like them that made me this way.

Okay, tonight I'm going out to the gym so that'll take my mind off being rejected by another bunch of these socialites. I don't understand why I'm so bothered. I mean, it's only a forum on the internet. Plenty of others I could join. Plenty of others would take me. Plenty of others have done and have been alright to me. But not this one. Well, as I say, perhaps this is what happens when I try and get in with the popular crowd. I should know by now. All of the bloody showoffs in my life, though they're not the ones doing the bullying, wouldn't even bother to offer out a hand of friendship to me when they could quite clearly see I was having a crap time. Having read Earl's story in his most recent thread in the "Sports Suck" forum, I'm feeling slightly upset at truly realising what a bunch of moral cowards the socialites in my old high school were. I wish we could have had some people like that at my place. People who actually recognised the suffering of the weaker and made an effort to help. It makes me glad that there are socialites with good morals in this world, who have the decency to come and help those who really are in desperate need of it. I'm glad to know all of these so-called "showoffs" aren't as bad as each other. Just a shame that I never came across any people like this. It would have been very beneficial for me.

As far as I care, the socialites and the bullies are just as bad as each other. The latter cause the damage; the former hardly ever realise it and continue to date and befriend the latter without realising what a bunch of pathetic, thuggish morons they are. Any girl who went out with a bully of mine was just as bad as he was in my book. Two sides of the same rotten coin. Well, to hell with them. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I wish that the more popular people who aren't doing the bullying could at least use their safe position to help those who are being made to suffer. If I'd been a more popular person in high school, on good terms with goons picking on weaker students for their own amusement, I would have tried to help. I would have seen the wrong in what they were doing and offered my help in subduing the perpetrators and defending the victim. But hardly any do. They couldn't give a flying crap about anything other than PARTIES! BOOZE! SEX! DURRRRR.... They probably deem it as "not being their business" and "not their problem". Well the way I see it, anyone who thinks that way is no better than a common bully! It's hardly ever the victim's problem either yet for some reason they're having to endure a ton of shit being thrown at them! I wish most of the popular, non-bullying types were more like the person detailed in Earl's story. They have the power to do some good to those who are otherwise stuck on their own, and so they bloody well should! Anyone who just sits and lets bullying happen is as bad as those doing the bullying, as far as I care.

Anyways, went completely off-topic there. Half of that post would be best put in the "Inspiring story" thread but alas, it is here. Returning to the point, I shall not visit that forum anymore. You're right, HugeFanOfBadReligion. I'd say the manner in which I was treating was almost hostile. Merely expressing your opinion on something, trying to put a bit of a joke into your post (even at my own expense, which I don't mind)? and then accused of trolling? Yeah, I'd say it was somewhat hostile as well. So, the point is, they don't want me around. I tried my best. No other option but to walk out the door now. They can take their "house rubbish" and stick it up their arses. Thanks to this sad eventuality I'm discouraged from buying the Ashes to Ashes box set or even watching the show again having been given the cold shoulder by other fans FOR NO GOOD REASON. Well, I probably will buy it, but I'll just keep my thoughts and opinions on it to myself. Yes, don't let some bad responses put you off what you love. I mean, the 4chan trolls didn't put me off posting here, did they? And they certainly didn't put me off writing huge posts. Hell, look at the size of this one.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

I concur with all of your comments, i_like_1981. What you've got to remember, though, is that some, if not many, of the "social" people lose in the long run. In an e-mail or PM to you, I once mentioned a former junior-high classmate of mine whom I had admired (although we were not friends). We went to rival high schools, and he played football at his. Years later a friend of mine who graduated from that high school told me that this former junior-high classmate of mine had become the worst sort of bully. He had even tormented a mentally retarded classmate, which is about the lowest kind of bullying there is. Last year I learned that he had been married and divorced three times. So, his love life was in the tank. And, no, I'm not chortling about it. It's wrong to laugh about the misfortune of others.

I certainly agree with your comments about this website. Since I started posting early last year, I have established personal friendships with a number of the members of the forum. I frequently call Fat Man, greencom, and rotten on my cell phone and frequently correspond with several others by e-mail or PMs. I even had brief but friendly PM exchanges with Polite24 and SportsGuy92. Andy and I have had e-mail exchanges as well. So, we have our own little community here at this website.

Well, I have now signed up to a different forum where I can talk about both Ashes to Ashes and Life on Mars, whose spinoff was the former show. I hope that I will receive a kinder reception there.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

Wonder why I am typing in red? Check my post count.

Never mind writing in red, why do you always write your name in pink?

Skul wrote:Never mind writing in red, why do you always write your name in pink?

I was wondering when someone would ask me that. You do it with the sports bores all the time on here; I suppose it's a good way of drawing attention to one particular username. Might I ask why you chose the colour pink to represent particular sports bore usernames?

Best regards,
i_like_1981

I'd always been meaning to ask you, but it kept slipping my mind.

i_like_1981 wrote:Might I ask why you chose the colour pink to represent particular sports bore usernames?

Pink is usually thought of a "girly" and/or "gay" colour. Since the bores call us gay, I guess you could call it ironic justice.