Silvia Bluejay

I agree, Ped. And there are threads like this in every single forum I've ever been on. Tthe forum I've been on longest, for 11 years, has had scores of threads similar to this one throughout the years, but is still there, and thriving, and using the same ancient software which everyone hates because it's old-fashioned - but clearly not crap enough to stop them all posting and debating like mad. (That last observation is aimed to those of us here who hate this new interface and sometimes feel they'll have to stop posting because of it.)

I'm a newbie here but a veteran on other forums (for instance, I've been a member of one of them for 11 years now), and I can assure you that the vocal majority on any site does tend to change as time goes by. It's not always a case of evolution, sometimes (often?) it's actually involution, for instance if many of the good old posters are driven away by new, aggressive posters who, however, aren't aggressive enough for the mods to justify kicking them out altogether. Other times it's life that gets in the way, for instance in those cases where many of the regulars are more or less the same age and leave school/find a new job/get married/have kids or whatever. Doesn't apply here, though. Any forum needs to hit the right balance between technical/specialised topics and general interest threads in order to retain a wide audience. Controversy usually puts bums on seats, so to speak, so in general (but not necessarily here) some troublemakers are tolerated unless they seriously cross the line. I voted against the reputation system here, but my impression is that it's been up for too little time to have a big influence on the atmosphere on the forum - happy to stand corrected if I'm talking rubbish... I have no solution to suggest, but I would like to say that, judging from what I've seen in my first few weeks as a member, I like this community, and yes, it definitely [b]is[/b] a community. As such, I'm sure it will assimilate the new arrivals and move on with no lasting damage.

LOL

Heh. I use my left hand for the knife and my right one for the fork, and put the fork in my left hand when I put down the knife. I use my left hand for the mouse. Incidentally, regarding the dearth of lefty models we mentioned earlier, why is it that German manufacturers seem to have no problem offering more choice than their US and UK counterparts? Think of Paul McCartney's Hohner, even back then in the 60s, and Warwick basses, most of which come in both versions and at exactly the same price. Edit - I'm a thoroughly lousy typist and I can't even blame my left-handedness for that!

Exactly - if both teacher and student play right-handed (or left-handed), it's less easy to look at each other's fretboard because they don't face each other.

Blimey, my brain hurts just thinking about that... I found it hard enough to learn a mirror image of chords and scales from right-handed illustrations in books, and apply them to a normal lefty bass! (That's where having a righty bass teacher helps - much easier to sit facing him and look at his fingers while he's playing!)

Nah, I've had the sexist police after me before (not on this forum), and not liked it, and I'm a woman...

Don't worry Dave, I did add a smiley, as mine was a tongue-in-cheek remark too. There are fashion victims and vain individuals in both genders! And I know that what you guys were saying was in good humour.

Or your ostrich-skin gig bag, maybe!

Loving the thread but I find the comment about the missus slightly sexist! I have a guitarist friend (male) who only plays dark-coloured instruments because, in his view, they look smaller. As he's a little chap, he prefers not to be swamped by his guitar...

Bless. I just wish all of us played left-handed, as that would give companies an incentive to market more lefty models. I'm a lefty who was taught to write with her right hand 'by mistake', apparently (I was very little and they hadn't realised...). That's bad enough an experience for an entire lifetime, so my bass guitars are all lefty, and the upright I bought right-handed is now a lefty as well, after I spent an afternoon re-stringing, bridge overturning/filing and nut filing/adjusting with cork some time last year. I love it. I tried righty basses when I was a beginner; while my left hand felt like it could easily learn to both pluck and fret, the right hand simply appeared to refuse to learn how to pluck, so lefty it was from then on...

And I'm [size=1]tiny[/size].

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' timestamp='1321729557' post='1442567'] It's only when you meet a man and see what he is really like that you can form an opinion, not on a silly forum (not saying this forum is silly, mind you) I mean not on an internet social site where what's behind the screen can be either good or evil. [/quote] Aherm. Works the same with a woman too. And yes, of course you're correct. However, you do get a glimpse of what each person is like from the way they write - it may take a little while, but even your most monosyllabic posts contribute to creating an image of you for those who take the time to notice. I am a member of several local forums, and we have regular real life meetups, and my impressions of each poster's character have been relatively correct so far. It's harder to imagine someone's physical aspect (unless they provide a photo), but sometimes you can sort of guess that too!

LOL and sigh!

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1321728344' post='1442528'] Well the way I'm reading it at the moment it stands at: 23 9 28 That's 32 people that want to be able to like 9 People that want to be able to dislike 28 People that don't want to be able to do either I don't know how the mods are going to do this but that is how I would [/quote] Fair enough, but it could then be argued that the poll offers two options in favour versus only one against, which is not, after all, fair enough

It's the weekend. May I suggest you guys leave this poll up for more than just three days?

Will the votes be counted like that? I thought that each option stood by itself and that the one with the most votes would be adopted. But I do get your point that for number of voters, there are more who favour one flavour of the system than dislike the system completely.

? My view shows most votes being on the "Deactivate all" line...

By the way, I would favour the "Like the post" system, but then it would be nice/useful if the names of those liking the post could be seen by hovering the mouse on the number of likes, as on FB. Anonymous likes would be a bit of a waste, as those who would want to be known to agree with something being said would still have to Me-too the relevant post. OK, now I'll stop mentioning FB, promise

[quote name='Machines' timestamp='1321701778' post='1442091'] I think the like thing is a bit of an ego thing. But it's handy on threads where someone makes a good point in a discussion or says something funny - people can identify with them without the need to post a response with something like '+1' which is a waste of a post. If it could be done that way without it having to tally total likes on someone's profile I think that would be ideal. [/quote] That's the reason I at first favoured the Like Only system (as seen on FB, where it only appears on the relevant post/comment and not on the profile). My actual vote, against the system as a whole, assumed that it would stay in its present form and the likes/dislikes still be counted on members' profiles. If what Machines describes can be done, then I support the idea.

In the end I voted to get rid of the whole reputation caboodle. This isn't Facebook (luckily)! Better to have to add a few me toos or +1s than help fragmentaion and discord. Thank you admin guys/mods for allowing us to vote.

Thank you BigBeatNut and Discreet - will keep your advice and those '[size=4]ê's handy for next time I have to tackle a language I don't speak in a post [/size] xx

I find the site very slow on all the machines I use it, no matter what OS, processor or amount of RAM they have (I have 3 PCs at home). It was faster on that day when it reverted to the default scheme, which was minus the Basschat-specific customisation and the ads. I suspect that the latter are mostly to blame for slow performance and glitches. Then again, we're using the site for free thanks to them I guess.

[quote name='algmusic' timestamp='1321372912' post='1438373']I guess in an ideal world I'd have all these options... hhmm GAS [/quote] Heh... I have tiny hands and fingers (yes, I know, not quite the correct physique du role for a bassist - tough, I guess). That means the spacing of a 5 helps (although the neck width doesn't). In general, it's excellent to see how very individual each of us is regarding sound, setup, tuning taste and just about everything else. There's lots to learn from each other's posts, experience, suggestions, idiosyncracies and even betes noires* * Apologies to French speaking folks, my usual Alt+0234 method is not producing an e circumflex here.

LOL - it gets sillier and sillier. :-/