Thread 1 - Lifeboat Muster Point for TalkExiles

[Kucinghitam]

Gather here all ye refugees from the foundering ship of JTT, if ye be in need of "How the heck do I format my post?" "Why can't I edit my typos?" "What do those acronyms mean?" and most importantly, "Where is everybody that I used to know?"

Or just to chat randomly.

I don't think this thread should be closed (not that we could) to those from the other place with differing views as long as they aren't here to continue the scrap.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm happy to chat with people like HelenS who engage in a friendly fashion and I think it would be a shame if social circles were entirely defined by 1 issue.

Although I can undstand if people need a bit more dust settling time.

I agree, Bint. But it's not my choice to make.

That is a mighty confusing lift.

I have nothing more to say on the JTT debate, what's done is done. People have their positions now.

Like Tass it was less the subject that drove me away, but how disgreement was handled. And now with a week or so away, I see with fresh eyes how so many politics and policy discussions on JTT have become stale and self limiting as everyone more or less has a settled view and a self assigned role. The thread of evil was genuinely engaging as people were being challenged and had to give more intellectual thought to evidence and their own settled views than they were probably used to on JTT.

Oh and I think the thread should be open to anyone who wishes to drop in and say hi. Obviously. I have no wish to police any elses views, thoughts or intentions.

Well done thread! It's the lift in my mum's apartment block - multicultural country with a large Chinese minority, and so the number 4 (sorry, 3A) is avoided.

Extra points for knowing that it is because in many Chinese dialects the word for 4 sounds similar to the word for death.

Extra extra points for knowing that the number 8 is auspicious because it sounds like the word for prosperity.

all round!

Hello everyone, particularly (as was) Gracenote/d!

Here are a couple of macman’s garden sculptures.

@MissLawls excellent choice, love the vegan cocoa nights (?) choc they do.

@MavisMcMinty wow, stumped for words. Macman is insanely skilled.

Yes I love them too @CyanCyan though I am not a vegan! But I love dark chocolate and I particularly love those truffles. I think truffles are the best chocolates in the world. So kind to the teeth, so cruel to the waistline! But it's nearly Christmas so...

The spider is (was, its legs rotted away) about 7’ high, made with an upside down trunk/branches from an ash tree and a neighbour’s thrown out copper boiler.

I really want a 7-foot high spider garden sculpture!

Macman's spider is quite terrifying, Mavis!

@CyanCyan Sorry to hear you also had a tragic imposter cat experience, but secretly slightly relieved that I'm not the only one who's found it so upsetting many years on.

I expect there will be quite a few drop-ins from the other board for performative/rubber-necking (and genuinely friendly) reasons. It's an open thread, after all.

The research elves on the QI talk forums research threads (not visible to regular posters sadly, but I moderate those forums so I kick into research too) discovered that the Chinese (or I should say one Chinese as there are many Chinese languages) word for 5 sounds like ha, and have taken to writing 55555 for laughter. I hope we haven't been getting it wrong all this time!

secretly slightly relieved that I'm not the only one who's found it so upsetting many years on.

It’s the grief for what might have been, I think. It hit me again when I got my cat last year. I had never felt so much love for anything in my life (am childless) and now I view my brief time with beautiful Imposter Cat through an even sadder lens.

Maybe I'm like the Fox with the grapes, but when I pop back to The Old Place to have a gander, I see it with fresh eyes, so am just not that interested any more. There are such closed minds with regard to The Subject - plus so much ignorant vitriol, & I now I feel their closed mindset in every thread.

Quite sweet that they are possibly planning to have The Subject in its own cesspit/silo - will there be anyone left to discuss it if it is allowed?

First night with a nervous but curious kitten K

I have felt like this for a while and didn’t post much for the last six months or so as a result. I had a break due to having lots to do IRL, and when I went back I found I didn’t really have anything to say. It could do with some new life to shake things up a bit. Their stance on That Subject That Shall Not Be Discussed means I won’t be going back, but I will of course miss some lovely posters.

Hmm. 5 doesn't sound like ha in any of the Chinese dialects I speak, but as you say there are a great many Chinese dialects. But, I'm sceptical, because there's usually some detectable similarity between dialect words.

There's plenty of good people there who are giving of their time to try to get some kind of show on the road, and I get that, but what's been said (and not just by Jts) can't be unsaid. It does seem a bit of a phoney war at the moment, much fewer posts as people realise The End Of Times approaches? I'll wait and see, but I'm not optimistic.

Oh! Oh! @Britinme ! I have very exciting information to impart to your QI elves...

I have just WhatsApped my brother about this - he says to tell the QI elves that the 55555 for hahahaha laughter thing is Thai. Source: he speaks Thai, is married to a Thai wife, and when he's not working lives in Thailand.

Thank you Kuc! I will pass that on. It could be that I have misremembered the origin as the meme has circulated there for some time now, but I'll check before I make an idiot of myself (won't be the first time...)

My husband (10smith) is still posting on JTT, mainly because there are particular threads that he likes - the weather thread, anything to do with railroads, many UK politics threads.

I'd never heard of the 4 thing, but 8 is pretty well-known I think, there was even a TV ad that referenced it IIRC.

I have a lot of friends in the old country and many more who I admired from afar but rarely/never interacted with.
I think the place will be just fine, for the near future, and I'm genuinely glad about that.
I'm so sorry that we/they lost so many topp people, and I'm really sad to see that many seem to not care or even be glad.

@CyanCyan Your kitten is adorable! I totally get the retrospective extra sadness.

This is quite funny - www.mumsnet.com/talk/rural_living/4688838-smells-from-farm