Lifeboat Muster Point for TalkExiles - Thread 2

[Kucingsparkles]

Continuation of previous thread.

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 have been quietly replaying the Thread of Hatred in my mind, because I do miss some of the discussions at the old place, and I'm still intensely angry at the way women have been casually excluded.

I have been trying to form a view as to whether the posts, posters or thread itself (whatever that means - see below) were "transphobic". I can't remember a single post that was transphobic in the "normal" sense of attacking transpeople, and of course no accuser was ever able to point to such a post. But one poster there believed that the thread itself was transphobic - presumably because of some unwritten assumptions, beliefs or values that he judged were present and offensive.

I suspect the only such intangible could be the rejection of TWAW. Which is equivalent to saying, no, that isn't the body of Christ, it's a bit of stale wafer.

Tricycle:

Apart from that, I support the NHS wholeheartedly. I wouldn't have reached the age of four without them. I also watched my dad work his arse off as an NHS GP, up half the night when he was on call and then going to work as usual in the morning. He racked up 45 years of that.

Blimey! But same here - neither angelica nor I would even be here sucking up oxygen at all without the service. I usually call it "the service" in my work to emphasise that value. But right at the top of that management pole, where the grease is thick and rancid, it's more of a disservice.

I think I’ve been unlucky with the NHS. They’ve been beyond awful for my gynaecological conditions and they weren’t very helpful when I had complications from surgery. I have a nice GP and radiologist but apart from that I don’t have anything very positive to say, I wish I did. Maybe it’s because the bulk of my use of the service has been in the last few years.

Very sorry indeed to hear that, Cyan. It's far from perfect.

I'd recommend to anyone who is unhappy to take it through the complaints channel. This is often a bureaucratic process, but where somethng has wrong we need to know. At the very least, it helps to get a conversation going with the staff. Never looking for blame* but to find ways to make it better.

• because it's rare to find wilful bad actions and very common to find failing systems.

Good staff are not afraid of complaints, complaints are one of the ways we find out we're not doing things right. So I say complain, not just to the hospital but to the CQC as well.

"My wife had her gall bladder done at the Freeman, 4 years ago. She said that the food was really good!"

The Freeman, though it is practically next door to where I work, is a different Trust, so probably have different suppliers. I may end up working there in the near future as I will be looking for a new job when I move.

I have been quietly replaying the Thread of Hatred in my mind, because I do miss some of the discussions at the old place, and I'm still intensely angry at the way women have been casually excluded.

I've been thinking about how a board owned and run by just one person can easily get into trouble when that one person decides what is and isn't hateful or free speech @angelico53 and how what happened at JtT is similar in a way to what's happening at Twitter right now. One owner. And one upon whose feelings users depend. It's a bit scary if you need to use a social media platform to know that your ability to post on it could be removed by a quirk of fate; of that one person who owns it taking against you for whatever reason. Could be entirely arbitrary. Like working for a boss whose quixotic moods govern whether you have a good working day, a bad one or a truly terrifying one.

The talkboard doesn't matter in the great scheme of things save that many of us found friendship and enjoyment there. What happened is a terrible shame and shameful but we can and have found other places. What's happening at Twitter is much more worrying. But same rules apply to both sites; the tiny talkboard and the vast Twitter platform. One person's gaff. They let you in and let you speak freely or they don't, depending on their mood. And haven't many of us had to live with someone like that at some point in our lives? A teacher, parent, friend, partner, co-worker, boss, child!?

JtS = Elon Musk?

JtS = Elon Musk?

Well he behaved just like him didn't he @SqueakyDinosaur

@Dotellhimpike I think the fact the meals are pre made off site is exactly the issue. My friend said, for example, she cannot have the pasta with tomato sauce (which would be ideal for her at the moment) as it has cheese on top and it cannot be ordered without.

Some names from the distant past mentioned today! I remember lucicle from the old FU (Film) days. And a few of the others, too.

In case Tricyrtis shows up. We used to be banned from mentioning Thor on JtT because there was a belief that the poster of that name had forced the closure of GUT after threatening/taking legal action in response to a slanderous and abusive pile-on.

I have no idea whether the lawsuit happened, but have absolutely no problem believing in the abuse and slander, from the same bully boys that closed down the thread of evil.

That was not evil.

I'm curious as to how the new board without its original owner will navigate this. I believe it's going to have several new owners now which strikes me as a good idea. And new moderators. New one starts in February I believe.

A great sadness about all this is that the usual hardship thread isn't running this year. It ran for five years at Christmas and once during the pandemic too. At one time it raised £1300 which is a staggering amount for such a small community. Was a lovely initiative by GreenFuture. And it's one of many losses if the board had closed down, a point I made in the thread JtT started about why he was closing it down unless certain posters didn't just leave but were ran off the boards!

Thanks, elderberry. I've long wondered what all the fuss was about!

The Th*r story became even more bizarre. He ended up being arrested and in Thai prison for several weeks on remand over a case of extortion, he finally made bail which he promptly jumped as he was smuggled out of Thailand. Despite being a fugitive he then became Chairman of Leyton and Wanstead Conservative Association and was named in a dossier of Islamophobic Tories. There are some even weirder things by/about him online.

Is all that true @Kerebus ???

Oh yes.

As far as I recall, it is. He changed his real name to Thor, as well.

Good grief! However I think it's a myth he broke GUT. It was going down anyway; had been for a long time. That's why a lifeboat was set up.

Blimey, what a strange story. I had no idea it was this weird.

The Gruain did print an apology the same day they closed GUT so I think it'd be wrong to say he had no effect. Whether the Guardian were happy to close it is another matter, I've seen speculation that it was a handy excuse to close a non monetisable part of their online operation but I'm not convinced of that.

I don't know that it was ever established that he had closed them, by threatening to sue, but he did brag about it on the boards.

Bit of both I suspect. I miss the old board, the real one. It was never the same afterwards; just a pale imitation.

I was careful to only post stuff that's verifiable but if you google his full name there's even weirder shit out there.

I have no idea what his real name is, Kerebus.

I've PM'd you. Didn't want to post it in full on here as naming is summoning....