My reason for shying away from the forum are two fold.Firstly I was rushed into hospital last year for a heart procedure, and was told by the surgeon that I was a lucky man.Made me think about a lot of things in the days and weeks after. I found I just didn't have the will to come on to the forum any more to be heckled and called names, to have meanings put into words that were never there, to have things twisted .I was not one for keeping quiet and did get involved when saying nothing would have been the better option.But that's not me. Like someone once said in a post, if things said on the forum were said face to face it would lead to more than one invite outside to get it settled.
Secondly the forum is a shadow of what it once was,but that 's not to say it cannot be once more. There was fun to be had,alongside local news and interesting facts to learn about the town and surrounding area in the history thread.
Brilliant posters like General Jack, Sheik Yir Erse,WC1,Emdee,Petewick and Sweltered are a few that come to mind.
Returning to the thread topic ,the forum is not dead , it just needs posts on subjects that other members will find interesting enough to reply and not feel that they will be ridiculed( the slurry spreading post for example).
As for out of towners and expats not being made welcome, that is just ridiculous .The way I see it is that some people make themselves unwelcome.
Going back to my health,don't think I am invalided,far from it.I have been on three foreign holidays this year , with one more next month,and of course my trip back home a few weeks ago.
One wee thing to my sparring partner GovanGirl..........everything I posted in the Margaret Thatcher thread was a wind up.