In taking my own advice, bike/car interactions are part of the training/bicycle riding "community" in general. Debates on topics such as this are best held in general cycling forums, not informational forums for the local racing community. Obviously my beliefs are not fully agreed upon by all of the Mabra community but I know there are at least a handful who do. Chris, after an early post, continued his thoughts on the Racing Union Blog; quite appropriate. Check it out, comment there. That's what it was meant for.
I can understand a debate regarding the safety of races/event sign ups/referees/rules; those things which have popped up in the past (though the debates raged on into to trolling wars) are at least directly relevant to racing. Debates in general though should be reserved to the bar or bike forums or whatever. I will from now on hopefully hear about upcoming race signups through teammates since I'd rather not have to delete 30 single thread emails form my account every time I check my email.
The appropriate use of a crap blog. Rant over.
3 comments:
The problem with "taking it to the blogs" is that blogs are decentralized. I don't want to chase around different discussions and abridge the arguements together...that is what all my prelaw classes are for :-P
That google group has replaced the D20 topica list serve. That list serve was, for years, the centralized forum for discussion on ALL things in the racing community.
I think the solution is to have a seperate google group labled D20/Mabra... the current one would merely be a BBS for race announcements, while the latter would be for all the other crap. Unfortunately, I see little reason why the two can't co-exist. I honestly dont' think the monthly 4-email long discussion we always have on stop signs at HP is a problem...but then again, I can't think of a solution that I think would be effective, which is why I haven't said squat! :-P
That's a good point, Pete. And, in the end, we can always press "delete."
The problem with the larger discussion, as I see it, isn't so much that it was a discussion on stop signs at HP. A woman on a bike died after getting hit by a car which, police said, likely ran a red light. That became a discussion about how we cyclists should ride safe, and then there was a bunch of people agreeing. As if the two are related. When a car runs a red light, it's not so much about the cyclist's ability to ride safely - it's about luck.
What's interesting about the discussion is that there were two sets of people talking past each other - those who identify themselves as a cyclist for commuting, and those who identify as a cyclist for racing. I identify as both, so naturally, I see things much more clearly and I am right! :)
Not!
Being pretty new, uninitiated and somewhat inactive there are many reasons why I should not have written that email and thrown my little temper tantrum. That said, the way I generally hear about any races in the area is through the listserv announcements but when topics rage like that I generally select all and delete making the listserv useless to me. Ok, my problem to deal with there.
I like the idea of the two different groups, I really would rather not hear the debates on things like that.
Chris, while I entirely agree with you in your points about riding in a defensive manner in the way that most ensures your safety, I think it also a good point that cyclists need to ride safely, ei defensively in the way that ensures their own safety. Yes it is entirely unrelated to the cyclist being hit by the jackass... I mean driver, it is still a valid point.
I still hold my own opinion that I personally do not think that kind of debate or discussion is what the mabra listserv should be used for, but I didn't create it, do not run it and do not (should not be trying to) moderate it. What can I say, I was feeling particularly grumpy yesterday morning. :)
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