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@deleted
Are people that aren't in London/people that can't/don't go to events not an equally valid part of the forum? If you just want that, why have the forum at all, or at least make it so open/public?
I joined because although I was living in Spain at the time thought I was moving to London and enjoyed having english spoken diversion from being surrounded by Spanish all day, this since has fallen through, so I can't do what I'd like and meet people in the flesh. I don't do facebook etc and have an ambivalent attitute to the whole 'online culture' thing. Still the site is very vibrant , lots of people, lots of posts, lots of info, I stuck around and now get most of the jokes and banter, have gotten some really great info from genuinely nice friendly folks, and hopefully have contributed too. I hope to be moving to London in the near future to meet them in person... I'm sure there's loads of folks in a similar position to me.
It's also been made clear at various instances there are folk who seem to wait on here with baited breath specifically for drama and arguments and jump on any mistake or faux pas just because they can. At various points I've not logged in for a month at a time because I just couldn't be fucked reading it and it seemed to be a constant feature of the forum, and it definitely discourages from posting as I for one don't get kicks of spending my time arguing on the interwebs and am more than happy to leave others to it if that's what they want.
I find it interesting that new members and the size of the forum are blamed for this-it's pretty much always the same core of people who are the most intolerant, that do the most bickering and flaming, and in the most harsh manner. They then rip people for being 'bedwetters' if they disagree or complain and advocate going on community led events to meet folk as if this constitutes a defence that they don't behave the same way in real life. I don't want to go into this or make this about one person or group of people, this is just an example of how online carries over to real life but recent 'popcorn' was a pretty good indication that folk are every bit as capable of being just as harsh and unfriendly in the real as they are online. I'm sure not everyone is like this, but sadly its the most visible people that create the biggest impression and if you're new, or maybe like a lot of people, aren't enormously confident and outgoing, you'll just not bother.
I'm not saying this place should be sanitised, like BlueQuinn says, banter and taking the piss is important, it can be really funny, we're not perfect all of the time, and 99% of people have the social skills to actually moderate their own behaviour and recognise if they make a mistake or carried something too far. Some don't, and as Velocio clearly recognises in starting this discussion, this can create a nasty, negative atmosphere that has clearly spilled over into lfgss's public image.