The Kitchen

Read this first (the dinner party analogy)


If you find yourself shouting across the table at our other dinner guests, not allowing newcomers to the conversation to get a word in edgeways and generally behaving poorly at this dinner party, you need to get up from the table and go to the (virtual) kitchen.


You can shout at each other all you like in here (provided you remain polite).


When you have settled your spat you can come back and sit down, in the meantime the rest of the party can continue.


Thanks


James


I think SFN is by far the most informative website I have found for our intended move to France. I find the group discussions lively and pertinent. The information on the useful links page is really outstanding. Just wanted to congratulate you on the site and thanks for being a new great source for our impending move.

regards Liz

That has just made my friday night !

How about just using the text ones? :) http://pc.net/emoticons/

Good - otherwise I would have to shoot you.

* pulls fake smiley face as is not entirely kidding*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62eTq8ErUOQ

OK but how about a preview facility so ludites like me can ensure we are not making a complete arse of ourselves by letting us view the post & "grabbed" things before sending? Pretty normal on most forums I haunt.

By the way, I wasn't asking you to include a set of smilies for general use. If I can find the things elsewhere I'm sure the more computer literate here can. only talking about !The Kitchen" Catherine :-) God I hate these things

Like :D

And please don't - otherwise SFN will become full of clapping pigs :)

Just thinking the same, and 'i' instead of 'a' in gripes... As it stands it sounds like somebody from Essex trying to pronounce the fruit :-D

I can't incorporate them in to just a portion of the site Vic, if you want to use them you'll need to grab them from somewhere else and drop them in manually I'm afraid.

I think you put an "h" in whining by mistake Catharine.

I see the kitchen as a place for general whining - so that can easily include gripes with the site / techy stuff. After all, if you don't let us know, we can't fix it!

That's the chap!

OK then, I've got me smiley vault. How do you make them work here. Not being able to preview a post makes it difficult. They would save a lot of problems inasmuch as we would be able to show some emotion as in face to face conversations. I'm not asking for them in the "main" forum as that is now presumably a place for conversations gravitas, but if this is the place to let off a bit of steam them maybe they could save the odd black eye :-) ( I hate these twee things)

Sorry Vic, that's a technical challenge beyond my abilities.

Good speech Brian. This is where my animated clapping smiley would be good. Can we have them in "The Kitchen" please James?

Strange one. I was sitting in a hospital waiting room. My scan was getting late which meant that the other appointment in another part of the hospital was getting 'squeezed' time wise. I had taken my laptop. I saw David's post and thought how superb it was after the time with my ex and the huge learning curve for her, of course, but me (perhaps especially) too. In response I wrote the post that sadly started the unsavoury exchange there. In fact, none of it was new since at one time or another in other contexts my ex's diabetes had been recalled. I was also in contact with James on the 'Main Room' chat and said how good I thought David's post is. I also had a bit of a moan about hospital waiting rooms, in fact I was so happy I had the laptop actually.

What came about is sad, none of it, not a single word at all, had any place in that post. In its own context that post is too important. There are always places for a bit of humour and repartee in this world and other places where best left out. That was one. I was also not in a good mood by the time I left the hospital for reasons I shall not go into. Let's just say that they 'stole' any remaining humour I might have had left.

More fool me then for even paying any attention to those words that should never have been there but being there should have been best ignored. So apologies to David above all else, to those who feel or felt they should add to the diversion and let's all hope that we learn from it and choose time and place for what we construe as humour, yes, talking about myself, throwing in what does not belong and putting Catharine and James in the hot seat sorting it out. Life is too precious to waste time on such things.

Cate. If it's any consolation, I seem to be on a permanent yellow card on a guitar forum I frequent. It's a management thing ;-) Still get invited to their annual week end bash though so I guess the hoi polloi don't mind the odd barbed comment.

On the tech side, within the next 12 months SFN will move to a completely new and improved platform so those especially mobile-centric quirks should be put to bed.

The thing with all of this is, I have so much to do on a day to day basis that I simply don't see what everyone else does. I spend time generating content or promoting the site elsewhere on the net, learning about new tech, developing the new site, the list goes on, don't get me wrong, I love it. However, when I see a great piece of content such as David's (which incidentally we had discussed prior to his posting) deteriorating I am disappointed. Yesterday we drew nearly 30 mew members to SFN and I want them to immediately see great discussion and come back again and again.

I am open to suggestion as always and maybe this will be the place where I get a feel for the changes our membership would like to see implemented, what do you think?

Off to sort the kettle (and cook pizza for two boys who are glued to the Playstation, screaming - how am I meant to work??) so will be back with tea and biccies in a mo. And NO, Cate, underlined and in italics, no frequent flier points, lol!