What has this website become?

[Lee]

What a vile, unpleasant place this forum has become. Have some of you heard yourselves? You do realise that most of what some of you are displaying here amounts to not much more than bullying, abuse and intimidation? You come here for fun? Grow the hell up!!! It is quite obvious that many of you are enjoying the current situation with Tony.

Tony could try the patience of a saint - granted - but I think after a while you have to just ignore those that you conflict with. I came here originally to learn and share thoughts with likeminded people on a common interest. I am sure many of you did the same. However, for some time now this website seems to offer nothing more than just a place to score childish points.

I found this website was starting to bring the worst out in me around the time of the 2012 games. I had a realisation back then that I was getting more stressed than fulfilled by the petty nature of Gamesbids. That was a few years back, it has gotten so much worse. I look around now and am so glad to have left when I did.

I have not been around these forums much for the last few years, maybe just once every other month to have a brief look around at the news. I can't believe some of the abuse I have been reading. I also can't believe it has been left to fester by the moderators and Rob Livingstone himself. It is tiring to read for me, I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for regular members who are not involved in the bickering.

It seems most of the good people who used to post here have abandoned ship leaving only a handful of good people still around from the days when these forums offered a real purpose. It seems that many of the new members have picked up on the negativity of the forums and decided to just run with the theme. It is very obvious when you don't post here regularly and are able to step back and see the bigger picture.

You only get one life. Do you really want to spend days of your life just arguing, fighting and bickering over who is right and who is wrong?

That being said, something definitely needs to be done to help Tony and subsequently the existing members here who just want to debate Olympic matters. He seems a troubled chap and as someone else said on this forum - not sure who it was - I think Tony will be happier for having his access taken away from him. Even if he doesn't quite realise that himself. It can't be good for a young lads self esteem to be the butt of so much vitriole and ridicule, even if he often provokes it.

Can I also say that whilst Tony is English, he does not speak for an entire nation. I would appreciate it if some of you took that on board before abusing an entire nation to score some cheap points. It isn't pleasant to read and says more about you than anything else.

I fully expect some retaliative replies to come my way in retaliation to this post . I will not be responding to them. I no longer care for most of the people on this website and therefore do not want to get drawn into a long, childish argument. However, I do think what I have said needed saying, allthough I fully suspect it wll fall on deaf ears.

Adios.

[LatinXTC]

You've said nothing some people have already said these things here and there in many posts. TBH it's not THAT bad, but a select few do tend to bring down these forums at certain moments. I do think that Tony is best ignored as it was pretty obvious to me early on that there's no reasoning with the troll. You're talking in circles with him. And there were moments of clarity with him, but that only lasted like a week or two and he just went back to his real self.

[zigzag]

You've said nothing some people have already said these things here and there in many posts. TBH it's not THAT bad, but a select few do tend to bring down these forums at certain moments. I do think that Tony is best ignored as it was pretty obvious to me early on that there's no reasoning with the troll. You're talking in circles with him. And there were moments of clarity with him, but that only lasted like a week or two and he just went back to his real self.

i believe tony doing this because he eat the bait but who set the bait ??? the other posters of course with mocking personal related questions which sure does hurts him forcing him to answer the question and started an useless confrontation in that thread therefore this chain of useless debate and bullying needs to be stopped with tony's side should stop trying to answer all personal related questions and tried his best to return to the topic in every way while the others must stop set the bait which means stop mocking tony with all those irritating questions you are the experienced ones should give some good examples and not the other way around....

[zekekelso]

The solution to bad content is to post good content.

[baron-pierreIV]

Well said, Lee. I am too am SO SICK of having to defend myself from all the imputations and INCORRECT perceptions of a number of yutzes here...and I shall name those despicable, unpleasant parties: 1. The poster previously known as krow...now posting as "zero" the Zygote. ; 2. a quite repulsive "Zekekelso;" 3. that 'bot known as "woohoo-whatever..." making all those ridiculous, unfounded charges when I DON'T even find him/her/it as a credible entity. 4. LatinXTC (I wonder when his 'wetback' forbears crossed the RIo Grande???) (Alexjc went nuts for awhile; but somehow got his chakras re-aligned somehow).

It's really become a B-minus forum with such small and feeble-minded posters.

Edited February 25, 2015 by baron-pierreIV

[zekekelso]

Well said, Lee. I am too am SO SICK of having to defend myself from all the imputations and INCORRECT perceptions of a number of yutzes here

Must suck that not everybody agrees with your racist screes.

[LatinXTC]

i believe tony doing this because he eat the bait but who set the bait ??? the other posters of course with mocking personal related questions which sure does hurts him forcing him to answer the question and started an useless confrontation in that thread therefore this chain of useless debate and bullying needs to be stopped with tony's side should stop trying to answer all personal related questions and tried his best to return to the topic in every way while the others must stop set the bait which means stop mocking tony with all those irritating questions you are the experienced ones should give some good examples and not the other way around....

Well said, Lee. I am too am SO SICK of having to defend myself from all the imputations and INCORRECT perceptions of a number of yutzes here...and I shall name those despicable, unpleasant parties: 1. The poster previously known as krow...now posting as "zero" the Zygote. ; 2. a quite repulsive "Zekekelso;" 3. that 'bot known as "woohoo-whatever..." making all those ridiculous, unfounded charges when I DON'T even find him/her/it as a credible entity. 4. LatinXTC (I wonder when his 'wetback' forbears crossed the RIo Grande???) (Alexjc went nuts for awhile; but somehow got his chakras re-aligned somehow).

It's really become a B-minus forum with such small and feeble-minded posters.

Good job giving Lee a perfect example of one of the downfalls of this site. None of those names you mentioned have been as ugly about anything and everything as you have been. And you have the nerve to talk about what river my parents crossed when you were born an ocean away from the US? If you feel the need to call me a 'wetback' because you found me calling you Filipino as equally offensive, then you being so embarrassed about where you came from is a problem you should take up with therapy not an online forum.

[woohooitsme83]

I thought I'd told y'all I was Scarlett Johansson already!

[BTHarner]

Add my name to those who lament what this place has become. At one time it was a fascinating gathering place to debate, share, and learn. Now it has just become another crass outpost in that untamed wilderness called the internet. We have lost a lot of good people as a result and I, too, plan to leave at the conclusion of the Pan Am Games. I'm only sticking around until then because I am attending them and I might be in a position to make some final, meaningful contributions to the forum.

[BR2028]

I'm sick of it too, I came here to talk about the games and fantasy bid plus realistic bids. This place has become so hostile and insulting to everyone, it's not even fun anymore.

I think for all those who are like minded it's time for us to change this around and make this forum a better place, we all know it can and many of you know it was. Lets make Gamesbids great again.

[ofan]

To be totally honest, I think that Tony's presence has brought out the worst in all of us. Or was the downfall of this site beginning well before he arrived? He can't be the sole reason why this place is so hostile, right? Right?

[baron-pierreIV]

.... you should take up with therapy not an online forum.

Oh, and now you're dispensing unsolicited psychiatric advice online without a license. Again, I reject your reply as irrelevant.

[TorchbearerSydney]

It is not that bad here, I visit many worse chat sites, and no one has ever really criticised or offended me personally. I appreciate what people bring to the Olympic discussion.

Olympic bids themselves seem to be getting crazier and crazier, with referendums, withdrawls, bids from left field etc.... maybe we are reflecting a bit of that!

There are a couple of stirrers that are mainly harmless- ignore them and they will go away!

[BR2028]

To be totally honest, I think that Tony's presence has brought out the worst in all of us. Or was the downfall of this site beginning well before he arrived? He can't be the sole reason why this place is so hostile, right? Right?

People here were hostile and jerks before he came on and many people were claiming the site was in a downfall. So as far as I know it has been falling for a long time.

Olympic bids themselves seem to be getting crazier and crazier, with referendums, withdrawls, bids from left field etc.... maybe we are reflecting a bit of that!

Good point. This is a crazy time in the Olympic world and in the rest of the world so maybe recent events and situations are rubbing off on us all.

[krow]

i have a rly juicy stunt planned for march so, just a tip, i wouldn't go anywhere before then.

[Olympic Fan Darcy]

Part of this is my doing especially with the status I posted. I'll just say this. It's been over a year now with Tony, nothing's worked. So I wanted to try something different which yes was basically baiting him. Why? Because I wanted to have some fun. Numerous respectable forum remembers have left cause of the he'd drama, I do not want to leave as I still enjoy discussing the Olympics. And for some reason Tony is not getting a perm ban by the mods or lowering his posting limits for his nonsense so I thought why not have some fun from it. Sorry about that.

There's been far too many threads on Tony and I wish we could just go back to focussing on sporting events but I doubt it.

And yes the forum has become worse over the years, tony wasn't the starting point, blacksheep was here I remember and I'm sure people before I joined. We are probably getting bored cause the bid races aren't that interesting anymore. 2018 was dull, 2020 even duller and 2022 is just crap. FIFA is beyond a joke and the commonwealth games look destined to be a thing of the past. Maybe the site has run ifs track. Who knows.

[Quaker2001]

Definitely not the first time someone has brought this line of thinking up, so there's not much here that hasn't been said before, but a couple of points to look at here..

I have not been around these forums much for the last few years, maybe just once every other month to have a brief look around at the news. I can't believe some of the abuse I have been reading. I also can't believe it has been left to fester by the moderators and Rob Livingstone himself. It is tiring to read for me, I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for regular members who are not involved in the bickering.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.. the moderators on this site are not doing what they're supposed to do. I can't speak from experience of having been a moderator on a site of what that job entails, but I also post on places where posts get removed and members get suspended or banned when it's warranted. Of course if that happened here, almost all of us would have been banned by this point. At most, when something comes up, the mods remove a few posts and it's like the argument or whatever never happened. Except it did happen. There is so much bullcrap thrown around back and forth and it continues because there are no consequences. I believe it's been stated before that you can pretty much call someone else on this site the world's biggest moronic asshole and that's fine so long as it doesn't have a tinge of hate speech. Happens way too often here and we're all guilty, myself included.

I'm told it wasn't always this way. I'm told it used to be more pleasant around here. A lot has been blamed on the newbies that have come in recent times. That's part of it (more on that in a sec), but I think a general tone has been set by certain people and the rest of us are just feeding off of it. It's like a disease of this website that infects people as they come here. I can sense it myself because I know I can be abrasive on a couple of sites I post on, but nothing like here. So to me there's obviously something with this place that just brings out the worst in us. And we all feed off it and it just makes matters worse.

The vibe of this website is that it's part like a bad high school popularity contest and part like a prison where the inmates run the asylum. We're free to do whatever we want and make life miserable for each other because no one is there to stop us. Maybe this place is too far gone to fix that or maybe it could at least get better over time. But so long as the moderators of this site allow these things to go on and leave these ridiculous arguments for everyone else to sift through (and hey, I'd be lying if I said I didn't get off on that on occasion.. I can pretend otherwise, but I think I know myself better than that by now) and it just adds to the negativity. Feels like you have to have thick skin to be a regular part of this forum. Thankfully I do, but that shouldn't have to be the case.

It's one thing to disagree and have a discussion about the topic at hand. It's another when it all devolves into who implied what or who made a comment a year ago that's still being held against them or when someone misinterprets someone else's thinking. We're talking about Olympic bids here. Not a lot of fresh content to discuss, so there's going to be times where we have to make things up, but that is and always will be the nature of this website. Nothing that can be done about that except for us to acknowledge it and work without those parameters. By the same token though, let's not fill the time with useless crap like who is going to host the 2068 Olympics because it's their continent's "time" or let's talk about my home city because gosh darnit wouldn't it be great to have an Olympics in my backyard

That being said, something definitely needs to be done to help Tony and subsequently the existing members here who just want to debate Olympic matters. He seems a troubled chap and as someone else said on this forum - not sure who it was - I think Tony will be happier for having his access taken away from him. Even if he doesn't quite realise that himself. It can't be good for a young lads self esteem to be the butt of so much vitriole and ridicule, even if he often provokes it.

I have a feeling Tony will be reading this and/or replying to it, but I'm going to agree with you and offer an explanation even though Tony probably doesn't want to hear it. Tony won't be happy if his access to this forum is taken away from him. But for his own good, it would probably be best if he wasn't posting on this time. I'm not saying that for our benefit. I'm saying it because it is indeed what's best for Tony.

This forum being what it is, absolutely it's our nature to treat him like garbage and not give him a fair shake. Not that he deserves a second chance (at this point, it's probably more like a 9th chance or 10th change), although he did show signs of improvement even after he kept telling us it couldn't be done. Seriously Tony, don't let anyone take that away from you. You tried and you succeeded, but then you fell into old habits which is where we're at now.

None of us here know what's going on inside his head. I get the sense that coming here is part of his OCD (I'm not saying that to make fun of you, Tony.. I'm simply acknowledging what you have told us because we know you struggle with it). He feels obligated to show up here at virtually the exact same time every day, read through the forum, make a few posts, and then when he can't post anymore, he's done for the day. The problem is that all the stress and anxiety that comes with his presence here, he is compelled to do that because it would make him more anxious not to be here.

That cycle needs to change. Like I said, I am not a mod here and they have made their decisions, but I think they would be doing Tony a big favor if they prevented him entirely from posting here. More than that, I think if his parents knew the stresses that this site were causing him (and maybe there are more sites he visits where the situation is similar), they would tell him he's not allowed to come here anymore. And again, it would be doing him a favor. As pissed as a lot of us get with Tony, I think many of us have a compassionate side where we understand he's just a young immature kid who doesn't know any better that's trying to fit in with a less than welcoming crowd (and it's not just age.. there are certainly teenagers here that can handle themselves), but we lash out at him because that's what this site has taught us how to handle that type of situation. And there are certain cases that type of response is almost warranted (TeamRik comes to mind), but others where maybe it isn't.

(If anyone is still reading at this point, feel free to let me know what the hell I'm doing with my life) The moral of the story is that we're constantly trying to figure out how to handle Tony, but so many of us are doing so in the context of the picture we're painting of him. If we think he's acting like a troll, we treat him like a troll. If he's acting like a pompous asshole, we treat him like a pompous asshole. I don't know what the solution is, if there is one, particularly on this forum, but maybe the time has come that we all need to make a concerted effort to just ignore him. And I don't mean turning on your ignore settings or whatever that is. I mean actually ignore him. See a post of his that you want to respond to, but instead, just act like it's not there. I've probably fallen into that trap as much as anyone, but maybe it's about time I stop, less I prove to be a little OCD myself where I just can't help but to respond.

[LatinXTC]

Ok I know i'm going to regret asking this but I'm really curious about it, but does anyone have a link to a topic where the main Tony stuff started, and when he was actually limited from posting???

[BR2028]

Ok I know i'm going to regret asking this but I'm really curious about it, but does anyone have a link to a topic where the main Tony stuff started, and when he was actually limited from posting???

I think it happened some time in May of last year when one member tried to get a petition signed that would ban Tony from the forum. From there it spin-balled even further resulting in Tony being restricted post wise and the member that did the petition was banned. From then on and even before Tony has increasingly become a problem for the forums. I mean that with no offense to Tony, I think he is a nice kid just ill prepared for such a harsh community.

The most fun this forum was for me was during the end of the 2020 bid race. I had joined in the summer and like many newbies boasted that my hometown should host which was utterly foolish. When that occurred however, I received similar treatment as Tony does. After a while it subsided and I eventually just started reading and lightly participating in the forums.

In short I primarily started participating less because from that first day I felt unwelcome so I think it is a default setting for this forum to be hostile towards new members, especially ones who have no idea what they're jumping into.

[woohooitsme83]

I've been posting less frequently recently. Not because I've been busy, but because I've been afraid. I've looked through my old posts, cringing as I read every line. I'm afraid that I will slip into an immature spree of offending gibberish (no, I am not referring to Tony, I actually kinda feel bad for him..). I don't want that to happen. That is why I have been posting less. I'm pretty sure nobody cares, but I thought It'd be nice to share. I started off in this forum as a stuck up Asian kid. Now, I want to desperately delete those posts.

[Olympic Fan Darcy]

There's just so many points you could point at in terms of issues with Tony. When he joined everyone noticed the 30+ posts a day he was posting. My boiling point was when Tony got me a 3 day ban during the Sochi Olympics (he didn't get a ban at that time). And we all know the best time to post on these forums are during the Olympics or at the height of a bid campaign.

[LatinXTC]

There's just so many points you could point at in terms of issues with Tony. When he joined everyone noticed the 30+ posts a day he was posting. My boiling point was when Tony got me a 3 day ban during the Sochi Olympics (he didn't get a ban at that time). And we all know the best time to post on these forums are during the Olympics or at the height of a bid campaign.

ok how did he get you banned? and lol @ your signature just now noticing.

[Tony E Loves Architecture]

Darcy, like you did yesterday, you were starting hate campaigns against me. Don't even deny it. I am sorry for my mistakes. I have tried lately. People are winding me up, Darcy even admitted it. I shouldn't have let them wind me up.

[Alexjc]

I'll admit my backward slide from around mid 2013 when the site went through the post Games doldrums when I got in a pointless slagging match with another member which ended in disaster...The aforementioned Tony had arrived and was an instant "hit" with active members. After a huge bustup with another respected member here around the WC last year I needed to take stock of the situation and did what Lee mentioned...Tracked back through posting records. I was disappointed at what I saw and made worse were the warning signs I petulantly ingnored. I've never been suspended from GB, but gee wizz I must have come close to it.

Tony just proved how I could easily be waylaid into stupid behavior, and even now it's ever so tempting to sink...So I just stick to the topics that interest me and do my best not to chime in on stuff that don't simply because they are there. And if I do...make the effort to be fair and balanced.

Gamesbids will never be what it was like a decade ago when it still had that "new car smell" hanging around, full of like minds and great ideas. Thank goodness for Totallyolympics.

[Olympic Fan Darcy]

Darcy, like you did yesterday, you were starting hate campaigns against me. Don't even deny it. I am sorry for my mistakes. I have tried lately. People are winding me up, Darcy even admitted it. I shouldn't have let them wind me up.

Hate campaign, geesh. Also great work ignoring everyone else's posts in this thread.