1. You meet people you know from the Forums and greet them by their Forum name rather than their real name.
2. You see something amusing and think, "I must tell my fellow Forummers about that".
3. You go to a concert or other musical event and wonder which Forummer you'll meet there.
4. http://forums.abrsm.org is your homepage.
5. You have the urge to take the Grade 1 Challenge.
6. You use "rofl" as a word in everyday speech.
7. The vast majority of your e-mails are notification that you have a new PM.
8. "Just five minutes on the Forums" turns into two hours.
9. You sit there wringing your hands and rocking when the Forums aren't available.
10. You know that there's something else to add to this list.

OK, I score 7/10. Where do I get help?

I score 7/10 too...

Car Expert

1. You meet people you know from the Forums and greet them by their Forum name rather than their real name. I.e Noodle and Amber
2. You see something amusing and think, "I must tell my fellow Forummers about that".
3. You go to a concert or other musical event and wonder which Forummer you'll meet there.
4. http://forums.abrsm.org is your homepage.
5. You have the urge to take the Grade 1 Challenge. - I want to someday, but haven't done it!
6. You use "rofl" as a word in everyday speech. - No but I use "lol" sometimes, oh dear
7. The vast majority of your e-mails are notification that you have a new PM.
8. "Just five minutes on the Forums" turns into two hours.
9. You sit there wringing your hands and rocking when the Forums aren't available.
10. You know that there's something else to add to this list. - Yes, when you end up visiting more of your forum friends over a summer holiday than your offline friends

*text* Woo, Andy's done well at his GCSEs

6/10


Well you do have the urge then, Nicki....


YAY!

So basically I am completely and utterly addicted.

Woe betide (?) me

"Forums Are Taking Over Your Life When..."


.... you tell everybody you meet how brilliant they are

.... you stop admitting exactly how long you spend on them

Yup

"......when" you join in the fight with your teenage children over who gets the computer next, and actually start getting up earlier than usual during the holidays to guarantee getting it to yourself.

"......when" it becomes the new reason why you haven't done as much practce as you intended.

"......when" you start burning the dinner 'cos you've lost track of time.

11. You see a funny post and stand at the bus stop laughing about it later that afternoon.
12. You go on holiday and have to find an internet cafe so you can catch up on CISD.

I'm now at 14/17 and I still don't know where to get help


18. You read something you don't agree with and lie awake all night composing a witty, comprehensive and reasoned response against it. And then post something incoherent and argumentative instead in the morning

Surely not if you're one of the most cheerful posters?

Depends how ignorant and ill-mannered the original poster was, Mr B

Really?



Perhaps the detailed forum rules have a caveat which excepts responses to ignorant and ill-mannered posters?

You send a memo to the boss saying "Dear Fredric Chopin; YAP; Mrbouffant etc etc. " Then sign it- "regards, Charlies Aunt!!!"

Boss then replies "Dear Charlies Aunt, You're P45 is in the post!"

Mr Bouffant, I don't need to score cheap debating points by setting out to embarrass, humiliate or annoy people. I look for the good in people and try to encourage it, and within that to encourage good manners. That's why I get nominated as being supportive, helpful, cheerful etc.

Can I be clear here, are you accusing me of scoring cheap debating points by setting out to embarrass, humiliate or annoy people? Are you saying I don't look for the good in people, nor try to encourage?

If you are encouraging people, then good. And I apologise for failing to notice it when the last few posts you have directed at me have been specifically aimed at annoying me.

MrB, katyjay said she sometimes posts argumentatively and incoherantly when she intended to post something witty, comprehensive and reasoned. That hardly comes under the category of "abusive, offensive or aggressive" and I'm sure we all post less brilliantly and less reasonably than we would like to sometimes, yourself included.

Trying to goad katyjay into an argument about it is just rather silly

Break it up, you two . No fighting in here - my thread, my rules! There's enough unpleasantness in the world without you two starting an argument.

My apologies Deborah. I will withdraw.

Nope. I think I'm safe. I only scored 1 out of 10.

"You know when".... you have to check on the forum to see if you have any PMs before you go to bed...

6 / 10 for me

.. the wife's in labour and all you can think to do is start a poll about what you should do next ..

LOL. I wonder who would do that...

.... the back of your chequebook is covered in "sheep dash" times

It's not.....is it?

best average 0.1544 - "rocketing rabbit"

although I usually jump the gun and get "sluggish snail"

I'm very envious of Dina's 0.09 average

You know, I can't think of anyone who I've met from here who hasn't referred to me as YAP. The problem is when I start referring to AP using the name 'AP' to people who don't use the forum....

do they call you "Y - A -P" spelling it out, or "Yap" - all one word?

YAP, all one word. The jury is still out on whether AP is an initialism or an acronym; my vote is for the former, unless in the context of 'AP and YAP'.

I think I've managed to address both of you by real names at the last forums concert.

Yes, I would agree with the above. YAP is 'yap'; AP is Ay-Pee, except in the phrase Ap and Yap.

You must have Celtic blood in you - mutating the sounds depending on the context to make the phrase more melodic is something the Welsh do! "Ay-Pee and Yap" just doesn't sound right does it? I could actually manage "Anotherpianist" on its own but "Anotherpianist and Yap" doesn't sound quite right and "Anotherpianist and Yetanotherpianist" is even more unweildy. "Ap and Yap" is perfect.

Do you mind people calling you "Katyjay"? I really like the name

Not at all. I prefer it to "Katy" which I'm never called in real life

are you still violining?

That has to be the all-time best....typical man.... !

When your 7-year-old is in the bath and you're yelling up the stairs to tell him that the water couldn't possibly be freezing after half an hour and that you'll be up to wash his hair just as soon as you've finished posting.

In principle yes. When my shoulder heals it'll be yes in practice too.

ouch!

I'm sorry to hear you've hurt your shoulder Katyjay

best wishes for a speedy recovery

When there's a sinking feeling when you refresh and there's no new messages

When you come out of Forums to your Google homepage to go somewhere else, only to find you've automatically clicked the Forums button and have ended up here again.

I tend to always think of Forums people by their user-name, and have to make quite an effort to call people by their real names when I see them at Forums events . The exception is people whom I knew before we were all on the Forums, who are well established in my brain with their proper names!

I'm not usually on here for hours and hours, but I do like to look in, even if only for a few minutes, about four times a day - and when the Forums are misbehaving it makes me quite unreasonably fretful - I have to keep trying every so often just to see if it's got back to normal!
Nowadays it seems to do that thing quite often where it says too many people are using it, or something - or it takes forever to print a post - or goes to the 'too many' page after you've pressed 'add reply', and then you're not sure if the post went through or not until you can check later!

when you return from holidays and put the computer on before the kettle...

I like it!!

Whenyou look at the clock and realise its 2:00 am, and you have been conversing with antipodeans!

When you suddenly realise you have 3 internet explorer windows up, all with the forums in

...when the yummiest cake you've ever tasted was forum cake

...when you start asking Wobby for a reference to your next job... (not happened yet but may do )

And the best party you ever went to was a forum party...the one you got so drunk at you don't remember what happened

The only concerts you go to are online at the "forum recordings" site

13. When you lie awake at night pondering the correct pronounciation of "janexxx" and "sbhoa".