What do you think of the cafe? I can think of at least four separate threads in the last week where four different individuals have posted irritation at the thread's existence. What's your view on threads in the cafe which you personally think are too wacky to be of value? Or do you enjoy the wackier threads? Any comments?

The cafe is for light good humoured chit chat and fun I think. It is a place to exchange thoughts and to natter with musical folk who are mostly on the same wave length and who want to have a break from practice or writing out scores on the computer, or to play silly games which are a whole lot cheaper than the so called Brain Training ones and probably work just as well. There will always be the odd person who doesn't like our topics but they can do as they would in any other situation and either start a topic about which does interest them or ignore it. For those who want more serious and music related threads there are plenty to be found elsewhere here. They are free tp post about the delights of playing the organ unclothed or the merits of one system of playing over another there is they want to. I have made some good friends through this Forum and I don't think that I would have got to know them so well if we hadn't met and chatted about nonsense in the cafe first.

Oh ... not for coffee and cake, then?

Nope!

We get good soup here though.

I don't think I've ever posted anything in the forum cafe, but I've spent many (too many?) hours reading the threads there, and have had many a good laugh at the "silliness" that goes on in the cafe.

So I say carry on enjoying yourselves and providing light entertainment for probably more readers than you think. Anyone who doesn't like the forum cafe doesn't have to visit!

Yup, I think the cafe is good.

It allows us to relate at a purely social level, whereas the rest of the forums is devoted to relating about our shared interest, ie. music.

And it makes me smile

I am all for the Cafe - as with all the forums on here I just wish all posters (and not just some posters) were able to exercise a certain amount of Quality Control when starting new topics.

Me too.

Dear Skylark,

I find this post about people being irritated extremely irritating and am very angry that you can't understand that being irritated by irritating posts is normally irritating!

This forum is for musicians. Music is not funny.

If Mozart had thought music was funny, he would have used jokes between each movement.

As far as I know, apart from a reference to a chicken crossing the road and several descriptions of his overweight mother-in-law, his clarinet concerto is not at all funny.

Though that can often be remedied by the soloist wearing a traffic cone on his head.

Likewise, J.S.Bach's directions for the Gloria soprano to sing while juggling balls on a unicycle should be taken in context.

Finally, the purpose of a cafe is to serve beverages and light refreshments. This board is therefore in breach of the trade descriptions act!

Steve

WHAT?!!!! How can anyone think the Cafe is unnecessary!

Thanks to the Cafe I can get on with my day knowing how many people I have never met regularly sum up their inner retrospection on the strength of a 'smilie'. Such things can't be missed!


( )

Ah Steve, you've hit a sore point for me here.....

The direction "to juggle one's balls whilst on a unicycle" was, and still is, clearly impossible for the female soprano, and I think demonstrated an underlying misogyny within J.S.B's psyche.

Now that's much more irritating than irritating posts about people being irritated by irritating posts in the cafe.

As I have already explained, it wasn't a psyche.


It was a uni-psyche!


Now I'm really irritated!

I was held up today for ages cos of some chickens crossing the road. I ask you, WHY do they do it???

Steve

well, i think all forums need some sort of off-topic area, where people can have fun and let off stream--after all, do you have any real life friends with whom you only discuss music? i didn't see the threads you're referring to, but i don't see a problem with silly or "pointless" threads; if i'm not interesting in it, i can just ignore it. it's not like it's cluttering up the "serious" forums.

but i think there's one thing that's harmful, even if it's ignored: people being especially unfriendly or outright nasty. not that that happens much here, but perhaps the nature of the cafe makes it more likely. i think it should be clear that even in the cafe, things like that aren't allowed.

Steve old thing, don't just condemn these creatures out of hand; spend some time with them; get to know their little ways and to understand them a little better and ask them why they do it. You might be pleasantly surprised by their replies.

Quality is very subjective though, isn't it? Take the OLTVA for instance, which is arguably the wackiest thread on the forum - some people on another thread said they wanted it killed off, but the AB has actually put it in Libretto which implies they're really quite proud of it. Or take your Composers thread, confutatis... It's had only 13 responses and 194 views which is less than the current "hair" thread, or the Cadbury's ad thread, or any of my recent threads, or many other threads of a less highbrow nature. The Snowball Fight had 100 responses and 793 views, which was a similar number of views to your Envelope thread. What about "blog" threads - would they pass your "quality control"? Where would you draw the line? Incidentally this thread isn't intended to be directed just at you, confutatis, as I said in my first post.



Steve, nice try, a bit more practice and you'll be one of us

Petrat,

So you're suggesting that I take the time to listen to something with a tiny brain that makes a lot of noise but in fact talks absolute gibberish, thinks only of itself and craps on everybody else?

Have you ever listened to Prime Minister's Question Time?!

Steve

Steve,

How DARE you make such a comparison! How can you compare our prime minister with a chicken?

Do you have no sense of decorum whatsoever?

How dare you be so offensive.....



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To chickens!

The cafe is where I come when I need cheering up. Like now. Yes, it did cheer me up.
Bev wanders off in her new hair do wondering whether she should try unicycling and flute playing at the same time?

I'm beginning to think that the sole purpose of the Cafe is to stop me getting on with things that I'm supposed to be doing

I find it entertaining, enlightening and uplifting

It's seriously addictive and should come with a health warning. I have a horrible feeling that it's too late for me now - I'm hooked!

Me too!

Clearly the threads and posts here make people happy. It is totally legal and harms no one. God bless our wonderful cafe and all who sail in her, and we still do a very good line in soup. Petrat.



Maddie Trams.




So do I. Adeline Nuffield Owen.

The cafe rocks my socks! If it doesn't rock yours, you need rocking!

Quite so Mwl.

If it wasn't for the cafe... I would be half the person I am.

Which half?

Well, not the Other Half, obviously!!!

Why does the cafe have to have a purpose? Does it need a mission statement too?
Can't it just be somewhere for random chitchat and fun stuff and gossiping and general with-no-ultimate-end-in-mind stuff?

If people are irritated by threads, then they can not read them. You don't have to read every post on every thread on every board, you know.
I don't read OLTVA - not because it irritates me, but because I've never really 'got it' so I don't bother. I rarely read or participate in CISD - I do get it, but equally I find myself there with the same social awkwardness that I would get in a real life room of chatting people, so I just wander off somewhere else pretty quickly.

If you have a 'worthy' thread that disappears in the cafe, well, it just means most people here aren't in the mood for that subject right now. If you want to have an in-depth serious discussion of something non-musical, perhaps a dedicated forum might be a better place. Or, of course, you could make the discussion have a musical side and put it in the general music forum

I think the cafe is great, it is a place where you can go and have a laugh with others and a place where you can get support that is nothing to do with music.
Many a time I have felt low and will read through some of the cafe posts and they just give you a lift.

I can't see why anyone should get irritated, after all a cafe is a place for you to make friends and discuss anything, not just music.

Yep, thumbs up from me for the cafe!

ET

Well, I think if you have to ask ...


i don't often pop in at the moment, but that does not mean I'm not in favour of the café.

A definite thumbs up from me too.

I thinbk it's about accepting that we all value different things and getting on with it. If you don't like the thread then don't read it. Simple?

I've really had enough of control freaks at the moment. I'm meaning in real life rather than the Forum before anyone gets in a huff.

Mole: The Cafe's brilliant. Especially the irrelevant garbage diverse discussions.

Norma: I agree (although the car parking could be improved)

Hi Mole - Indeed... the discussions always seem very sensible to me

Hi Norma - That made me Laugh Out Loud

The introduction of the Forum's Cafe was quite hotly debated by the AB moderating team when the forums were first updated (around the time the Viva forums were compiled into categories rather than individual instruments... I still miss Viva Flute).

It was felt that it might encourage inappropriate discussion and threads on a forum that attracted such a wide age range. It was also felt that it might make the moderators job more difficult, as I recall.

At the same time, however, before the Forums Cafe, topics that now appear here would creep in the Students and General Music forum. GCSE results threads still came up, and the General Music forum was populated by threads only loosely associated with music! To be honest, its been a bit dead since the Cafe was created.

So really, the Forums Cafe was there to clear all the off topic and non-music chat out of the other forums. Note that the links to recently posted-on topics that appear on the ABRSM front page don't include the Cafe.

The introduction of the cafe is also useful in the sense that it helps you make new friends. So a definite thumbs up from me

Without the cafe, would I have invented the awards? And quite a few other forums too. It only includes the GMF, Jazz, Teachers, Students, Parents and Viva Piano (I think those are the only ones)...

Car Expert

The Cafe was one of the reasons I dived into this forum with as much gusto as I did - so many places don't have somewhere like this, or if they do, it's policed to within an inch of it's life. As a result, on those forums it's very, very difficult to get to know anyone and people generally don't stick around for very long. On forums where there is somewhere like this, there's generally far more sense of community, partly because you get people being active members for far longer, because they can have a laugh, get support through difficult times and generally be a bit anarchic.

Yeah, the forum's here for people to have a laugh and let off a bit of steam, but it's existance and the staff's laissez-faire approach to it are also a large part of the reason why there's such a brilliant community here.

I didnt quite understand the Café when I joined the forums but I'm starting to think its looking as if it could be good fun taking more of a part in it.

I have been a member for a while, but only started posting relatively recently and one of the areas I found most easy to join in with was the Cafe. It is funny, unthreatening, sometimes incomprehensible and friendly - I always visit and if I am completely bemused by, or uninterested in, a thread, I go on to something much more serious like the 'what is the weather like today' or the 'what made you happy today' threads!

I'm posting here again because I've seen that a member from here has made a particularly unpleasant reference to myself on a different board. I'm not a member of that board, so I'll reply to that person on here.

Neither you nor any of the other people who complain about some of the wackier threads involving "the usual suspects" have ever explained why you even bother to read them, let alone contribute to them. Why do you do it? It reminds me of a catchphrase which I gather was on the radio at one time - "It's being so miserable that makes me happy" Well it's not what makes me and I think the other "usual suspects" happy

You have publicly professed to be interested in why people behave the way they do . Well the "usual suspects" don't have to publicly profess to be "interested in people" - we demonstrate that by socialising with whoever wants to socialise with us. As far as I'm concerned, I find the diversity of people on here absolutely fascinating and I love communicating with everyone. You could never meet such a diversity in real life. Even if you did, you could hardly pick up and drop conversations as and when it suits you, in the way that you can do on here. Who knows where a thread will lead? Sometimes they die off quickly, sometimes they lead to lengthy debates, sometimes they just lead to people to having some fun for a while. Why does that bother you so much that you're even snide about it on another forum?

Although people don't normally need to be invited to a concert, I made a point of inviting you and one of your friends (also a member on here and the other board) to a Leeds concert, partly to try and cross the barrier because I think most of the forum members who've met me in real life will agree that I'm really quite "normal", and partly because you've previously said (although I think this may have changed) that neither you nor your friend got many playing opportunities, and in the same way that I try to do for everyone else, I would have gone out of my way to try and create suitable opportunities for you. Neither your friend, nor you after consulting with your friend, gave me the courtesy of a reply, so apologies if you found the suggestion insulting or distasteful. Well the Players for Pleasure concerts are for people who want to be friendly, so I guess it's out of the question now anyway.

As far as I'm concerned, you and others who get your kicks out of being snide and nasty on here and elsewhere can continue to get your kicks that way - it's your life and if you enjoy being snide and nasty, that's up to you I'll continue to get my kicks by creating opportunities to have some fun on here, hopefully with the "usual suspects" - some of whom have become friends - and with anyone else who wants to join us Live and let live, I say, and I hope you're happy in your own way

Beats me how anyone could dislike the café.
Three cheers for the café!

The cafe's OK but it can get a little bit cliquey from time to time and on occasion I've tried to join in with some of the chats and have been completely ignored - or at least, felt like I was being ignored - it may just have been that the speed of appearance of new posts is so fast that some get overlooked and left behind, as it were, by the general pace of conversation in there.

Come and have a pint in the tavern CD. They let dogs in, and lots of other animals too.

I can identify with this! I don't go to the cafe much as my time is limited all round, but to properly enjoy it you'd need to be a regular there.

I read posts via the 'View New Posts' button up near the top left of the screen. I look in the posts that have titles that interest me. I very rarely notice which forum they are in - so I don't see the cafe as distinct from any of the other boards, simply because I don't really view the boards as separate things because I don't go in to the separately.

Many of the posts in the cafe may appear silly and indeed they are. What we don't see are the behind the scenes PMs and other forms of contact that make this place such a friendly and supportive one. If someone writes a post that merits some off thread comment it is made by PM and often links and bonds develop as a result. I have made some really good friends here, and these friendships started out very often as nonsense in the cafe. A little bit of silliness goes a long way to taking one's mind off the ills of the world sometimes. It can be a lot of fun too and isn't laughter the best medicine?

The last time I checked my personnal details I found that 41% of my posts were in the Café.
Dyou know, I almost started to feel guilty! I thought I was certainly not a serious musician and should make resolutions to apply the brakes to my unmusical my frivolity!

Oh what the heck! There is nothing like a nice coffee with a few friends.

Agreed And one of the members who has been particularly nasty about myself and the other "usual suspects" might like to reflect on the fact that only 38% of my posts are in the cafe, compared with his 49%

Ah, but are percentages a true reflection? Perhaps absolute post count might be more meaningful? I could see that being slightly embarrassing if one's total Cafe post count was enough in isolation to put that person in the top 25 of all-time posters on the whole forum?...

Come on, let's name names. In this thread, the "is it a good idea to air personal problems" and the "are you happy?" threads, threads to which I've refrained from replying, there have been mentions of "certain members" "kicking people when they're down" or "not being supportive" etc. etc. So, instead of hiding behind anonymity, let's have it out. That's the purpose of the café - non-musical discussion. Those people who have problems with other members, do please sort it out and stop with these discussions/Comments.

*Ding ding: Round 2*

The breakdowns given on the profiles are based on Active posts not Total posts, so it's really not possible to work out statistics of that nature from the breakdowns on the profiles.