PORRIGE,I miss his wit and style even though some of it was directed at me.
Was he arrested by the board sherriff and thrown in whistle board jail?.
I don’t remember seeing any post’s for a while or did I miss something?.
Phil
Some of us made it clear that we didn’t care for his habit of mocking board memebers while at the same time never making any positive contributions. So, he chose to leave. Breaks my heart…
Loren
Maybe someone could write a javascript program that would automatically create snide, demeaning, rediculing responses to every post on this board. It would be important that they had nothing to do with whistles either. I know it would be hard, but we’ve got some talented people on this board and it would be well worth it just to have every discussion disrupted by inane, sarcastic jibes and to have every member of the board belittled, and rediculed.
Chris
[ This Message was edited by: ChrisLaughlin on 2001-12-03 11:54 ]
Oh,so thats what happened!.
He did make me chuckle a fews times though.
Never mind.
Phil.
The guy has a knack for attracting attention, and I must admit, his “farewell address” was pretty funny. After reading it, I got the distinct feeling that several of us had been had, that there was some grand joke going on.
But I don’t get it.
Surly to bed and surly to rise–
Tom
Unfortunately, it’s a lot easier to attract attention by being rude, snide and venomous than by being kind, friendly and helpful.
Chris
Ok, I’m on it. I’ll try to have it ready by the new year. Could everybody help by sending me examples of non-whistle oriented, snide, demeaning, ridiculing responses? I want this to satisfy everyone. 
On 2001-12-03 11:34, ChrisLaughlin wrote:
Maybe someone could write a javascript program that would automatically create snide, demeaning, rediculing responses to every post on this board. It would be important that they had nothing to do with whistles either. I know it would be hard, but we’ve got some talented people on this board and it would be well worth it just to have every discussion disrupted by inane, sarcastic jibes and to have every member of the board belittled, and rediculed.
Chris[ This Message was edited by: ChrisLaughlin on 2001-12-03 11:54 ]
People hated Andy Kaufman in his lifetime as well…
He posted today in another thread: http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?topic=1731&forum=1&8
Yes, and there’s a reference to
a recording he’s entered in Clips n’
Snips–he plays quite well.
Since we’re on the subject of missing people, I wonder where Ciaran is…
Hrm. I never really noticed Porrige at all until people started making a huge huge stink about him anyhow. Probably because I’m used to message boards where the drama’s always high and I tend to ignore morons almost subconsciously now… shrugs
Y’all need to get a sense of humour…
This guy was just stringing you all along…
I found his posts quite entertaining.
Cheers
Gerry
Sense of humor or not, you’re going to run into a certain percentage of the population that doesn’t like being the butt of jokes. Where I grew up, there was a certain ettiquite to that kind of potentially offensive communication. If you were going to make fun of someone, it was best if you got to know them and became friends with them first.
For instance, it’d be OK for my friends to give me a good ribbing about any number of subjects like my clothes, girlfriend, or whatever. However, if a complete stranger came up to me and started making fun of me about any of those same subjects, it’d generally be interpreted as a challenge or as someone looking for trouble. Porridge may have meant no harm in his humor, but he essentialy walked into a fairly close-knit community, and started poking fun before getting to know any of us or giving us the opportunity to get to know him. Regardless of whether or not he meant any trouble, some people were bound to be offended/troubled/concerned.
I personally wasn’t offended, though I did relegate his posts to the mental trash bin once the fairly singular nature of his posts became apparent. From what I gather, the board has had ‘anonymous poster abuse’ problems in the past (before my time) making some of the older community members wary.
In the past, I’ve tried to talk on a few usenet newsgroups (such as rec.martial-arts.moderated) where even the moderated signal-to-noise ratio was really really low (meaning that there wasn’t much useful information to be had/shared there due to all of the other crud going on). The C&F message board has always had a very high ratio of topicality. I can’t really fault anyone for being concerned about possible disruptions to that status quo. I know that I’d personally be very disappointed and quit participating if posts like Porridge’s became the norm, rather than the rare exception.
Greg
I agree about the topicality issue. This board is for whistle talk primarily, and some of his posts were humorous, but sometimes they were bizarre and made some folks uneasy. I too appreciate the high topicality ratio here and the general civility with which most folks conduct themselves, even when we disagree. I’ve been on boards where people got downright rude and crude, including one board when I was studying for a professional exam. Apparently some folks just live to try and shock others rather than do something constructive.
Yes, he was entertaining, but maybe he should start his own board of, well, whatever it is he was doing. Just my 2 cents. And I do already have a sense of humor!
[ This Message was edited by: cj on 2001-12-04 14:08 ]
Hello Phil and everyone else.
Porridge here. OK, not Porridge, but the person posing as Porridge. I have taken off the Porridge persona and am talking to you all without a hint of devious satire. I do post to the board from time to time, but under another name. My other contributions are mostly positive, by the way.
Sitting here reading your speculations about me (it’s very strange being talked about in the third person, you know) prompts me to chime in.
So what happened to me? I just realized that it would be better for the board if Porridge retired. He was getting a little out of hand. It seems that few people understood why I was making what seemed to be bizarre posts. Let me try to explain. Just so you can maybe understand that I’m not really sinister or vengeful. At least, not in my own mind.
Porridge began life as a way of making a serious point. You may remember a post by one Cinead (whatever happened to him, BTW) to the effect of “I won’t tell you who I am but I’m very important and will reveal my true identity in due course.” This generated a lot of replies. I found it all a little gross and really nothing to do with whistles. But what could I do? Answer Cinead and say “I think your post is nauseatingly self-important, would you please get a life?” That would have been grossly rude. It’s what I felt like saying, but I could not do so.
I thought about it for a while and then came up with my answer, which was to make a totally daft post about what an important person I (Porridge) was and could you guess my identity? I assumed the mantle of Jeffrey Archer (a much more nauseatingly self-important person than Cinead) just for a giggle. I couldn’t believe it when people took the spoof seriously. Even Cinead, which I thought was really funny. I even posted an explanation that it was all a spoof and that self-important people were the target, so I was sure you would all know where I was coming from. But even that didn’t work.
I should have left things there, I supposed. But having invented Porridge I couldn’t resist using him to take a couple of light-hearted swipes at other people. One of course was a certain member who keeps on posting photographs of herself and her holidays and her cats. Now in truth I don’t dislike this person at all, but I did think her constant plastering of photos all over the board was inappropriate. So I used the same strategy to make my point, posting some pics of “me” (Archer). I also had a dig at you Phil because I thought you were sailing close to the wind after all the controversy about what was and what was not acceptable commercial posting.
I would have thought that what I was up to would be totally obvious. But again, I was taken seriously by many, and as devious by others. Despite the popularity of Monty Python in the US many people didn’t realize it was satire in the English tradition.
Seeing that few people got the jokes and others seemed to think there was something evil in what I was doing, I decided it would be best to retire.
So that’s what happened to me.
Now I admit that hiding behind Porridge to take my swipes is really bad form and contrary to the spirit of the board, and that I apologize for. But I’m not going to fess up now!
All the best everyone and not too many hard feelings I hope. I’ve learned a lesson and maybe my explanations will help some of you understand the storm in a teacup I seem to have aroused.
The poster formerly known as “Porridge”
HA
On 2001-12-04 14:50, Porridge wrote:
. . . Porridge began life as a way of making a serious point. You may remember a post by one Cinead. . .
I forget who it was, but someone I wrote off line owes me $20 for making that prognostication earlier this year.
PAY UP! Baby needs a new fipple. . .
Bravo! I was hoping to hear it from the horse’s mouth. Some people have no sense of ha-ha. Shine on, you crazy diamond.
The internet is very odd, because
often what one types in as a well-meant
joke is given a completely
different darker meaning by the (thousands
of)readers. Anything at all circuitous
or involuted in intent tends to
backfire. Also it’s well to err on the
side of kindness toward eccentrics,
or else there would be no one left
on the board except for you and me, and
I’m not so sure about me.
Shewt. . .I wish I had the cojones to knock some self-important heads together, even using a pseudonym. There are a few idjits on this board (my choices, not necessarily in agreement with Porridge’s) who think a bit too highly of themselves and could use some pointed barbs.
In regard to Porridge him/herself, I wasn’t around for the instigating post, but the Porridge take-off was offputting to me, so I merrily ignored them until the Farewell fiasco, and through that I laughed myself silly.
The explanation, though, was gracious and much appreciated. . .don’t retire just yet. Some of us don’t mind the joke.