to me it's a place i can keep in touch with old friends, hear about news from those people and the greater courier community. i partake in a little party spammage but it's advertising directed at people who know me and what i do and often they are involved anyway so who cares.

further to that there have been some people who have come on here as courier n00bs (muppets IRL ) who upon meeting in the flesh i have realised are genuinely lovely people- not that i could fault their web etiquette but a five minute meeting in the real world counts for than a million words on any forum, eg: maurycy absolute nothing to meet, troll on the boards, wouldn't dare say shit or own his words to someone facing him but behind a keyboard with a forum in front of him can troll the fuck out of this place. which brings me onto my next point:

MT is incredibly susceptible to trolls: we have a passionate community that genuinely care about their own (is this not where this site sprung from?) but who are also not online alot and are not familiar with the way that trolls work- how they exploit the things people care about to get a rise, the similar arguments they fall back on "do i not have a right to air my opinions?" "is it wrong that i think differently to you?" etc.

i would like to see some kind of guidelines to posting here, particularly in respect of dead couriers put on a page that you must say you have read before you post here. i understand that moderation is difficult and not always desirable but some shit that has been said on here recently i think deserves an outright IP ban... an ignore function would be nice but i'm no longer hung up on a proper private message system as i've discovered a way to abuse the whisper function (someone is in no doubt as to just how long longcat is and i will do this after every post of theirs i see here, i would appreciate it if admin kept the trolls from the html).

i fucking love this site, it is different from other sites i'm on in that the community came first, the site second. this means that bill is providing this for far less credit than would be gotten were it the other way round.

ps. i'm not trying to make this site an exclusive club, just to exclude the elements that are offensive and at times upsetting to our regulars.

pps. cheers bill for keeping up with this shit.

Best to thank _targetbot, he did the code and hosting.

It's your forum, guys, in the end. I am really reluctant to ban anyone, but...

Sleepy,your post is probably the best thing I've read on here I wish I was as eloquent as you. I took great offence to the remarks made by maurycy and I want to see him face to face.It was upsetting to see this on here when in the last year The LCEF was set up,a lot of money raised by couriers/non-couriers some of whom came on the memorial ride-I cant believe this guy turned up-and a just a genuine sense of community that exists in the real world,our world.Best thing to do now is just ignore the troll and take back our site.I dont care if he's banned or not but I do wanna catch up with him.
Ride safe.

Maurycy - Muppet of ther Month April 2009

Sleeps, were you crying when you wrote this?? Don't let the bastards grind you down mate.

Personally I wouldn't want MT to be moderated, however annoying it can be when someone gets all slack-jaw and confused. Fair to say they get a meaty mouthful in return which is about right. I much prefer 'open forum'.

I come here to annoy Bill.

I love moving target!

It's the only website I look at with any regularity (I have quite a dislike for internet forums in general).
It strikes me that unlike most internet forums there isn't one theme running through what is posted here.This may sound strange considering it's a site based on a fairly niche activity, but I think sleepy puts it very well by saying the community came first. The site doesn't need to pander to anything in particular.

I come here because, try as I might, a job I stopped doing 5 years ago still has a deep meaning to me and I'm interested in those that pursue a similar path namely because they are all so different to each other.


maurycys comment (out of context) "of course it could be me who had a wrong impression of the courier's character" shows that there is a cliched idea of what makes a cycle messenger, when in fact there are as many different types of character earning a living riding a bike as there are people earning a living by riding a bike.

Certainly something borne out by this forum.

Having re-read your post Sleepy, I can understand more clearly now why you're angry and why you want to defend MT against this ugly meat-head contingent who insist on coming here to post their obnoxious, ill-advised shit.

I remember very clearly last year my complete and utter dismay at reading Cunt Basie's comments on couriers and cyclists who had died using THE MOST disrespectful language and arguing sick points of view that are completely and totally at odds with the vast majority of other people on here. There is something seriously not right with this, I find it abhorrent. Sadly Maurycy sounds just like misguided, confused Son of Basie to me and I look forward to his meeting with Overdrive. And you're completely correct Sleepy when you say you worry about if whether a friend or relative of someone who's died should come on here and read something so starkly ugly as what your pointing out because as you and others quite righly say here, it just does not represent the view, feeling or experience of the courier community as I see it.

Yes everyone's entitled to an opinion, we learned that in school. But as Bill has said elsewhere, the idea of coming onto an open forum with a pseudonym simply to use it as an excuse to ply shitty, abhorrent, devils advocate tripe is pretty fucking stupid.

I've been thinking about the question why do I come here? but it feels a bit like 'explaining the joke' to me - it becomes unfunny. Anyway, it's in my favourites and as an example I think I remember logging on when I was in India a couple of years ago just to keep in touch with what's what and what's happening (lest I miss something!). Anyway, I've got the fucking t-shirt mate.

Keep it realenger.

Clean & clear cut design, very sharp & clever, easy to navigate/read, forum and front page melt seamlessly. And some fantastic graphical and verbal content from Bill/forum users. Geek`s dream- big up targetbot & Bill & the posse!
Zillions of useful tips for either n00b or a commuter that probably saved me a few quid and some grief too.
Being informed about some grand events, through which i`ve met some of the MTers & real engers
in flesh, and predictably ;) you`re an amazing bunch. (also, a tip from a regular combined with snow, got me a new job- that cider`s still on the borg Em :)

So there`s some reasons for you sleepy, and please folks excuse any incoherence/pomposity as I can match that drunkedness with my stonedness as I write this...
It`s an only net forum forum I ever posted regulaly on, and I`ve been around, uh, since that doggone web started. Everything else always succumbs to trolls or gets flooded with crap...or is simply boring. It`s a privilege to be a part of a real and vibrant web/IRL community and be allowed to occasionaly spam it`s fortress with some pointless comments ;)
That always seemed a strong point of MT to me, a self-moderation of sorts. And Bill`s style of not banhammering around. But this recent BasMauyrycy thing seems surrealy out of line though, I can`t fathom it -even if you`re insane enough to make comments like these, there is a point when you have to shut up for godssakes... I`d be rather surprised if I ever seen any more comments from this unDynamic Duo.

(omg, a novel, must...edit..to 1 line...aaargh;)

I read MT because I like cycling, Bill writes nicely, and I want to know what people are are worried about/enjoing.

Sleepy asked me if I was a troll in one thread after I made a joke that obviously fell on stony ground. It wasn't offensive, though.

There should always be room for a bit of legpulling, amd most normal humans have a reasonable taste radar which, as far as I can see, has kept the forum mostly in line.

There is a huge majority of good people on here - this thread is a great example of self-policing.

i rarely post and up until a month or so ago i didn't even bother joining. i just read. i enjoyed reading all the sillyness cause, even though we are an ocean apart it's funny to read that we all go through the same sh*t.

as far as the silly troll going around starting drama...well...i say just let it ride. that cat ain't worth it. most of us in the courier world know that an injury to one is an injury to all...peace.

I able to be in the middle of the bush many miles away and still annoy Overdrive, this site is priceless. That and keep in touch with the goings on at street level.

I like MT as it allows me to write longer articles / responses / opinions than Facebook and read other couriers opinions and have a laugh after work when I'm internet bound in Winter. Cheers to the MT crew for continuing to run the site.

So does your nob.

Fuck its one big bundle of laughs on here at the moment innit. Winter greyness I blame - you've all got S.A.D. syndrome whether you admit it or not