Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Hi All

With the recent increase around discussion of Mandatory Helmet Laws (MHL's) and other helmet related topics, AUbicycles (Christopher) and the moderators have been discussing how we handle these topics. It is well known that many people feel that these discussion have been done to death, whereas others enjoy breathing new life into them on a regular basis. The reality is, helmet threads require a lot more attention from moderators than any other individual topic (with the exception of auto-spammers).

The bit below is now outdated as a new alternative solution has been found. A new forum section called Cycling Safety for helmet discussions.

As a result, we have decided upon an outcome which hopefully considers members on each side of the fence. Helmet discussions wil continue, however they will continue in a single thread. The thread is in the General Discussion session and can be found here.

There are no special rules for the thread, just the standard forum guidelines. Feel free to debate MHL's, the percieved/actual benefits of helmet use and the like in this thread to your hearts content, provided it's within the guidelines.

Errr, so should/will the current multiple threads be closed then?

TheSkyMovesSideways wrote:Errr, so should/will the current multiple threads be closed then?

Existing threads will eventually be closed off if they continue to see new posts, we would prefer them to come to a natural conclusion as members move to the new thread, rather than snapped off at the current post.

good idea.

I too support the idea of a mandatory helmet thread

about time

TFFT

Big Change:

A big forum, and a good suggestion was added by Kalgrm (mod) to create a new forum section "Cycling Safety". The recent helmet discussions have been moved there (and unlocked). The good thing is that other safety issues can also be discussed here.

If you don't like helmet threads, don't go there. As always, it is still a discussion section and not a flame section so attack the issue and not the person, plus don't get upset if someone doesn't agree with your point of view - that's life, agree to disagree. Preferably there are fewer helmet threads, to avoid old ideas being constantly repeated.

New Forum: Cycling Safety

Gotta set the record straight: Actually, I only suggested a "Helmet" forum. It was Mikesbytes who wanted to make it a wider forum for all safety stuff, to which I agreed whole-heartedly.

So, anything to do with lights, helmets, hi-vis clothing, reflectors, road behaviour and the like should be posted in the new forum. Don't worry too much if you mistakenly place it somewhere else - one of the mods will shift it for you.

Cheers,
Graeme

Cycling Safety is an excellent idea and one I may stick my head into now and make a contribution too because any mention of helmet threads or subjects related to helmets in most cases i gave it a wide birth due to the merry-go-round of dribble.

Can you ban me from this new section? I'd hate to get into trouble for taking the piss

You? Of all the things to take

Sorry Mikesbyte / Kalgrm - I was speed reading, so credit to you both

Excellent solution and a sub-forum that has real value.

Kalgrm wrote:
So, anything to do with lights, helmets, hi-vis clothing, reflectors, road behaviour and the like should be posted in the new forum. Don't worry too much if you mistakenly place it somewhere else - one of the mods will shift it for you.

There's a lot that can fall into the safety category that isn't the kind of dribble that pervades the helmet debut e.g. "Lights" threads generally reach a useful conclusion for the OP's and don't degenerate into the endless proselytizing of the helmet threads.

Would be a shame to see this and other safety related topics quarantined from the general discussion or shed sub-forums. I'd rather see an "endless circles" sub-forum where the helmet debates and any other thread that gets too repetitive could be consigned.

Cheers

This new forum idea seems like an excellent solution, but as wombat points out, there is quite a difference in attitudes between MHL threads and (using his example) threads on what lighting to buy. You'd even expect a "which helmet should I buy" thread to be very different to MHL threads. Perhaps then, instead of the safety forum, there should be a "contentious issues" forum, for things like MHL, claiming the lane vs staying left, registration, whether Campagnolo should be taken seriously after the Italians got the drive-side threading on their bottom bracket design wrong, etc. Lights, etc could stay in the "Buying a bike / parts" forum.

People who didn't want to read the "contentious issues" forum could opt out of it by joining a usergroup which is banned from that forum. Or, you know, people with no interest in helmet law discussion could abstain from reading MHL threads, but apparently that's too hard.

There are a lot of contentious issues, but can't be categorised together.

I am behind the Cycling Safety forum and want to give it a fair go. It doesn't mean that this is a new section for crap... rather members who drag relevant topics into the ground are the ones responsible for devaluing a topic. Now until these members violate the forum guidelines, then it would be unfair for me or any mod to take action against them or their content until it violates guidelines. I (plus mods) are more than happy when members help pick up the tone of the discussion and activity ignore the crap... this is probably the best way to help turn it around. In fact, the member reporting is really good.

If someone had a "Which helmet do I buy" thread then that would be in the Buying a Bike / Gear section and only a dingbat would turn it into a helmet debate.

I have to disagree with this solution. It is an obvious 'nanny-state' measure which will not save the moderators any time really - as shown by statistics from cycling websites in Iceland in the late 1980s which tried this measure and actually found an increase in the number of inappropriate helmet-argument threads in other areas of the message board!

Calls BS Westgarth.

I'm saving a shedload of time by ignoring them. I wait for reports before looking.

Mulger bill wrote:Calls BS Westgarth.

I'm saving a shedload of time by ignoring them. I wait for reports before looking.

Who reported Westgarth's post, and why were you reading it if it wasn't reported?

Kalgrm wrote:

Mulger bill wrote:Calls BS Westgarth.

I'm saving a shedload of time by ignoring them. I wait for reports before looking.

Who reported Westgarth's post, and why were you reading it if it wasn't reported?

Because it aint a helmet thread o'course, it's a thread about threads about helmet threads...

See what I mean! It's already generating more work for the admins!

It should be up to individuals whether they want to post about compulsory helmet laws or not to do so. Freedom of choice!

Can the mods setup an auto delete post feature when the word helmet is used ?

Thanks for creating the Safety forum, now it's easy to ignore a whole section ...

I like white helmets. Discuss.

(hope this won't get deleted by the new auto-"helmet"-delete function.)

MichaelB wrote:Can the mods setup an auto delete post feature when the word helmet is used ?

Thanks for creating the Safety forum, now it's easy to ignore a whole section ...

What is we get a person named Helmet? It is a german name isn't it? or is that helmut?