Hi all,

The Pro tour topic will not be coming back. That is the final decision that has been made today. We will run a Tour de France Special topic instead. This topics intended use is to constructively discuss exceptional pro team parts and components. Comments such as: "that is an ugly bike." and "+1" or any other form of outings like that will be deleted and the posters of the comments will receive a warning. There is also no need to go in lengthy discussions over decisions made by the teams, both tactics and parts wise. The team made the decision to do so, weather it is stupid or not.

The topic will be opened three days before the Grand Depart in Rotterdam and will be closed the day after the tour has finished in Paris.
You can find the topic in the chat section of the forum.

Thanks

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Looking forward to seeing some TdF bling.

Just to clarify a point, if people do wish to discuss in depth aspects of a team/teams equipment (Sky's wheel for example) would it be better, or permissible to start a separate thread for this? In Chat if not specific about equipment?

_________________
"Physiology is all just propaganda and lies... all waiting to be disproven by the next study."
"I'm not a real doctor; But I am a real worm; I am an actual worm." - TMBG

Will there also be a Paris-Roubaix thread?

@Bcheung, lets first focus on the TDF and then see what the options are.

@Tapeworm, Good point! I think that when it is once or twice said that they are indeed riding Hed rims with DA hubs. things should be clear, right?

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'Tape was made to wrap your GF's gifts, NOT hold a freakin tire on.'

Follow me on twitter. I try to be interesting
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A weak, arbitrary, and inconsistent attempt for a solution.

I guess we just can't please them all.

_________________
'Tape was made to wrap your GF's gifts, NOT hold a freakin tire on.'

Follow me on twitter. I try to be interesting
On Facebook!

Is there anything wrong with using this thread, which was created in an attempt to appease those asking for less Pro related chat in the Pro Gear thread...

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I think this is a pretty workable solution to the problem. Won't make everyone happy, but it should satisfy the desire to gab about all the cool new TdF parts! A few questions:

1. Can we expect similar topics for upcoming major races? (Vuelta, World's, etc.) (I hope so!)
2. Will the topic still be accessible after it's closed, in case any of us want to go back and re-examine things later on? (I hope so again!)
3. Will the thread be specifically limited to WW-specific components, or can heavy TdF parts be discussed as well? (I hope so, even though that may not be "in keeping with the spirit of WW)

Also, I agree with Tapeworm about occasionally opening separate threads for in-depth discussions on certain parts, provided they stay on-topic and not simply filled with blather or +1's.

Thanks, mods, for the hard work.

Woohoo! TdF has better new gear than any of the other pro races anyway... good work Frankie.

You deleted a whole 2000 posts thread and now you expect people to keep posting pro equipment news? Maybe we are lucky and you don't decide to delete it again? Good luck with that...

I'm glad that there are others forums out there that respect their community.

No, but you can at least try to treat forum users in a respectable way. The whole tone of this new topic is 'rules, rules, rules, or else!'. By the words alone, I get the idea that your whole view of this forum community as misbehaving and in need to be treated like children, or the whole forum turns to chaos. With this new topic, you allow users to talk about TdF bike stuff in that specific topic. Read that and read it again. If it does not sound strange, read it again.

Apparently, the moderators' glasses are half empty and that is a sad thing. Enforce rules on misbehaving individuals, leave the rest alone.

I am being completely honest here, no unneccesary attempt to stir things up. I do not know where it comes from, but when I read such a topic, I want to do something else, like talking about TdF stuff, but not in that topic. That is the way this forum (and many others) has allways worked. Somebody finds a topic interesting and starts it. Mods are there to loosely keep things on topic and topics in the right forum space.

This forum is starting to give me the idea that it is about the mods, not the users and I find it a lot less interesting because of that. Just my opinion. I really liked this forum and read more than I wrote. Please do not mess it up by overmoderation.

vox populi, vox dei.

or, as I like to translate it, never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

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"...when they pulled her from the wreck you know she still had on her shades..."

Too late. It has already been messed up by overmoderation. I am just amazed by the endless locking and deleting that has been going on in here lately. And now there is this pathetic rules-bound TdF thread. This is not fun.

The Pro-Stuff-Thread has been the driving force for me to visit this forum. Also in my experience it has also been the best thread of this kind in any forum I know of. Deleting it? Unbelievable.

While bringing up a TdF thread is the least you could do I don't see where that is any solution considering moderation time and so on.

Was anyone really annoyed by the non-picture posts of that thread?

Yes, mainly because it devolved in to chatter about a great many things, often not related to the topic, weight weenies or cycling in general. It was a great thread having some great "spy shots" of new equipment and bling gear not seen before. But having 3 pages in between the gems I found highly annoying, especially when asked, very politely by the mods to generally keep it on track.

_________________
"Physiology is all just propaganda and lies... all waiting to be disproven by the next study."
"I'm not a real doctor; But I am a real worm; I am an actual worm." - TMBG