RSN ... my last newsgroup

"Greg Fangel" wrote in message news:fEU1d.94230$3l3.19243@attbi_s03...
I was talking to Pat Lanin, a Minnesota High School Nordic ski coach of 30+
years the other day and he said that Nordic skiers are the most supportive,
friendly people in the sporting world.

XC skiing really does attract "good" people. Compared to alpine
skiing, you don't have to worry about leaving your skis outside when
you head indoors. Yeah, occasionally a pair gets ripped off, but
compared to DH, the problem is minor. The racers give an inch and
there's usually no bitching after races as compared to bike races.
Even though I've bike raced for years and met some great people, the
bike race crowd in general seems to have more egos and attitudes than
skiing. I think the newsgroups reflect that.

High school racers (xc) are usually very well behaved compared to
say...a bus load of alpine skiers. I have a feeling that the cross
country running team may be similarly well behaved.

Jay Wenner

"Greg Fangel" wrote in message news:fEU1d.94230$3l3.19243@attbi_s03...
"Chris Cline" wrote in message
o.com...

--- revyakin wrote:

we have the best group of moderators around--
ourselves. amazing, huh?

I was talking to Pat Lanin, a Minnesota High School Nordic ski coach of 30+
years the other day and he said that Nordic skiers are the most supportive,
friendly people in the sporting world.

Must be that total body workout.

Greg Fangel

I have just started reading this newsgroup (in hopes to start doing
Nordic skiing someday myself as I love snow - born in Russian Ural
mountains - but no snow where I have lived recently in US), so I can
not comment on people here yet, but I'm not surprised with your
findings.

I think there are some traits that are more present in one group of
sports enthusiasts vs another group. Even though it is a very general
statement, and there are good people and bad apples everywhere, the
precentage can be different from one group to another.

I've been reading 3 other groups for many years (bicycles.racing,
chess, fitness.weights) and I like them, but there are specific types
of weirdos present in each of them. In chess group (chess is sport in
Russia I hoped to have the less nonsense as it is a game that
stimulates your mind. But no -- there are tons of posts from low rated
people bragging about their chess powers to each other, and then also
there are some people who you can see have had little life outside
their closed strange world and the newsgroup is where they get loose.
In cycling group there is just too much talk in my view about gayness
of some of its regulars, and also too many posts with jocks macho
stuff. The weights group is so unfriendly to poor overweight souls who
wonder in with their naive questions about body-for-wife with a step
master or something like that - breaks my heart to see the replies
they get, plus there are some gurus there that poses the wisdom
(unfortunately nutrition and muscle growing requires indeed a lot of
knowledge - can't argue with that) they share in a very unpleasant way
sometimes. But it can be a very funny group.

If I may continue with my generalizations since you followed that
far...
I would expect the people in this group be of lower temper (i.e.
nordic skiing) - less inclined to post crazy stuff and reply to such,
with a higher persentage of midwest people (in my foreigner's view of
people in this country - midwest folk is the best, although I do not
dislike anybody from other parts). I am sure there are a lot of non-US
people here, but I find all these groups are usually dominated by
Americans. OK, I'm done - didn't mean to say anything offensive, just
thought it could be intersting for you how somebody expects to view
people doing Nordic skiing.

Denis

I think that my be true of any small group that is on the edge of
mainstream society. It's amazing how many people think you are
mentally unbalanced because you look forward to winter. Somebody at a
party recently was complaining about the long, cold nights ahead of us
and I said something to the effect that for me it's just a switch of
sports from biking/kayaking to skiing and I just can't wait for the
snow. That gets some puzzled looks.
Perhaps nordic skiers are just more positive about things because you
really have to be to get outside and enjoy the trails when others are
grumbling about the winter. It's natural selection.

"Greg Fangel" wrote in message news:fEU1d.94230$3l3.19243@attbi_s03...
"Chris Cline" wrote in message
o.com...

--- revyakin wrote:

we have the best group of moderators around--
ourselves. amazing, huh?

I was talking to Pat Lanin, a Minnesota High School Nordic ski coach of 30+
years the other day and he said that Nordic skiers are the most supportive,
friendly people in the sporting world.

Must be that total body workout.

Greg Fangel

I don't understand why anyone would live somewhere year after year and
complain about the weather. There are so many choices in the U.S. for
weather differences. Okay, so if there's no choice of where you must
live at LEAST have the fortitude to accept it and find something good
about it.

June

"Chris Pella" wrote in message
om...
I think that my be true of any small group that is on the edge of
mainstream society. It's amazing how many people think you are
mentally unbalanced because you look forward to winter. Somebody at
a
party recently was complaining about the long, cold nights ahead of
us
and I said something to the effect that for me it's just a switch of
sports from biking/kayaking to skiing and I just can't wait for the
snow. That gets some puzzled looks.
Perhaps nordic skiers are just more positive about things because
you
really have to be to get outside and enjoy the trails when others
are
grumbling about the winter. It's natural selection.

"Greg Fangel" wrote in message
news:fEU1d.94230$3l3.19243@attbi_s03...
"Chris Cline" wrote in message
o.com...

--- revyakin wrote:

we have the best group of moderators around--
ourselves. amazing, huh?

I was talking to Pat Lanin, a Minnesota High School Nordic ski
coach of 30+
years the other day and he said that Nordic skiers are the most
supportive,
friendly people in the sporting world.

Must be that total body workout.

Greg Fangel

On 15 Sep 2004 09:57:21 -0700, (Sly D. Skeez)
wrote:


Even though I've bike raced for years and met some great people, the
bike race crowd in general seems to have more egos and attitudes than
skiing. I think the newsgroups reflect that.

I think that statement reflects the difference in the nature of the
two sports, with bike racing providing more opportunity for people who
are weaker to actually win. So they take it more seriously.

I also have to say that I find the "we're nicer than other people"
lovefests like a lot of the comments in this thread rather simplistic.
There are nice peole and not nice people in most endeavours. I know
that when I feel a need to say that "my people" are nicer than average
it's time to take a reality check and ask myself what's driving it.

JT

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Nah. Granola bars are much more controversial here ;-)

Parham.

Steve McGregor wrote:
"taywood" wrote in message ...

we have the best group of moderators around--
ourselves. amazing, huh?

and long may it stay that way.


You sound like a right wing idealogue. How can we possibly be trusted
to moderate our own NG? Don't we need the government in here?

I thought that this was the case with this NG when it was so well
behaived!?! ;-)

Why not start a Rep/Dem war here and put in Ralph Nader ontop of it also
to get some flames going? ;-))

Greg Fangel wrote:
"Chris Cline" wrote in message
o.com...

--- revyakin wrote:


we have the best group of moderators around--
ourselves. amazing, huh?


I was talking to Pat Lanin, a Minnesota High School Nordic ski coach of 30+
years the other day and he said that Nordic skiers are the most supportive,
friendly people in the sporting world.

He haven't meet Sixten Jernberg then, the most stubborn and grumpier
World Champ there have ever been.

Sly D. Skeez wrote:
XC skiing really does attract "good" people. Compared to alpine
skiing, you don't have to worry about leaving your skis outside when
you head indoors. Yeah, occasionally a pair gets ripped off, but
compared to DH, the problem is minor. The racers give an inch and
there's usually no bitching after races as compared to bike races.
Even though I've bike raced for years and met some great people, the
bike race crowd in general seems to have more egos and attitudes than
skiing. I think the newsgroups reflect that.

My guess is that bike racing, with those big packs and drafting groups
makes it possible for people to fool themselves, i.e. "I'm better than
that other guy, the only reason he beat me in the final sprint was that
he'd been resting back in the peleton all day when I did much more
pulling at the front."

Individual start xc or orienteering makes it _very_ obvious when you
cannot hold the pace, of course in xc you can always blame your wax job,
at least a few times. :-)

High school racers (xc) are usually very well behaved compared to
say...a bus load of alpine skiers. I have a feeling that the cross
country running team may be similarly well behaved.

Orienteering is similar, maybe because there tends to be quite some
overlap between the groups doing it?

Terje

--
-
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"

Janne G wrote:

Steve McGregor wrote:

"taywood" wrote in message
You sound like a right wing idealogue. How can we possibly be trusted
to moderate our own NG? Don't we need the government in here?

I thought that this was the case with this NG when it was so well
behaived!?! ;-)

Why not start a Rep/Dem war here and put in Ralph Nader ontop of it also
to get some flames going? ;-))

We scandinavians can then chime in, telling you how even our
Conservative Party (Høyre - literally 'Right') would be considered part
of the left fringe of the US Democrats.

Finland, Sweden or Denmark would be pretty much exactly the same. :-)

Terje

--
-
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"