All right, so this turned into a situation, and I figured I'd add my perspective. Obviously, this thread means a fair amount to me, and I absolutely love managing it. On occasion, things take a turn and updates, suggestions, and the like take a back seat to a misunderstanding, that has the potential of getting taken out of context, or escalating. I can say with 100% confidence that there never been a malicious comment made here. An assumption was made, and probably safely, but as the year goes on, the safety of that assumption goes down. That assumption is that the participants read the entire thread, and while that is true for the majority, it isn't true for everyone. In this particular situation, context surrounding Bracken_Joy's comment was missed, and I can see how. Since we are a community of people who challenge beliefs, challenge assumptions, and share our own experiences, sometimes the idea of challenging/facepunching becomes a default reaction. This is fair enough, and it's kind of to be expected in this community as a whole. However, since the context was missed, the facepunch response can easily be taken as an attack, even when it was not meant to be. I saw that, and that's why I commented earlier. No fault of anyone, and the quotes below confirm that for me.
Sorry, wasn't intending to come across as a punk. Sounds like a case of me misreading your post and coming across shitty in response.
I'm just not out to hurt people's feelings.
I want to apologize if I did anything to make people feel uncomfortable.
This is the kind of community we have. This thread is a bit of a special case, because we kind of bypass the facepunches and go straight to mutual support and solution-oriented discussions, but it's not always obvious from the get go. I'll make sure I add that to the first thread for next year. You all rock!!
I've been on this thread from the beginning, as well as the previous iterations and I have noticed that quite a few previous participants have left. Seems to have coincided with the arrival of more "hardcore" members...not saying 600 pound calf raises aren't impressive. I do fear that this sort of thing may have proved a bit intimidating to participants who have left.
Not sure if a separate bodybuilder/strong(wo)man thread is the answer - actually, I don't really like that idea - as long as "Strength" is part of the thread title, these folks should be included. I'm just looking to for a way to bring this thread back to it's fun, supportive past.... for EVERYONE.
Then again, I may be alone in reading things in this way. I'm just not FEELING this thread of late. Bracken Joy's post just brought these thoughts to the surface.
I understand that sentiment, but based on what happened last year, that is kind of the evolution of it. We constantly have new people coming in, and not all of them are as crazy as I am and insist on catching up before posting. And that's totally fine. Last year, a similar thing happened, except it was less folks focusing on body-building, and more body-weight/outdoor activities people joining in the middle. I think it may have come across as focused on that, simply because the things involved in power-lifting and body-building are a lot more specific than those of us who do things like yoga, kayaking, slacklining, hiking, climbing etc. It'd be something amazing to see someone who just gets that type of workout based on their day-to-day adventures and activities (a tow truck driver who doesn't have a truck?)
I don't think a separate thread is the answer, but I might be a little more specific in the future as far as guidelines and the sense of community this specific thread cultivates. Also, the entire concept of competing against past you is an integral part of this, and making sure that it's mentioned to new participants should reduce the intimidation factor.
So yeah, things got off track a bit, feelings were felt, responses were thought of and made, clarification was achieved, and we all seem pretty damn good now.
Soon, we'll be able to make a comment like I can regarding JS and JoRocka. "You remember that time when JoRocka thought that Jon_Snow was being racist because he commented about Mexicans in the gym? That was pretty damn funny. I love this place!"