I used to regularly visit other blackbird & bike forums.
Like many on here back then IXXRA was as visited as Bird and a lot of us were active on both.
Bird has stayed important for both the technical and friendship aspects.
For some reason the mix on here just seems to work.
I suspect it has mostly to do with JAWS attitude in the early days.
Massive enthusiasm for all things blackbird plus allowing free and open discussion with very loose and rarely used limits/moderating.
As a result thus is more like meeting mates in the pub. You can say what you like but you'll still get a smack in the chops if you overstep!
There were also much more actual meets ups in the various areas of the country. Again that cemented relationships.
Like many I see myself remaining here even if the day comes when I no longer have a bike
I will never forget when we were hosted on bikers oracle and due to server works had to share forum/space with others.
We were asked to "tone it down" beforehand and duly did so. Despite that many were still upset and found the open speech and wacky humour too much
But then, many others found it a refreshing change and realised that "their section" was normally so tightly controlled/moderated that it was more like a primary school classroom!
As for objecting to paying for the help section
sorry, but anyone objecting to that is daft (I'm being polite there).
It's not much and in any case if someone was really on hard times and couldn't afford it I reckon a way would be found to sort it out for them.
Bird has somehow created a unique environment which continues.
Again ill finish by saying that it's clear where that originates......
Take a bow JAWS.
Leadership, even when informal, comes from the top down
