British Tennis Forum

mdewey · Junior player

RE: old faces

Sheddie · administrator

Coup Droit wrote:
In the bigger picture, however, the mods MUST resolve the new member registration issue - I assumed it was resolved

Steven, everyone - the forum gets stale if there are no new voices - the numbers diminish (they can only go one way) and it will die

It should be TOP priority

I've now got access again to the admin panel - have messaged Activeboard about the issue, and sent them a screenshot of the bug. Hopefully they can sort asap.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Sheddie wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
In the bigger picture, however, the mods MUST resolve the new member registration issue - I assumed it was resolved

Steven, everyone - the forum gets stale if there are no new voices - the numbers diminish (they can only go one way) and it will die

It should be TOP priority
I've now got access again to the admin panel - have messaged Activeboard about the issue, and sent them a screenshot of the bug. Hopefully they can sort asap.

Great, thanks Sheddie!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Sheddie wrote:
It might be nice if someone reached out to Strongbow directly?

If so, DM me and I can provide his email

fyi, I emailed Strongbow - hopefully he will be willing to return once the dust has settled, let's see - I havent heard back from him yet.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Didnt hear back from Strongbow yet, sadly, maybe today. Suspicion is he would have responded by now, though.

Lets see - although no harm , maybe, if anyone else wanted to try - I wont follow up or pester personally.

indiana · Tennis legend

JonH comes home wrote:
Didnt hear back from Strongbow yet, sadly, maybe today. Suspicion is he would have responded by now, though.

Lets see - although no harm , maybe, if anyone else wanted to try - I wont follow up or pester personally.

You've emailed him, and thank you for that. I'd just give him a little time and space before any follow-up ( from anyone if you have partly spoken for the forum ). Could certainly contact him if and when the new member problem is sorted but that doesn't look at all imminent.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Didnt hear back from Strongbow yet, sadly, maybe today. Suspicion is he would have responded by now, though.

Lets see - although no harm , maybe, if anyone else wanted to try - I wont follow up or pester personally.
You've emailed him, and thank you for that. I'd just give him a little time and space before any follow-up ( from anyone if you havd partly spoken for the forum ). Could certainly contact him if and when the new member problem is sorted but that doesn't look at all imminent.

no agreed, it is his call totally. Hopefully he will read it and consider when he is ready

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Yes, it's like the consumer cooling off period

A bit of space, a bit of time passed, and then sometimes people view things differently

Peter too · Tennis legend

I know where he was coming from. Words and names that were acceptable during my childhood no longer are. As a child I had a copy of a book by Agatha Christie that was later turned into a film. The title of the book was taken straight out of a chant we used to recite as children without in any way thinking it was insulting but would now have huge repercussions. The name of the book has changed twice since the original version. The problem is that as one gets older memories from ones childhood and youth become stronger than memories from last week making it ever harder to avoid embarrassing mistakes.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Peter too wrote:
I know where he was coming from. Words and names that were acceptable during my childhood no longer are. As a child I had a copy of a book by Agatha Christie that was later turned into a film. The title of the book was taken straight out of a chant we used to recite as children without in any way thinking it was insulting but would now have huge repercussions. The name of the book has changed twice since the original version. The problem is that as one gets older memories from ones childhood and youth become stronger than memories from last week making it ever harder to avoid embarrassing mistakes.

Well said and so true.

wales1994 · County player

Completely agree that the original post didnt come across as malicious, but I also think its important to address things like this politely to avoid the risk of offending someone - especially someone from a minority ethnic background. British tennis has historically represented a very narrow demographic (though thankfully thats changing), so sensitivity around language matters.

I grew up in rural south Wales, where racist language was sadly quite normalised. It wasnt until I moved to London that I realised how many everyday phrases and words Id heard growing up were downright racist and problematic. But Ive grown, and I always try to do better - thats all any of us can do. Ive heard those kinds of terms used by my dad or grandparents and when I explain why theyre inappropriate, they usually apologise and ask what would be better to say. I think thats the healthiest way to respond.

That said, I do think the comment about being less woke felt a bit unfair. To me, wokeness just means being considerate of other peoples feelings. As a gay man, I hear careless or derogatory remarks regularly - but intent really matters. If someone means harm, thats a bigger issue. But if its an honest mistake, its an opportunity for growth. En fin, theres nothing wrong with being woke if it just means being kind and mindful.

Shhh · Challenger level

marat99 wrote:
Agree what an ignorant comment

There is just no need to reply like that marat99. In what way do you think "this" is not offensive? One of the ways this board does so well is that most of the time (with a few exceptions) people discuss, debate and are pretty civil to each other. Its refreshing, almost unique these days. You are very welcome here and I look forward to reading your input but please, by nice.

-- Edited by Shhh on Tuesday 13th of May 2025 11:28:30 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Peter too wrote:
I know where he was coming from. Words and names that were acceptable during my childhood no longer are. As a child I had a copy of a book by Agatha Christie that was later turned into a film. The title of the book was taken straight out of a chant we used to recite as children without in any way thinking it was insulting but would now have huge repercussions. The name of the book has changed twice since the original version. The problem is that as one gets older memories from ones childhood and youth become stronger than memories from last week making it ever harder to avoid embarrassing mistakes.

It's an interesting point about childhood memories becoming stronger

Similarly, there are also certain things in my memory bank that are completely dormant and I've never thought about for decades

For instance, I learned the 'eeny meeny miny mo' counting rhyme. Nowadays (maybe then in certain places), I know it has 'tiger' in it but the version I learned had the offensive word in it

At the age of 30 or 35, I get called on to shout out the rhyme, as part of a children's get-together in the park

And I start saying it, nice and loud, on automatic mode, and I suddenly freeze just before the 'bad word' - my tongue feels twice its size in my mouth - I'm in front of tons of kids and their parents - I was right on the verge of shouting it out - and I suddenly realise that I haven't said this rhyme since I was about 6 or 7 - I never knew what it meant then, I didn't know what you were catching, or what holler means, it was all just a mantra, doggerel, I was only 7, and it's in my memory, logged there without any analysis, as gibberish, like supercalifragilisitc.....

But actually it's not gibberish.

Anyway, again, it's not an excuse, but I was getting heart palpitations for the rest of the afternoon

Just by the by.....

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

And things change so quickly. Its not many years at all since David Williams and Matt Little had that programme, Come Fly With Me. It had been erased by the BBC. I used to love it, having worked for BA for many years and been around airports a lot of my career. But the characters - looking back, how did they get through? The Caribbean coffee lady, the Asian ground handler guy , the Japanese Martin Clunes fanatics. And more- not just one way though, the racist border control guy.

Looking back though, it is hard to think it could ever get approved to be on tv but it was only 2010 when it was commissioned

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Fly_with_Me_(2010_TV_series)

And yet:

In June 2020, Come Fly with Me, alongside Little Britain, was removed from Netflix for its use of blackface, brownface and yellowface; six months prior it had also been removed from BritBox. It had not been available on iPlayer.[35][36] A spokesperson for the BBC said: "Theres a lot of historical programming available on BBC iPlayer, which we regularly review". On its decision to remove the shows, BritBox added: "Times have changed since Little Britain first aired, so it is not currently available on BritBox. Come Fly With Me has not been available on the service for six months"

Peter too · Tennis legend

The old/new memory problem as you get older is even more marked when suffering from Alzheimers or vascular dementia. My wife had a phenomenal memory in her younger days, if she read something she remembered it. She called it a dustbin memory. In her later years she was puzzled by a mirror as she thought she was still a teenager and the reflection didn't show that. She would get up in the middle of the night saying "I must get home my parents will be getting worried about me". All memory of the intervening 60+ years had gone.

The changing attitude to certain words through my life has been very marked. I used to have very dark brown hair which my mother used to describe using a word that is now totally unacceptable today but then was in as much common usage lime green or sky blue. Many names were used to label people from various countries or groupings, including Britain. There was an American comedian called Lenny Bruce who's act used to challenge attitudes by going into many unacceptable areas and was often offensive. He was banned from many places including the UK by one Home Secretary, yet many considered him one of the greatest of all comedians. Much of his act was made up as he went along. On one (in)famous occasion he turned to the audience and asked "are there any aaa here tonight?" using the most offensive of all names. There was stunned silence. He followed with "well are there any bbb?", muttering in the audience, "no? well how about any ccc?" some members of the audience started getting up to leave. He continued reeling off one label after another, the audience looked on wondering where he was going then looked amused and finally started laughing. He had labelled and insulted virtually everybody in the audience. You were left wondering, if everybody is labelled with an insulting name is anyone insulted?

-- Edited by Peter too on Tuesday 13th of May 2025 01:07:08 PM