Kevin Tiller

On the running front, it was a good news/bad news time. I took the day off on Friday as I was racing the Kembla Joggers 5km on Saturday and had a chance to run with Fats afterwards. Anyway I sat up till 1am reading and hopped into bed. My phone has a dodgy battery so had to to reboot with AC power whilst I was waiting for this, I fell asleep and so didn’t change the alarm time, so woke up too late to get there in time. I was pissed off to say the least. Then I had to count and bag some more recycled running shoes to drop off to AFAP. This took most of the day, and when I got back I took the kids to the wharf from jumping/diving. I did a fair swim afterwards.

Sunday I got in a decent run to Garie Beach from Curra Moors and had a quick dip in the water at Garie, all up approx 1h 45m running. In the afternoon I did a HUGE swim from Horderns to the middle of Bonnie Vale and back, about 2.5km in all but I was swimming against the tide on the way back and the waves were fairly big so it was a pretty mega swim all up. The missus came by kayak to make sure I didn’t drown or get creamed by a dick on a boat. Needless to say that come this morning (Monday) My legs, arms, chest etc were totally wrecked.

I had decided on about Thurs that I should stop posting/moderating on the CoolRunning forums. I guess I have not been enjoying it and want to do other things. Spending time arguing is not good for me (or anyone else). I think all the other mods agreed. They politely said I should have a break…. I have been reviewing some old items like the End of An Era posts from 2005 and I said there that I wouldn’t carry on forever – I had said I would gradually drop out of the picture. On Friday I told the moderators that I’d stop for just the weekend but I feel like I should leave it another week.

I am still working on other parts of the site and don’t plan to quit that yet. No one has really volunteered to be the “spokesperson” on the forums replacing me yet, we will see how it goes. There are a truck load of other people so it shouldn’t be too hard. Maybe we don’t need a front person. I like it down the back here anyway.

Had a conversation with someone about a lack of a clear moderating policy – we do have a policy but its not very specific. I don’t really want too many rules as most of the time you need to read in context and with perspective. I don’t know anymore. I like the phrase “the more I see – the more I know, The more I know – the less I understand“.

For newbies to CR, you should read the end of an era stuff, as it gives some idea of where we have been coming from. Yes its taken nearly 4 years to get this far !

I also found these that I thought were funny :

Thread on CR censorship from 2006

Thread on Lame Topics from 2006 (score:  27 lame, 24 not lame):

ps thanks for the neat comments on the blog – I do read them all.

ps Colsy/Plu – the forums allow you to upload mp3 files up to 2Mb as is.
I have just enabled mp3 uploads on the wiki – but not sure of the biggest size it takes (likely 2mb also but give it a go)

As this was posted to my old blog on coolrunning, it had these comments attached :

by Tim: oh dear.  missing your alarm!  Kev.  I had a think about all the lame stuff on CR over the weekend.  When at a race like the GNW and hanging with friends you only know cause of CR makes the value and beauty of CR so apparent and all the shit from a handful of knobs just melts away.

by Colsy: I read somewhere once that the best kind of leadership/governance is performed by those who are rarely seen. The opposite to micro-management I guess. I think it is possible for you to successfully run CR without ever being heard from again apart from on the threads that interest you personally.

There is this tendency for some people to always want to know who the manager/law maker/head honcho is so they can blame them for everything. The micro-manager chases after these people putting out the spot fires they create. The successful (invisible) manager sits back, confident in the knowledge that he has people and procedures in place to take care of these wankers. Good entry, good links.

By John Stevens: Aah, the old threads.  I didn’t read these when they were “current” – must’ve been working or something.  But they are so funny!  I have an idea.  How about you close the whole board to new posts, and just pop up some of these classics on the front page.  You know, people could still post, but they’d just think their post had been moderated, when it didn’t ever appear.  In the meantime, change your own and all the other mods e-mail addresses, so you can’t hear the bitching and whining.  The short term benefits are enormous – 1. More time for running, for all the mods.  2. People posting will assume their non-published posts were outside the posting guidelines, so will actually take the time to consider their posts, and tighten up on what they write, in an effort to be published.  3. Everything’s already been said at least once, so recycling of posts makes sense, from an environmental viewpoint as well, don’t you think?
From the old threads, “CR Censorship”, this is my fav: (re- topics allowed on the front page, post by FPT)
“My suggestions would be:
– Beep test
– Lack of motivation
– Name that injury and how it can be fixed with orthotics” .
Aah, I’m a moron, I know.  I run, therefore I am.
Keep running, keep thinking.  It’s interesting to read.  I have a nice Bob the Builder alarm clock, with those big bells on top, if you’d like a lend.  It’s blue and yellow, too.