Comedic "things you would ban": minor things that irritate you

[Techniquest]

As someone who works in a shop this does my head in. Apparently the customers see it as bad customer service when i tell them to put it back where they got it from…

I know what you mean, it's really annoying!

 

[yorksrob]

I notice that the people calling for alcohol to be banned at sports events don't appear to be the people who actually attend such events.

 

[Gloster]

I notice that the people calling for alcohol to be banned at sports events don't appear to be the people who actually attend such events.

And, for some of them, that is because the results of (excessive) alcohol consumption is why they don’t attend the events.

 

[yorksrob]

And, for some of them, that is because the results of (excessive) alcohol consumption is why they don’t attend the events.

Perhaps if they attended some, they might find things rather less terrible than they imagine.

 

[Techniquest]

I notice that the people calling for alcohol to be banned at sports events don't appear to be the people who actually attend such events.

And, for some of them, that is because the results of (excessive) alcohol consumption is why they don’t attend the events.

Gloster has it spot on. A lot of events I don't personally attend because I have no interest in ball sports (I tried a cricket match recently, it's not my thing but it was worth a try to see if I could find a ball sport I liked), but it is certainly the case that if somewhere has a football or similar game happening, it's best to just evacuate the area and go back on a day when they've all gone home. I've no interest, for example, in being squashed onto a train full of loud, obnoxious football 'fans', especially the sort that start drinking hours before the game.

Incidentally, I feel the same about the latter as I do about charter trains with certain types of locos on them. Far too often you'll come across the 'enthusiast' coaches full of people drinking heavily in the early morning, but then they're fast asleep on the way back. What a way to enjoy a charter train!

Oh and I do go to some sporting events. I've been to a few recently, what with the Commonwealth Games being on. Two of those events were athletics at the Alexander Stadium, and yes even at 10am people were on the beers. Considering how expensive beer/wine/etc was, in the middle of a cost of living crisis, I'm amazed they had the funds to do that! Thankfully, the tea/coffee drinkers outnumbered the boozers by a large margin, and it was a nice atmosphere. Compare that to the opening ceremony where people were drinking heavily all the way through, which made for a much less pleasant atmosphere.

Maybe it's just me, but I really don't think there's a need for consuming alcohol at a sporting event. If you're there to watch and enjoy the team's performance, then surely being sober is better? Granted, I appreciate most people can enjoy a couple of beers and be sensible afterwards, but I stand stubbornly by my view.

I also don't agree with things like 'we won the match' or whatever, unless the individual saying it is actually a part of the team then it's certainly not the correct use of words! I appreciate the enthusiasm and passion behind it, of course, as the speaker is displaying pride in the team's result (or not if their team of choice lost!) which is certainly no bad thing.

 

[yorksrob]

Incidentally, I feel the same about the latter as I do about charter trains with certain types of locos on them. Far too often you'll come across the 'enthusiast' coaches full of people drinking heavily in the early morning, but then they're fast asleep on the way back. What a way to enjoy a charter train!

Now that I agree with - if only because it means such tours tend to run out by the time I like a beer in the afternoon.

Oh and I do go to some sporting events. I've been to a few recently, what with the Commonwealth Games being on. Two of those events were athletics at the Alexander Stadium, and yes even at 10am people were on the beers. Considering how expensive beer/wine/etc was, in the middle of a cost of living crisis, I'm amazed they had the funds to do that! Thankfully, the tea/coffee drinkers outnumbered the boozers by a large margin, and it was a nice atmosphere. Compare that to the opening ceremony where people were drinking heavily all the way through, which made for a much less pleasant atmosphere.

Maybe it's just me, but I really don't think there's a need for consuming alcohol at a sporting event. If you're there to watch and enjoy the team's performance, then surely being sober is better? Granted, I appreciate most people can enjoy a couple of beers and be sensible afterwards, but I stand stubbornly by my view.

I also don't agree with things like 'we won the match' or whatever, unless the individual saying it is actually a part of the team then it's certainly not the correct use of words! I appreciate the enthusiasm and passion behind it, of course, as the speaker is displaying pride in the team's result (or not if their team of choice lost!) which is certainly no bad thing.

Personally, I think it enhances the experience - eventhough I don't tend to go to the bigger sporting events anyway.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

As a response to some of the previous posts (and I may have already "banned" this previously), people who dislike football so much that they make it a personality trait. You're welcome to not like it, my best friend has zero interest in the sport but we have plenty of other shared interests. It isn't a badge of honour though. You should define yourself by what you DO like, not what you don't.

I've got next-to no interest in video gaming, but (other than this sentence) the only way you'll find out is to ask me.

 

[Techniquest]

Now that I agree with - if only because it means such tours tend to run out by the time I like a beer in the afternoon.



Personally, I think it enhances the experience - eventhough I don't tend to go to the bigger sporting events anyway.

Fair enough As you can see in my previous reply I think it takes away from the actual watching of the game, I'm more than happy with my water or, if I'm feeling in the mood for it, a bottle of my preferred fizzy pop.

As a response to some of the previous posts (and I may have already "banned" this previously), people who dislike football so much that they make it a personality trait. You're welcome to not like it, my best friend has zero interest in the sport but we have plenty of other shared interests. It isn't a badge of honour though. You should define yourself by what you DO like, not what you don't.

I've got next-to no interest in video gaming, but (other than this sentence) the only way you'll find out is to ask me.

This is true. Everyone knows what I like, or don't like, I'm not terribly quiet about those. I don't have much whatsoever in common with one of my friends these days, but we still keep in touch and we are the last two of the group from work who do. A far cry from the big social group it used to be, but people change and times move on. He likes football, either playing it or watching it, and while he doesn't do cycling or walking adventures he does understand the passion I've got for it. Likewise with him and football, I understand his passion for it but the game itself is not for me.

 

[DelW]

People who when they change their mind about buying a refrigerated or frozen item at a supermarket just dump it on a random unrefrigerated shelf.

As someone who works in a shop this does my head in. Apparently the customers see it as bad customer service when i tell them to put it back where they got it from…

It's bad enough when people put items back onto random shelves, but putting chilled items onto unrefrigerated shelves is disgracefully wasteful, since the item will have to be discarded.

Though sometimes people just don't realise. Many years ago I remember going food shopping with a friend who, to decide between various types of sauces in glass jars, took the lids off several to sniff them. She was mortified when I pointed out that they'd been vacuum sealed, and would start to go off now that she'd let air in. (This was before the widespread use of lids which pop up if the vacuum is lost). To make it worse, she was the daughter of a professor of microbiology, who would have been horrified, since food safety was one of his interests.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Can we ban Ebay sellers who describe a model railway loco as simply "DCC" rather than saying whether it's DCC ready or DCC fitted? It isn't that hard to describe things properly, I'm pretty sure you don't get charged for your listing by the letter. See also, people who haven't adequately lit the area they take their photos, or the one I've just seen where the loco isn't even fully in the frame! It's not like the old days of limited capacity 256kb memory cards in early digital cameras- you can take loads on your phone and just use the best ones.

 

[Ediswan]

It's not like the old days of limited capacity 256kb memory cards in early digital cameras

Are you sure you mean kb. I had a Casio QV-10. No card (serial transfer), but 2 Mb storage.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Are you sure you mean kb. I had a Casio QV-10. No card (serial transfer), but 2 Mb storage.

I meant what I typed. Depends how far back you go I suppose!

 

[Ediswan]

I meant what I typed. Depends how far back you go I suppose!

Casio QV-10 is about as far back as you can go - for consumer products.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Casio QV-10 is about as far back as you can go - for consumer products.

Early digital cameras that used removable storage were often supplied with very small cards, such as 256kb ones. Anyway, those details aren't really relevant to the point I was making which was "if you want to sell something on Ebay you need to make it look good. Don't take photos in darkened rooms; and if you aren't happy with the photos you've taken you are allowed to try again and take some that aren't awful".

 

[Matey]

For less than £1 extra they will!

My postie collects my outgoing mail if I leave it in my letter-box.

 

[Runningaround]

One thing I have noticed about toothpaste is that the range is much smaller than it used to be, and that supermarket own brands (unlike in just about every other type of product) are pretty much nonexistent. I've long wondered why.

Thank god, how many types of toothpaste does their need to be. Just looked at Colgates range they have 64 types of toothpaste!!!, add a size for each one to that you may have over 200 too choose from just them. Add all the other brands and you could have a whole supermarket just for toothpaste.

 

[Runningaround]

I would ban so-called resealable packs. Do they seal? Maybe at the tenth attempt. And then you can't get them open again!

A clothes peg does the job just fine.

Especially frozen bags of peas they don't open unless you run a knife down it anyway and the slider thing is usually open anyway, it wont close after.

 

[Runningaround]

Ooh goody, people who don't like football, happy days! I have been to one or two in my time, I remember going to watch Swansea play at The Vetch (their old ground) which shows how long ago that was, went with some uni friends so it was more a social thing. Can't remember any others, so it either didn't happen again or I have locked away the memory. Seen too many matches on TV, although that was for vastly different reasons that would take forever to explain!

It's not my thing at all, and quite frankly I suspect most people only go to the matches or whatever to have an excuse to get drunk. Poor souls, nothing better to do with their existences other than to get drunk and act like idiots. While wearing their football team shirts with bellies bigger than the goal at either end of the field!

Which leads me onto what I'd ban if I had the power:

Alcohol consumption at sports events. Whether this is athletics, swimming, football, whatever it is, the consumption of alcohol would be banned. No sale of it on the grounds, and bags checked for alcohol on the way in.

Thing is though the obsessive types that do the groundhopping stuff are usually trainspotters and real ale CAMRA fanatics. Some of the groundhoppers really have little interest in the game their main goal is ticking the ground off, collecting tickets, badges and a program and a teamsheet. Some are known to leave after 20 minutes to head off too tick another ground off.
Check out their blogs, it'll include the trains/buses they travelled on, the pubs they visited and ticking off the ales and/or The Wetherspoons directory)
There are groundhop groups who target minor leagues and get all the cubs they visit to kick-off to meet their schedule, each club is asked to produce a program, if they don't the hoppers can get very irate akin to a CAMRA ticker being denied a discount at a pub and threating the landlord with a bad review.
If you are involved in any train enthusiast groups, you will probably know a groundhopper.

 

[Runningaround]

As someone who works in a shop this does my head in. Apparently the customers see it as bad customer service when i tell them to put it back where they got it from…

Shops fault for putting the same items in different parts of the shop. You go around the drinks isles and only find the warm bottles of pop, you want a water, but then as you near the till there it is in a fridge 200 meters away from where you picked up the warm one, I'm doing the shop a favour by putting it in the fridge for you.

 

[Runningaround]

As a response to some of the previous posts (and I may have already "banned" this previously), people who dislike football so much that they make it a personality trait. You're welcome to not like it, my best friend has zero interest in the sport but we have plenty of other shared interests. It isn't a badge of honour though. You should define yourself by what you DO like, not what you don't.

I've got next-to no interest in video gaming, but (other than this sentence) the only way you'll find out is to ask me.

The cricket fans are like this ''How did Kent get on today?''. Me ''don't know, did you see the Liverpool game?'', Cricket Fan.'' I don't like football, so don't care''. I hate Cricket but a simple ''no'' would have been more polite. Is it jealousy that one sport completely dominates all others to the point Cricket gets forgotten by SKY Sports in August.

 

[krus_aragon]

It's not like the old days of limited capacity 256kb memory cards in early digital cameras- you can take loads on your phone and just use the best ones.

Early digital cameras that used removable storage were often supplied with very small cards, such as 256kb ones

The earliest digital cameras I can recall are ones that used a 1440kB floppy disk as storage. I'm guessing that these 256kB ones would have been PCMCIA cards (more commonly found in laptops)?

 

[duncanp]

Can we ban newspapers from lifting stories from forums like Mumsnet and Reddit, and then presenting them as news.

This has a come up on my social media feeds quite a lot recently.

The sort of thing I am talking about is a headline such as "...Furious Mum slams selfish car park users...", and then when you click on the headline (which is what they want you to do) the story is lifted from the Mumsnet AIBU section, and it is someone whinging about people who don't have children using the parent and baby spaces in a supermarket car park.

It is not really news, and is just designed to fill space in a newspaper or on a website.

 

[Gloster]

Can we ban newspapers from lifting stories from forums like Mumsnet and Reddit, and then presenting them as news.

If you did that you would put a lot of shallow rags out of business. Actually, that is not a bad idea...

 

[Bletchleyite]

If you did that you would put a lot of shallow rags out of business. Actually, that is not a bad idea...

I'm slightly surprised the forums that often get trawled don't enforce their copyright.

 

[Gloster]

I'm slightly surprised the forums that often get trawled don't enforce their copyright.

Because the papers would then print a stream of damaging stories about the forum and its users: ‘RailUKforums is abetting thieves’ for the Disputes & Prosecutions forum. You must never interfere with the press’ freedom to misuse that freedom.

 

[Purple Train]

TOCs who describe their passengers as "customers". I don't particularly know why, I know I have no justification for it whatsoever, but it still annoys me, and I still dislike it.

 

[Gloster]

TOCs who describe their passengers as "customers". I don't particularly know why, I know I have no justification for it whatsoever, but it still annoys me, and I still dislike it.

I have long disliked the use of ‘customers’ as it disassociates them from what you should want to do with them. A passenger is a person who you are transporting to another location, but a customer could just be buying a chocolate bar. It loses the direct and specific purpose of the business between the company and its employees on one side, and the person you are dealing with on the other.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Are you sure you mean kb. I had a Casio QV-10. No card (serial transfer), but 2 Mb storage.

I meant what I typed. Depends how far back you go I suppose!

Casio QV-10 is about as far back as you can go - for consumer products.

Early digital cameras that used removable storage were often supplied with very small cards, such as 256kb ones. Anyway, those details aren't really relevant to the point I was making which was "if you want to sell something on Ebay you need to make it look good. Don't take photos in darkened rooms; and if you aren't happy with the photos you've taken you are allowed to try again and take some that aren't awful".

The earliest digital cameras I can recall are ones that used a 1440kB floppy disk as storage. I'm guessing that these 256kB ones would have been PCMCIA cards (more commonly found in laptops)?

Consider this a "mea culpa" post, I was in fact having a brain-fart and when challenged on it, doubled down instead of questioning myself!

I shall take my place in Room 101 for the next few hours.

 

[Busaholic]

throw into The cricket fans are like this ''How did Kent get on today?''. Me ''don't know, did you see the Liverpool game?'', Cricket Fan.'' I don't like football, so don't care''. I hate Cricket but a simple ''no'' would have been more polite. Is it jealousy that one sport completely dominates all others to the point Cricket gets forgotten by SKY Sports in August.

I'm a Kent supporter in exile in Cornwall. I have little interest in football, and detest rugby, but I've never known anyone throw into a conversation with me how Kent have done, but some feel impelled to tell me 'United won, but Chelsea lost' or 'Wales slaughtered France in Cardiff' when, frankly. it's as much as I can do to grunt in reply. I wouldn't dream of telling them Kent had just won the County Championship, in the unlikely event of that happening.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I wouldn't dream of telling them Kent had just won the County Championship, in the unlikely event of that happening.

Has, of course, happened a few times before, but not since 1978.