The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[T42]

I'd forgotten about it, but it's back. It comes around every year. Is it a week tomorrow? I'm not sure, I just want not to be told about it, but I've just received and instantly deleted my first email about, yes you guessed it, Black Friday.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, which is the 3rd Thursday in November. In the US.  Has the UK a Thanksgiving these days?

But if Britain was to adopt Thanksgiving then we should support our Commonwealth partner and follow the Canadian practise of the 2nd Monday of October. 

And probably emulate both in not being able to find anything to be really thankful for. Weather, politicians and prosperity are all out the window.

[Tim Hall]

Buy tickets to see $POPULAR_BEAT_COMBO in London's Famous London.

As we're in the future, these are E tickets, what get emailed to me.
Check in box. Email has arrived.

"Please print your tickets and bring them with you to the event. You will not be able to enter the event without them. This email alone cannot be used for entry."

Bah.

[ian]

Odd, pretty much every event we attend in that London's Famous London allow you to wave the barcode in the email on your phone under the reader where it works, unsurprisingly, in exactly the same way as it would if it were printed on a piece of paper.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I know I've dutifully printed out tickets in the past only to find that everyone else is just waving their phone.

[Tim Hall]

I know I've dutifully printed out tickets in the past only to find that everyone else is just waving their phone.

A several of times I've been to a gig, armed with e ticket on my phone, only to be asked for my name, which is then ticked off a list on a piece of paper with a grubby biro. 

Note to self: Go to more upmarket gigs.

[ian]

Actually, I'm sure there was something recently that demanded we print out copies. We didn't and nothing bad happened.

Someone, somewhere is probably working on a machine that allows someone to copy a piece of paper multiple times. Imagine that, if you can aim your eyes so far into the future. I know, it's seems implausible, but if like me, you've been reliant on monkish scribes to date, it'll be a life-changer.

[cygnet]

Someone, somewhere is probably working on a machine that allows someone to copy a piece of paper multiple times. Imagine that, if you can aim your eyes so far into the future. I know, it's seems implausible, but if like me, you've been reliant on monkish scribes to date, it'll be a life-changer.

It matters not whether the [barcode/pixel thing] can be replicated or not, cos only the first person with it in any scannable form shou

I know I've dutifully printed out tickets in the past only to find that everyone else is just waving their phone.

A several of times I've been to a gig, armed with e ticket on my phone, only to be asked for my name, which is then ticked off a list on a piece of paper with a grubby biro. 

Note to self: Go to more upmarket gigs.

Note to self: go to all the good gigs, including the ones where the promoter doesn't have commercial tech?!

[hellymedic]

We've had e-tickets for the Southbank Centre and then entered the place via the crips' entrance dungeon, where there is no mobile reception. Staff have admitted us when we quoted our seat number but the Luddite in me would have preferred a hard copy, which wouldn't get a hissy fit in a dungeon.

[ian]

You don't need mobile reception, it's on your phone already.

[perpetual dan]

I’ve had e-ticket on the company app before (rather than download to Google wallet) which did insist on checking home. Interrail, for instance. Guess how good my phone reception was in a tunnel when the ticket man came round.

[rogerzilla]

Premier Inn.  If you're going to use the kind of shit ticket dispenser that only provides individual sheets of single ply* bog roll, ffs don't have a shower head that's bolted to the wall, as your guests are going to need a Calcutta rinse after failing to clean up in the conventional way.

*Achtung, Herr Kaleun, we have a hull breach!

[phantasmagoriana]

Just bought some 3M Command Strips. They have zero stickiness on either side, rendering them useless. I must have got a bad batch, as I've used the same type before without any issues.

[Canardly]

You must have picked up the Commando strips by mistake.

[Socks]

Motorbikes on cycle / footpaths.  Over the last year or two a couple of local routes have been widened and tarmacced, so I now have a choice of quiet traffic free routes to get out of town and into the country lanes.  Except for the yoofs on piggin motorbikes.  Six today - two on one motorbike without helmets or number plates, doing a stupid speed.  Another group of three on scrambler bikes, helmets and number plates but at least doing a sensible speed and keeping left.  And two crossing the path, to go onto a footpath. 

No chance of any enforcement of course, and they are easy to hear from a long way away so plenty of warning.  So I suppose just keep fingers crossed that they 'share with care'

[Kim]

I've always been of the opinion that the best way to keep the yoofs on motorbikes away from such paths is to make them attractive enough to the legitimate users that they become busy and no fun to ride a motorbike on.  (And I'll even go as far as suggesting that the occasional yoof riding their motorbike down the towpath responsibly at bicycle speeds in order to transport their fishing kit, for example, isn't doing anyone any harm anyway.)

There was also that time that a couple of yoofs onna motorbike helped lift my loaded touring bike bike over a Silly Sustrans Gate™ on the Middlewood Way, before proceeding to lift their motorbike.  Which neatly demonstrates that barriers are not the solution.

Police only seem to care if they think the motorbikes are stolen.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Two stories about motorbikes on converted railways, both very old, neither directly involving me. The first is something I overheard back in the late 80s, someone was riding a motorbike along the path at night, there was "a granny with no lights" who jumped into the hedge – the point being he, the rufty tufty* biker, was also scared by suddenly coming across the unlit granny on her old roadster.

The second is one I read in a m/c magazine, a reader's story of how they came to buy a certain s/h machine. This involved taking it for a test ride along a similar path, crashing into a skinhead (this must also have been the 80s or very early 90s), biker and pedestrian (and bike) end up on the ground. Having ascertained that no one needs an ambulance, the biker's next thought is to get away before the skinhead beats him up. Only of course the bike has stalled and he can't get it started again. I think he then bought it out of embarrassment of having to explain to the owner what had happened!

*Tufty? Is this squirrels?

[Tim Hall]

Couldn't find my overshoes on Saturday morning, they're a bit shagged anyway and I had Rainy Adventures planned for Sunday, so I had a look at Balfe's Bikes website for New! Shiny! ones.

They had the Endura MT500 shown as in stock and as their warehouse is nearby I toddled over.

Couldn't see any on the shelf so asked the Nice Man behind the counter.

Yes, they're in stock he says, but not in stock here. They're in stock at their supplier and he could get them by the 14th.  This is obviously some strange use of the word safe in stock that I wasn't previously aware of.

(Bought some pull on ones from Decathlon instead which I then discovered won't fit over my generously sized feet. The original overshoes turned up on Sunday. Phrases such as "boy looking" may have been used)

[cygnet]

Counterpoint: I've visited a Decathlon which had [item] in stock for "Click and Collect" but not in stock for turning up and trying to buy the thing.

Yes what I should have done (and have done since in other stores) is use their WiFi to click and collect and visited other stores while they "pick" it. Just like Argos...

[hellymedic]

There's an Amazon Locker, open 24/7, ¼ mile hence.

If I place an order for two items, only one can use the locker. In fact I can't get *any* local locker to accept two items.

I arrange delivery to my home.

This arrives at a time inconvenient to The Man, displeasing him greatly.

I can't grumble about weekend delivery within 48 hours of placing an order, for Standard Delivery.

Poor workers though.

[robgul]

Do I need to know in an email from a major cycling organisation based in Manchester that was signed off as :


<Redacted : very obviously a female name>
(She/Her)
Customer Services

[barakta]

Do I need to know in an email from a major cycling organisation based in Manchester that was signed off as :


<Redacted : very obviously a female name>
(She/Her)
Customer Services

Pronouns in a signature doesn't do any harm if it isn't useful or pertinent. Maybe it's not ideal for using on external emails but I don't think Outlook lets you auto set signatures by domain of TO: field.

It's a way of showing solidarity with trans people or those whose names aren't so obviously gendered or genderable... Think Andrea is an Italian mans name but would be read as female in the UK. Adrian in the USA can be female whereas in the UK it is always female. Alex could be either of the binary genders. Non binary people don't always have gender neutral names.

Some trans people have names or physical appearance and clothes choices that don't necessarily code their gender to other people by default. Choice to share pronouns in signature is one way they can let people know what the correct ones are.

I have email pronouns in my work signature. I hope to be an ally to trans people and show that I will be kind and decent to them. I have worked with several trans students and it has been helpful when I've found mixed names in paperwork from them to receive an email with "my pronouns are XYZ" cos that usually explains it without me having to ask "I notice different names, can I check which name/pronoun is correct for you please?".

Knowing a student's pronoun means I can use it correctly to them and is an opportunity to ask if they need advice on navigating university as an often young trans person. Not everyone knows how to change their name in the systems, that MyUni has a process for doing name/pronoun change for different levels of stuff and staff should treat that trans student with dignity and respect. Just as we look out for other things like caring responsibilities or other signs of needing support that the wider uni could provide.

For what it's worth, I don't believe anyone should be compelled to disclose pronouns in verbal or written contexts, it should always be optional with no censure for not doing so.

[Kim]

Do I need to know in an email from a major cycling organisation based in Manchester that was signed off as :


<Redacted : very obviously a female name>
(She/Her)
Customer Services

Congratulations, you now know that Redacted's name is gender-appropriate and they're probably not a transphobe.


(Yes, I think putting pronouns in signatures are silly, when email has supported X-headers for this sort of metadata for decades.  But it's at least an order of magnitude less pointless than those stupid legal disclaimers people often have.)


ETA: Crosspost with barakta.

[Beardy]

I used to have two sigs in Outlook, for internal and external emails (there was no point adding the legal stuff to the bottom of internal emails) and it was the work of moments to select which sig to attach from the drop-down in the menu bar. So, just laziness on the part of the sender then.

[Ham]

I added gender identifier/pronoun preference when - as a global company - I received a mail from someone from a different culture that I wouldn't have been able to guess, and thought, yeah that doesn't hurt.

[robgul]

Do I need to know in an email from a major cycling organisation based in Manchester that was signed off as :


<Redacted : very obviously a female name>
(She/Her)
Customer Services

Congratulations, you now know that Redacted's name is gender-appropriate and they're probably not a transphobe.


(Yes, I think putting pronouns in signatures are silly, when email has supported X-headers for this sort of metadata for decades.  But it's at least an order of magnitude less pointless than those stupid legal disclaimers people often have.)


ETA: Crosspost with barakta.

Just "Customer Services" would be fine, no need for a name, or even a title - just the answer to my question would be adequate - at least I wasn't "reached out to" asked if "are you well" or wished "a nice day/pleasant evening"