Welcome and introductions

First topic message reminder :

Around the autumn of 2007 I came across the MSN message boards and found one entitled "UK Politics" which I joined and enjoyed for over three and a half years, then around April 2011 MSN decided in their wisdom to close down that particular message board.

Over time the MSN message board posters had become like friends, and though I had never met any of them, they became as familiar as the regulars I have a pint with in the local village pub, one or two were fairly nasty and quite vile, most were very pleasant people.

Fortunately, one of the redundant MSN bloggers (Ivan) decided to start his own political blogging site, and many of the old MSN posters followed him to his newly created site, and after a competition to find a name, it was agreed to call it "Cutting Edge".

I have to point out that Ivan ran things in a very fair and democratic way, the members decided the rules, they chose the name and logo, several of us were appointed as moderators and common sense prevailed.

Unfortunately the host of our board was "ProBoards" whom I would definately NOT recommend to anyone, they pulled the plug and closed Cutting Edge down saying that we had broken the rules.
To this day we still do not know what rule(s) were broken, and by whom, we wrote very polite emails to ProBoards asking for an explanation, but we got no answer other than "you broke the rules".

And so here we are WELCOME

Thank you for the link to the broadcast, rob. NPR are the best, aren't they?

I always vote .. wouldn't miss for less than a catastrophic reason. Even thougth I know my district will go the other way, it's more than a privilege ... it's an obligation (redundant but my opinion all the same).

Hi Shirina, I do recognize the name. Thank you for the welcome.

It's been very enlightening to find all you MSN veterans on both sites.

When MSN first started (pre www, or just as it was getting off the ground), my husband and I worked for a couple of other "networks" with discussion forums, chat and games ... NovaLink out of the Boston burbs and NVN created (I think) by Randy Vaughn and a couple of other gurus. We thought to jump ship because MSN started with a high degree of respect and had great promise. We were still working, but had moved to Delphi, when the web became a reality, and the stand alone networks came tumbling down like cards in 52 pickup.

Then, up from the confusion, on the back of Arab Sheik financing, came the horror of AOL. We were almost ready to graduate anyway so we jumped back to the real world and except for a brief sojourn in WoW have just started to enjoy being online again.

BTW, am I allowed to invite you to my site? Forever Sunshine and Marshabar come in from time to time.

LOL! Marshabar ... I'm sure she'd be REAL happy to see me.

As for inviting people to the site, we generally only allow links to other sites if we've decided to associate with them, so myself or Ivan would have to check it out. Unless it's horrid, though, there shouldn't be a problem.

However, if you'd like to invite people anyway, you can PM individual people ... can't stop you from doing that.

No Tosh, I am not Lone Wolf but I occasionally post at Crap ... . You may have seen me there.

Reveal yourself or die !!

How droll!

Shirina wrote:LOL! Marshabar ... I'm sure she'd be REAL happy to see me.

As for inviting people to the site, we generally only allow links to other sites if we've decided to associate with them, so myself or Ivan would have to check it out. Unless it's horrid, though, there shouldn't be a problem.

However, if you'd like to invite people anyway, you can PM individual people ... can't stop you from doing that.

I know, 'right' politics but wrong.

Well ... whether you want to have a look or not, consider yourself invited and welcome. We tend to have more conservative Brits and a few more liberal Yanks ... although it depends on the day. I'm not (NOT) a poacher, we're mostly by invitation only ... unless someone just happens to fall in and stay.

Tosh wrote:

No Tosh, I am not Lone Wolf but I occasionally post at Crap ... . You may have seen me there.

Reveal yourself or die !!

Beth or Jencin.

Don't want to die!

Beth or Jencin.

You must have avoided me on the Crap forum.

Tosh wrote:

Beth or Jencin.

You must have avoided me on the Crap forum.

Not a simple task.

Not a simple task..

Love you more. :affraid:

Not a simple task.

Heh heh ... heh ... heh heh. I have to admit, that was kinda funny.

Well ... whether you want to have a look or not, consider yourself invited and welcome.

Hey, Beth ... you're above 10 posts now, so you can send PMs. You can go ahead and send me the address, and when Ivan comes back from vacation, we'll look into posting the link in our associations thread.

Hi Shirina

Methought I'd like to drop by and check out the scenery, having been away from here for a while. I couldn't use my old username though, so I hope this is okay.

Nice place you have here

Best wishes all

Hello methought, and welcome to our forum.

Can you just confirm that your old username was 'Thought so too', which was scheduled for deletion because of non-use? I don't want you to fall foul of our rule about using multiple nicks!

Regards, Ivan

Hi Ivan

That was me but I couldn't seem to reactivate it, so started again, if that's okay with you.

Welcome methought and have fun.

Regards, Mel

methought. Thanks for confirming that, your original account has now been deleted. I hope you enjoy the forum.

Hi Comrades and other animals I'm back after a few weeks away trying write more of my book. In other news I met my doppelganger at a party and have left the SWP.

Hi there, I'm Cynthia just wanted to introduce myself, Ivan invited me to join the staff here.

I am Center-left, sometimes I call my self a Democrat, sometimes an Independent. What I enjoy doing is blogging, tweeting, G+'ing and sharing as much factual information as I can across many social networking sites. In addition to being an online activist, social media consultant, and video curator, I am 33, mother of 4 ages 17, 15, 14, and 12.

I am hoping that I have time to devote here, but if not will let you all know, and take a role as Cutting Edge user instead.

Nice to meet you all!  

Welcome to the Fun House, Cynthia. My experience tells me that if you really want something done, give it to a multi-tasking mother of four and it will be!

hullo Cynthia

Hello I am a New Yorker living in California. I am posting on two other pro board forums. I am rather cynical. As far as religion goes I am a rationalist. I'm not as smart as some but not entirely without intellect.

nice to meet you

Is that your boat lady?

Welcome to our community, willingsniper. I see that you've made some interesting contributions already and I hope you will become a regular poster on our forum.

No will, my boat is much smaller - that's just one a kind moderator has loaned me to cover my nakedness

Ivan wrote:Welcome to our community, willingsniper. I see that you've made some interesting contributions already and I hope you will become a regular poster on our forum.

Thank you, I look forward to it. You seem to not have many of the right wing ilk. Who do you debate?

willingsniper. Anybody is allowed to join this forum as long as they are not racists and don't post homophobic, sexist or illegal material. We also draw the line at repeated personal attacks and excessive bad language.

The forum is advertised as 'left-inclined', and there are, sadly, plenty of issues which divide the left and allow extreme right-wing governments (like the present one in the UK) to sneak into power without widespread popular support. There are plenty of differences on the left over such matters as social democracy versus socialism, the European Union, the British monarchy, what emphasis should be given to 'green' issues and whether some benefits should be targeted or universal. I suspect that it would be hard to find two people who agree on everything!

I hope you will look over the entire forum. Some parts of it tend to be neglected because a lot of members tend to congregate on just the religion and UK politics boards, which is a pity. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it here.

Ivan wrote:willingsniper. Anybody is allowed to join this forum as long as they are not racists and don't post homophobic, sexist or illegal material. We also draw the line at repeated personal attacks and excessive bad language.

The forum is advertised as 'left-inclined', and there are, sadly, plenty of issues which divide the left and allow extreme right-wing governments (like the present one in the UK) to sneak into power without widespread popular support. There are plenty of differences on the left over such matters as social democracy versus socialism, the European Union, the British monarchy, what emphasis should be given to 'green' issues and whether some benefits should be targeted or universal. I suspect that it would be hard to find two people who agree on everything!

I hope you will look over the entire forum. Some parts of it tend to be neglected because a lot of members congregate on just the religion and UK politics boards, which is a pity. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it here.

I intend to. Thank you

Welcome over, Sniper!

Hello Ivan
I wasn't sure where to post this; I was looking for an introducing new members thread but couldn't find one. Thanks for helping me to access the forum after stupidly forgetting my login details. So I'm a member of the Socialist Party and I hate the tories. That's me

Hiya _ names left ferret - feel free to cal me ferret - if you know my real name call me that.  i am a socialist who has not given up on Labour yet . I love laughs -- but I can bite back.

nice to meet you

Good afternoon, I've just stumbled across this site and after many months of twitter am finding all these characters a bit overwhelming. I'm a retired (history) teacher, live in Dorset and am a keen member of Verwood U3A (history, current affairs and book groups). I'm a politics junkie, persist in defending Nick Clegg and read avidly (e.g. modern fiction, contemporary history, popular science). I'm currently grappling with the history of the British empire (for U3A), and also looking forward to finding my way round Cutting Edge, preferably without cutting myself.

cybercheshired. Welcome to Cutting Edge. I suggest you start by reading the posting rules and notices, and then explore the rest of the forum. If you have any immediate queries, please put them on the suggestions board or send me a DM at Twitter. Once you've made ten postings, you can send a personal message to either Shirina (my co-administrator) or me - or to any other member! I hope you enjoy the forum.

Many thanks! Looks an interesting site.

Hello all! Just a quick line to give everyone a virtual wave and a promise to find time to get involved properly in the forum. Also thanks to Ivan for bringing it to my attention  

Hello, we are a quiet civilised bunch on here, and topics vary and wander around, much to Ivan's chagrin!

Hope you feel comfy with the site