please read this. It is very important...

Is this because I implied somebody was a monstrous twat ?

Poor Dick Van Dyke. Nevermore to be mentioned on here. ?

Looks like pigeon release man really doesn't have anything better to do with his time.

Am I still allowed to swear in cockney rhyming slang? I don't know how to get around the filtersmuch prefer it anyway.

Without wanting to detract from the content of your message, Darren, shouldn't the first priority be making sure people can actually access the forum and post? Not a lot of point reinforcing posting rules when most people are struggling to post at all.

[edit] Third attempt to post this as I keep getting an error. Just proves my point really.

Thanks for the notice Darren.

While 'proflific' swearing just for the sake of it is not acceptable, I do believe this is a forum aimed at adults and the odd 'bad word' is not a reason to ban somebody from the community. Blocking people from swearing does smack slightly of being the language police. Are you also going to block people for disagreeing with someone else's opinion?

I agree with Mel's comment about the difficulties of posting on here now too.

When I saw Darren's post I thought it was going to be about forum speeds etc. Quite disappointing to find out out it's another of the occasional warnings about swearing on here. Which I don't do as I don't see the point. Ho hum.

*sigh* All that needs to happen now is for this site to open a high st shop and Hitched will have truly eaten itself and become Confetti.

(8 mins to get back on the site and get to the message box)

I think we need clarification on what is acceptable if you're going to police us. Are faux swears allowed (eg fecker, one of my favourites)? I don't want to be banned for accidentally setting off someone's prude radar. I don't know how to swear properly since the change anyway - I've certainly not seen anyone posting instructions.

I do also think it's a bit rich that we are being treated like small children just to keep some delicate little flower's sensitivities appeased. Not really sure how it affects your advertisers, who I assume you mean by 'outside organisations' (eg the dodgy Christian Louboutin firms that always seem to be at the top banner) how we speak so long as the odd few people keep clicking through and buying fake shoes from them.

I'm not sure it's changed (oops, does that count as giving instructions?)

Great, so now that you've sorted out the swearing which was obviously such a TREMENDOUS problem on the boards do you think you might turn your attention to the fact that the boards are so slow it's almost impossible to get on them? And then when you do it often doesn't let you post? Thanks.

Your advertisers and "outside organisations" advertise with hitched for a large part down to the number of hits the site gets - the affiliate advertisers and banner adverts are placed because of the likelihood of sales.

The site gets so many hits mainly because of the forum users. If the forum users are going elsewhere because a) the forum runs at a stupidly low speed and b) we're being censored in our language (not that I swear as I don't know how to) then the site is going to be a lot less attractive for the advertisers, affiliates and outside organisations.

Shouldn't you be looking after the forum members needs first?

Hear hear. I also agree with Mel.

FWIW I’ve been meaning to report your advertsiers to trading standards, since they are clearly selling fakes.

Hitched has a long tradition of treating its members like errant, stupid, children. I think this was tolerated due to its popularity, familiarity and ease of use. It will be intersting to see if this is still tolerated now it is none of those things.

To be quite honest, if you don’t want us here then just bloody well tell us. Stop fannying about trying to make it as difficult as possible to be members.

Yes, we’re probably seen as old hitched dinosaurs who were a bit too lairy for the fluffitus “lets all find the best place to buy vases” brigade, and if that’s whats you see your forum being in future then at least let us know so those of us who are getting annoyed with it can stop haning round hoping things will change.

This is something that seems to crop up every once in a while. The general gist is that this is their forum and they make the rules. They have put filters in place to block certain words and people are circumventing these filters. It's extremely difficult to block words entirely and as the site owners are they not entitled to specify if they do not want these word used?

I just want the days of yellowness, speedy posting and humour back to Hitched. Sadly I think my Hitched days may be numbered, the posting is hideously slow, i've been on since 9am and have only just managed to get past the awful heart and timer and we're not even allowed a few naughty words to describe our disgust at it all. So long, farewell, auf widersehen, goooooodbyyyyyeeeee ?

What sunset said.

Darren, the speed of this site is terrible. It's one of the reasons many people don't bother to post on here anymore.

I don't want to 'leave' as I have made some great friends, but it is SO frustrating when I try to reply or post topics and it takes ages and ages to do so. It's really bad and I am getting fed up.

Who has complained about swearing anyway? Ridiculous, it's not like there are any children who post on here.

Sad to say, this has crossed my mind too.

Planning and BT are clearly highly marketable commodities, while OT seems to treated like some undesirable no-man's land filled with sweary trouble-makers.

...and your point is? ?

I tried to reply to this earlier but got the usual error message which yet again proves Mel's point.

I have very rarely been so wound up by a post on here to be honest. Is anyone listening to the complaints about speed? Does anyone actually read the "Feedback to Hitched" board? I realise that it's free forum, I don't have to stay here etc etc BUT you have a fantastic community on here which is diminishing by the day. What a shame if it's now coming to an end.

I'm laughing at the idea of a complaint about people swearing ON Hitched in a week when most people are swearing AT Hitched for being almost entirely unusable.

I wouldn't worry too much about offending people here - if the site remains in such poor condition, you won't have any advertisers or users to be offended.

I can't believe I've actually bothered spending 30 mins trying to reply to this thread.

Absolutley WZS. I can't believe I'm spending my lunch hour just getting frustrated. I'm usually the first to walk away rather than whinge but Hitched has been an almost everyday part of my life for 5 years. I have nowhere else to go ?

Completely WHyacinth&EES.

I feel quite infuriated by the post about swearing when that's not been a major problem compared to the actual speed of the site. Looks like this forum is dying a death and the site owners don't actually want us here after all. I'm finding the forum Admins silence on this matter deafening.?

Looks like Mumsnet it is then. ☹️

Despite the supplier listings pages still being a mess, visually and geographically, I was preparing to renew my listing. I figured it was the least I could do for being able to post on a forum that isn't ridiculously policed or would bow to the pressure of one clear mentalist. So that'll be me not renewing my listing then.

I've lost count of the number of clients I've introduced to Hitched. Barry on the other hand shows up with an unsolicited advert as his first post and complains about the word fooker. It's not even a swearword for fooks sake! You have to sign up to post, so why not get people to sign up to view the forums. That way if they don't like what they see they can fook off again.

I'm not going to flounce. I guess I'll just wait until I'm barred or until one or other of us comes up with a good idea for another forum we can all go to.

P&P your last post is ironic considering the thread that sparked this was on WP. And a dove release thread at that. Who'd have thunk it?! ?

Darren - you HAVE to listen to us!

I keep getting this error message

Either the site is offline or an unhandled error occurred. We apologize and have logged the error. Please try your request again or if you know who your site administrator is let them know too.

ALL DAY!

I Am going to swear as it's fcuking me off!

YOU are losing OT people because of the slowness.

I agree with Pie man. Or whoever it was he agreed with ?

If this is to do with the word 'fecker' then I suggest someone does their research because it's not even a swear word, it's an Irish colloquialism.

So there.

Any response yet??

I also have not learned out how to swear on new hitched. I don't consider swearing an integral part of my posting experience. Other users and the actual ability to post however...

L
xx

I couldn't care less about swearing, but it must have taken me ten minutes and at least a dozen failed attempts to access page two of this thread.

To worry about what advertisers think about swearing when the forums clearly have major and ongoing technical issues that are demonstrably driving people away makes Nero seem like a model of effective project management.

Exactly what they said.

I've been using this forum for about 7 years and want the good old days back too ☹️

I'm another that been trying for 15 minutes to post and keep getting

Either the site is offline or an unhandled error occurred. We apologize and have logged the error. Please try your request again or if you know who your site administrator is let them know too.

Yaawwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnn

I agree totally with Lois and I'm annoyed if this is purely down to the post on WP. Really? Fookers? Purlease! FFS!

There is a response from Darren on the thread on the feedback problem - if you can access it. I've been meaning to tell you all but I've had similar experience as Mr JK in trying to do so.

I'm off to stop wasting my time on this.

2 days it's taken me to actually get into hitched, let alone successfully post a reply!

And this is the first post I see. Fabulous ?.

Sadly, I have to agree with Sunset21. I think my days here are numbered too.

The lack of humour, old-time hitchers, smut-friday and the totally inability to post anything... are really starting to outway any benefits Hitched may have offered in the past.

Is there anywhere else that people are frequenting nowdays? I've made some fabulous friends on here and would hate to lose touch altogether.

Without even knowing, you've all gotten me through some tough times.

Minx x

You're more than welcome here, as is anyone else struggling to post on Hitched at the moment.