I appreciate Hexus forums more...

[oolon]

I try and sneak on at work but my boss is a right pain

The misses keeping you on the straight and narrow?

[Jonatron]

I try and sneak on at work but my boss is a right pain

I was just about to say that, you crafty

[tiggerai]

More Ninjas, Kittens and HP sauce please!!!

[Rave]

Indeed, although not sure if the “rantnrave” user on there is him?

No- I'm 'Rave' on there too. TBH I post very infrequently, ~300 posts in 6-7 years. It's a forum that seems to attract a large number of very intelligent, insightful people, and an equal number of nutters. There's a fairly constant, and unsavoury, current of racism going on that rarely if ever gets moderated. But equally many of the posts are quite brilliant, or brilliantly funny. So I tend to just lurk.

Rave, if you read this I’m not having a dig at you, I know you frequent the forum in some form anyway.

NP. It's not my forum and I'm the first to acknowledge that it's far from 'fair and balanced'.

They are quite hostile towards those that question the mantra. Seem to dislike landlords and think most home owners are losers too. I questioned the mantra, I’m a landlord, and I own a home. Three strikes! Would’ve been a faster ban if I dared to say, “Renting is dead money”.

I daresay if you've been banned, then your posts have been deleted too, but if not, provide the links and I'll run my eye over them.

HPC is, for obvious reasons, plagued by trolls to the extent that anyone who bothers to post that they're a homeowner and a landlord and you got it all wrong hahaha is generally assumed to be a troll. It might be that.

Or, if you've got two mortgages, one for your home and one for your BTL, then you're been bailed out by ridiculously low interest rates that are really hurting those of us that are trying to save up for a deposit. And you've also been bailed out by government schemes that use taxpayer's money to subsidise house purchases- and by extension, prevent house prices from falling by providing what I would describe as 'false demand'- rigging the market.

Ultimately, I think it's fair to say that we weren't wrong- house prices did become a ludicrous bubble, and they should rightly fall. What we didn't reckon on was that the government would embrace moral hazard to such a crazy extent to prevent house prices falling at any cost, when they'd done absolutely nothing to slow the price rises.

Most people on HPC are angry about that. Personally, I'm incandescently furious that my tax money is being spent on pricing me out of the property market. But I like an argument and don't support banning people who present opposing views. So inasmuch as it's not my job to apologise for a forum that I rarely post on and have no professional connection to, sorry about that.

[MadduckUK]

i was only making a joke, i didn't actually think you had a forum where you plotted the downfall of the housing market, or that you would tell us about it if you did

More Ninjas, Kittens and HP sauce please!!!

Speaking of HP sauce, i haven't had a bottle of Fruity HP for 15 years i may have to correct that

[Saracen]

I try and sneak on at work but my boss is a right pain

I know the feeling.

[Bugbait]

I try and sneak on at work but my boss is a right pain

My boss is currently reading the BBC site and sending texts on his mobile. The Business Analyst is watching the tennis on the plasma opposite and I’m browsing Hexus and AVForums. Slow day. We’re waiting for the vendor to patch their rather bad application so we can resume testing, since we finished our code weeks ago.

[Bugbait]

Ultimately, I think it's fair to say that we weren't wrong- house prices did become a ludicrous bubble, and they should rightly fall. What we didn't reckon on was that the government would embrace moral hazard to such a crazy extent to prevent house prices falling at any cost, when they'd done absolutely nothing to slow the price rises.

Well, the government hiked the interest rate, it’s just that the lenders responded by giving away loans without checking repayment ability or affordability.

Most people on HPC are angry about that. Personally, I'm incandescently furious that my tax money is being spent on pricing me out of the property market. But I like an argument and don't support banning people who present opposing views. So inasmuch as it's not my job to apologise for a forum that I rarely post on and have no professional connection to, sorry about that.

That’s okay, more time for Hexus, AVForums, Anandtech and what not. I wouldn’t worry, house prices have fallen and still continue to decrease in many areas, especially outside of London. I’ll stand by what I said on the HPC forum though, don’t expect quality property to tumble too much though as there are still plenty of cash rich people out there.

I did notice that the posters from London were usually far more reasonable and less…angry. It’s always an eye opener when people who have never lived in London try to comment on the economics of the place though. Do I think London is immune to a crash? Absolutely not, there are properties in my neck of the woods that are struggling to sell at below 2006 prices. However, I would argue the amount of real (ie. Non-credit) wealth in London is noticeably higher than any other part of the UK which changes the climate.

[scaryjim]

My boss is currently reading the BBC site and sending texts on his mobile.

I have no idea where my boss is today

[Bunjiweb]

Well... I've been here since the forum restart in 2003 and I am still fairly active, but only in certain forums. For me Hexus gets the right balance of intelligent users, comedy and good debate. Some users come and try and stir things up and generally disappear rather quickly!

Things on Hexus I would like to see change?....

- More regular / active users posting in Mobile Phone Forum.
- More wide-spread discussion in GD (not so many of the rehashed threads + birthday threads!).
- A bit of a re-working of the forum catagories - such as Mobile Phones being renamed to Mobile Devices.
- Me being made a mod?

Here's to another 8 years...!

Ben