I have to say that I agree with everything Stella has said, while at the same time feeling very genuine gratitude to Malcolm for providing a site for us to use at his own considerable expense for getting on for 10 years now.

The first time I first gained access to the Internet was around late 2000 or early 2001, and one of the first sites I found was ttwebsite. Paul Phillips had just taken over as site editor, and for a year or so the site was one of the best, perhaps even THE best website I have ever had the pleasure of browsing about any sport. It was an absolute dream for any road race enthusiast and was the best road racing site bar none - helped in part by not having a great deal of competition from other sites in those days. People were falling over themselves to contribute and it was a real pleasure to log on every day - well, about 20 times a day to be honest! Who remembers Barry Wood's famous TT quiz, for example?

Lots of other good road racing sites have appeared since, but I have never found one better than ttwebsite was in those days. Nobody could ever really hope to follow the job Paul did, and when he moved on it was inevitable that the site would struggle to keep the momentum going. With many other sites out there now it is a different ball game these days, and people will inevitably look elsewhere if they do not find what they want on a particular site or don't feel welcome.

I think Stella is absolutely right to say that postings such as the one by 'George' in this thread are almost certainly the reason why not many people bother to post here any more, and it is a great shame. There have been some cracking debates on the forum over the years, but unless the site is regularly and strictly monitored then postings such as the one by 'George' will just continue to drive people away.