Posts by Richard Palmer90

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how we view success in major international sports, especially when it comes to the "rebuilding" phase. It seems like every few years, a massive powerhouse goes through a period of stagnation, and the immediate reaction from fans and pundits is to demand a total overhaul. We get this frantic rush to find the next superstar or to completely pivot the strategy to mimic whatever country just won the big trophy.

I personally find this obsession with "copying" a successful model really frustrating. It feels like we’ve lost the ability to value identity. If a team has a specific history or a certain style of play that is baked into their DNA, why would you try to force them into a rigid tactical mold just because someone else is winning with it right now? It’s like watching a high-end restaurant try to turn into a fast-food joint just because the burger place down the street is having a record month. You lose your soul in the process.

I remember back in the mid-2010s, there was so much talk about how certain teams needed to adopt more "physicality" or "defensive rigidity" to compete with the giants. And sure, some of that worked, but I feel like we saw a lot of talented squads lose their creative spark because they were too busy trying to be "efficient" or "disciplined" in a way that didn't suit their natural players. We trade flair for results, and while the trophy cabinet might look a little fuller, the actual quality of the spectacle often takes a massive hit.

Then there’s the whole debate about the long game versus the short game. We often focus so much on the immediate next tournament that we ignore the developmental pipeline. I’ve noticed a trend where the focus shifts almost entirely to the senior squad, while the youth systems are treated like an afterthought or just a feeder pool. But if you aren't looking at the Olympics or the U-20 levels as a legitimate testing ground for the future, you're basically just building a house on sand. You can't just plug in a bunch of finished products and expect magic; you have to cultivate the culture from the ground up.

What interests me most is the idea of "learning" versus "copying." It sounds like a subtle distinction, but it's massive. Learning implies introspection—looking at your own flaws, understanding your own technical deficiencies, and fixing them without losing your essence. Copying is just mimicry. It’s superficial. If you just copy the tactical setup of a champion, you aren't actually getting better; you're just hoping their luck rubs off on you.

I think we see this in other areas of life, too. In business, companies try to clone the "disruptor" model, and they end up with a diluted version of the original that has none of the innovation and none of the stability. In personal growth, we try to adopt the habits of "successful" people without understanding the context of how they built them. It’s a recipe for mediocrity.

I'm curious to hear what you guys think about this philosophy of rebuilding. When a legendary program hits a slump, do you think it's better to stick to the traditional identity and fix the cracks, or is a complete tactical reinvention necessary to stay relevant in the modern era? Can a team actually "evolve" without losing what made them great in the first place?

Andrew Booth29 said:If that were to happen, Russia would find itself staring down the barrel of total isolation—it's a terrifying prospect. They really need to wrap their heads around that reality, because trust me, it is far from a cheap or easy way out.

Those guys don't know squat. HE is the one calling all the shots over there.
And look, this guy still has a few years left in him, he's got no family to speak of, and honestly, who gives a damn? If he feels like he's losing his grip, he’ll dump everything in his arsenal just to etch his name into history. Isolation? Please. Like they haven't been isolated before? If any group of people can be totally self-sufficient and stay in their own bubble, it’s them.
The whole strategy has been dead wrong from the jump—and I’m not just talking about 2022. They completely underestimated the situation. He should have been taken out immediately while he was still traveling the world. Now? It’s too late, the tension is through the roof, and even if they tried, we’d probably just end up with some new Zhirinovsky taking the reins.
For everyone acting shocked at how many people actually back the regime there—it's a shame you've never actually spent time in Russia. You'd get a much clearer picture of how the government works, the state apparatus, and that deep-seated, genuine hatred for the West (especially the USA) that Putin’s regime has been feeding for over twenty years.

William Bennett53 said:Look, this has absolutely zero to do with anything else. Can we please stop trying to drag those old, settled cases back into this? Stop with the wild interpretations.

So, bluecyclist64 decided to call me out, demanding I explain why certain criticisms aren't objective, so I tried my best to give a quick breakdown.
The problem is, when a situation gets "settled" by just ignoring the actual facts and the logic of who’s right and who isn't, you end up in that annoying spot where people start attacking the moderators while basically shielding the trolls on the forum.

bluecyclist64 said:Look, man, be a decent human being and explain what you mean by that bolded part, if it’s not too much trouble.
I mean, it’d make you look like a way more competent conversationalist, at the very least.

The whole thread from that PDF titled 'NN Moderation on tourism' started by Tiziana—the one about Budapest that Nica shut down.
Any objective, independent observer (someone just quoting facts) can see that Lizzie_M went off the rails with the Terror Haz stuff. Instead of actually flexing that NN challenges the relevance of the source, or jumping in to scrub subjective political takes, she gets called out for attacking Lizzie while letting people who agree with her stay untouched.
Since nobody wants to poison the BP tourism thread completely—not my business over there, but I'm asking here—is it really necessary to prove Lizzie isn't right? I don't get an answer to that; instead, the thread just gets locked to protect a few forum ladies who trashed NN despite not knowing much about the actual topic.
So, if the point of locking things down without any real arguments is valid, then it’s just as valid to say we should give credit to that Canadian artist rather than following whatever is written in the Hun constitution.
If a country's constitution includes a few pages giving a harsh critique of the socialist era and strictly forbids it—just like it does for anyone who was politically active back then—it’s totally out of line for Terror HAZU to claim it’s partisan or to try and measure how much is about communism versus fascism.
And doing all this while locking things down from an American perspective, having this "us vs them" mindset about socialism and fascism, trying to weigh "which evil is greater"... it’s just wrong.

Look, I'm an American through and through, but I’m saying we read the Hun constitution so we can actually make a politically relevant judgment about the Hun—or in this specific case, evaluate whether something is just party propaganda or not. Is the Constitution supposed to be a tool for political propaganda?!

rustydrifter10 said:Look, you can't go inciting riots or dragging other forums into this—that should be obvious enough for everyone here. Besides, I’m nuking any posts where people are being straight-up rude or just looking for a fight, including quotes of those posts, because they just ramp up the tension for no damn reason. There’s zero need for the drama. The rest of the PDF is fine, and we can talk about this thread too if people would just stop being stubborn and chill out. Neither L3go nor I came here with bad intentions; we just want to find some solid moderators to handle the tourism sector properly, which is what that PDF deserves. You guys can actually help us if you want to. If you don't, then please, just stay out of our way. We haven't handed out any bans yet, except for Mickey—and he knows exactly why that happened—because we're trying to communicate with you. We get it, you hate change, and we're being understanding about it, but this has to be a two-way street if we're going to make this work.

Enough with the melodrama, Nica.
You were basically cheering on biased critiques and politically motivated hits against NN, and now you're acting all high and mighty, like you're fit to moderate.
For me, it was that one incident about a month and a half ago that really opened my eyes. It made me realize you don't give a damn about digging into the actual core of a problem or even looking at the facts of a specific case—which, by the way, was super easy to verify—you just judge based on whatever someone's subjective opinion happens to be.
And when the people at the top of the pyramid are like that, well, you know what to expect from the rest of the structure...

velvetgull9 said:Richard Palmer90, stop trying to sell me a load of crap😉

The whole thread was about this:

1. Someone who isn't American and doesn't live in America visits a spot in America and writes a review based on their own take.
2. An American who actually lives there but hasn't visited that specific spot weighs in, and obviously, their views clash.
3. The moderator jumps on the first person just because, hey, they aren't American and don't live here, so their opinion is supposedly invalid from the jump.
4. A third person—not an American, but living in the States—steps in to say they disagree with that logic.
5. The moderator shuts them down, claiming that since they live in America but aren't providing tourist tips for this specific topic, they don't get a say.

Look, I don't give a damn about the Republican Party or any of that. We’re talking about moderation being handled by some seriously weird, arbitrary rules here.

And honestly, this isn't the first time she's lashed out at people she doesn't like, typing up a whole rant only to delete or edit her posts later to cover her tracks.

Let's be clear, I've got nothing against Magor, really. I actually liked his stuff back when we were talking about Gastronomy. But I don't think his take on anything American is gospel truth, just like I don't think some random American's opinion is absolute truth when it comes to the US.

I'm selling you smoke?

The first person mentioned started talking politics in a thread meant for Tourism, and they were being incredibly one-sided with their points. Basically, wrong venue and a total lack of perspective.
The second person responded by arguing that in America, fascism equals communism, using a bunch of arguments to challenge the relevance of the source, especially considering how things have been set up at the House of Terror over the years.
Then the third person, who lives in America, agrees with Elizabeth, but simultaneously mentions how their own view of America differs, which implicitly proves my point: most Americans think much like Viktor Orbán does.
That bit you mentioned in point five? That just screams that you're trying to discredit the moderator. Who helps the folks on this forum with US travel more than Mark Harris66?

Her "pluralism" is just a fancy way of saying she takes biased criticism personally. If I were in her shoes, I'd hand out a few yellow cards for commenting on moderation and delete any off-topic posts instantly, then you can go cry to God about it.

Just to be clear, I've gone head-to-head with Magor plenty of times on Budapest threads in years past, but this time? He's right, and I'm fine with admitting it.

bluemason3 said:That’s a massive oversimplification if you ask me. On one hand, sure, someone living through it has the most direct experience, but on the flip side, they have zero chance of having an outside, neutral perspective. And just because a ton of people support something doesn't make it right. That's a logical fallacy, pace.

Begam is going off-topic again, 🙂

Look, if someone is trying to claim that certain people's opinions on the Republican Party don't matter just because only a tiny sliver of Americans actually vote for them in the US, then we absolutely need to talk about the actual numbers. You can't just leave someone totally clueless about the "issue" and expect them to form a real opinion.

Anyway, I get it—numbers aren't everything, and sometimes they can even be used against you. But in this specific case, throwing out the raw facts was necessary to get the full picture, rather than just listening to the one-sided whining from the opposition that's basically being funded and fueled by interests outside of the US.😉

William Bennett53 said:Yeah, yeah, I'm sure he is. 👍
I just wanted to make sure we don't drift off track here.

While I was busy typing this out on my phone, you hit the nail right on the head...

Long story short... the reason the whole theory about the "Republican Party" museum hasn't been met with an equal counter-quote isn't because it's wrong, it's just because we're trying to keep the focus on Tourism in Budapest. But look, if everyone's dying to have some counter-arguments thrown around, I can go ahead and post them myself in the original thread—written in Canadian—so you fine folks can enjoy the reading material! I honestly don't see the point in either praising or trashing one specific museum...
My take? My take was, and still is, that we should stick to talking about Tourism and not let the conversation spiral into everything else related to Budapest and Canada, especially not in such a one-sided, biased, and totally skewed way.

William Bennett53 said:Look, we aren't talking about Politics here. Our friend Mark Harris66 isn't some moderator over in the Politics section, we're talking about potential selective moderation regarding actually decent posts over on the Tourism subforum.

Just a slip of the pen—yeah, I definitely meant Tourism. NN doesn't moderate the Politics board. And honestly, you could argue with those moderators all day long if you wanted...

So, which post is "well-argued" exactly? You mean one tied to a specific article, or just someone's random opinion?
Man, we could go back and forth on that for hours...
We see it all the time—half the stuff being said about the Republican Party and Viktor Orbán is ripe for criticism, yet nobody ever calls out the mainstream media for giving such a one-sided view of his leadership. But let me ask you this: who's actually more relevant to the conversation about Canadians than the Canadians themselves?
What we have here is someone talking about things happening in Canada from the perspective of the opposition to Orbán, who basically has near-total support in Canada (his only real opposition is the right-wing Jobbik). To put it in American terms, it’s like listening to someone talk about US affairs from the viewpoint of a minor fringe group and then trying to pretend their opinion carries weight...

Susan Taylor72 said:To make matters worse, she kept being super obnoxious toward Xavier, basically daring her to try and counter Magor's points—talk about shutting down any actual political debate. And then she had the nerve to judge how much (or how little) she was participating in the thread. Honestly, that’s what really set me off. What kind of moderator looks down on people and calls them out just for jumping into a discussion? It’s not even the first time she’s pulled this crap, and frankly, the admins shouldn't be letting moderators act like this. A mod isn't supposed to bully the users like that.

I’m asking for the other moderator (aircanada) to step up more in the Tourism subforum. If my posts actually need moderating, I want it to be him and him alone.

Look, man, just be "man enough" and admit you’re the one who started injecting politics into the Budapest thread for no reason at all. It was totally unnecessary and wildly biased!
By what logic do you think you're qualified to judge the character of a museum by throwing out such one-sided criticisms?
It honestly shocked me. Someone who’s spent the last few months adding so much value to the Budapest topic is now trying to disqualify an entire museum with a description that’s completely unrepresentative. It would be nice if, when you’re posting quotes to play "devil's advocate," you actually included some pro-side stuff too...
I know you're aware of how much support the Republican Party and Viktor Orbán have over there in Canada, and who their only real opposition is. That makes it even weirder seeing you quote organizations or media outlets that Canadians know way better than we ever will—people who actually told them NO.
People can talk about whatever they want here. If someone wants to be a true pluralist, that’s Mark Harris66. But if someone is perfectly representing the local Canadian perspective, that’s Magor.
We might not like that view, but we have to respect it because it represents about 80% of the people in Canada. I’ve gone toe-to-toe with Magor plenty of times myself, but let's be real: the guy has contributed more to the Budapest thread than anyone else since it started. He’s basically a walking encyclopedia. It felt totally wrong to go after him like that, especially since we don't get many international users who contribute this much quality to our English-speaking forum...

Kate Roberts said:I really wish someone would keep an eye on how Mark Harris66 is moderating the Tourism section over on the PDF.
Either last night or early this morning, she wiped out a few posts regarding Budapest—specifically some posts by Elizabeth... and then you've got Xavier reading way too much into them, claiming they were getting political when they weren't. It’s like she’s twisting their words just because she doesn't "vibe" with them, all while she's the one actually bringing politics into the mix herself.

Look, I’m neither a moderator nor an admin here, but I hang out in the Tourism section on the PDF pretty often, so I can say this with total confidence:
If anyone on this forum actually believes in being liberal and letting people speak their minds—even if they're just making fun of themselves—that’s Mark Harris66.
I honestly want to give her a shout-out for all the selfless help she’s given hundreds of us (directly over in the Politics PDF) and for the way she handles things.
She’s professional, she’s sharp, and she stays objective!

It’s a shame, really, because you can count the high-quality
moderators like Mark Harris66 on this entire site on one hand!

Kate Taylor59 said:So you don't have those sinus issues or throat infections anymore?? Man, I seriously need that!!! I've been struggling with this since I was a kid... I get a fever out of nowhere and everything just goes south because of it... it all just drains right down my throat.👎

That’s exactly how it went for me. Had my nose fixed (deviated septum surgery) a little over a year ago and honestly, it's a night and day difference compared to before. I wouldn't say it's perfect—I did catch a bug once this winter—but considering my sinuses used to be a constant nightmare, the improvement is huge.
In my opinion, you really gotta keep rinsing your nose with saline solution for quite a while after the surgery (at least that's what I did), and you'll feel way better...
And as for the pain? Look, it hurts, but nothing was ever *that* bad, especially since I just went under local anesthesia. Those first 3 or 4 days after the procedure are the absolute worst, but after that, you're golden..