Support Ukraine.. Change your avatar

[helmut_rooster]

10 hours ago, WalworthOwl said:

Not relevant to the war, but here's a story about my trip to Ukraine for the 2012 Euros.

 

 

We saw games in Kyiv, and in Donetsk in the Russian-speaking East. Donetsk is twinned with Sheffield, they have a Sheffieldsky park by the river, and in the town museum there was a trumpet donated by a visiting Sheffield brass band. “Shakhtar Donetsk” means “Miners Donetsk”.

 

Close to Donetsk is a town called Gorlovka (in Russian) or Horlivka (in Ukrainian), twinned with Barnsley. We read that back in the Soviet Union days Barnsley Council had donated £30k to help set up a restaurant called Cafe Barnsley in Horlivka, so one morning we took the train from Donetsk to get lunch there.

 

Google Maps didn't cover the town, so we came out of the station I asked in my best phrasebook Russian “Gdye Cafe Barnsslee?”. Most people scuttled off avoiding this weird foreigner, but a few pointed before scuttling and helped us reach a more central area. There we found a well-dressed woman at a crossing, I asked “Gdye Cafe Barnsslee?”, and she replied in perfect English “It's down that road, then second on the left and on the right in about 200 metres. But it's a terrible place. If you want somewhere good to eat I recommend....”. But we told her that because we came from Yorkshire we were interested to see Cafe Barnsley, so she shrugged at these weird foreigners and we wished each other a good day.

 

Cafe Barnsley was indeed a terrible place, I think we were the only people there. A surly teenage girl brought the menu - it was no surprise there was no English, but also no Ukrainian, it was all in Russian. The only bit I could read quickly was an omelette, we both ordered one and returned to take the train back to Donetsk for the evening match.

 

 

That's a fond holiday memory for me, but the war now is horrifying. I hope desperately for the survival of Ukraine as an independent country.

 

Nice story

 

As for the "6 finger, Sister loving Cafe" picture, that looks like the "function Room" from carry on camping

[Nick1498]

Done

[Nero]

Staying on brand

[gandiaowl]

Done

 

[seat172]

Done.

Every avatar on every site!

Lets do this people.

[morganowl]

ukranians are wonderful people there very loyal and think of others . on day 1 of the bombardment locals in kiev went grocery shopping and guess what apart from 1 and that was a non ukranian they only took enough food what they needed ,they could have got a months supply but no they didnt and asked why they said we want everyone to be able to be able to buy food.  ive watched this american youtuber well before all this watched him 2 years ago when we had nothing to do or go to during lockdowns ,he decided well over a year ago to settle in kiev , he often remarked how nice people are and when he went back to the states 2 months ago to see his parents he saw how most of usa has turned into a terrible unsafe place where in san francisco any looter can rob any shop in the daytime of upto 1000 dollars and face no arrest or prosecution ,hence the centre is almost a ghost town with businesses and shops boarded up and gone for good , he witnessed this while he was there ,despite at the time of russian threats he still went back as he wanted to be in a place of good people . he luckily managed to escape and has documented this scary experience ,seeing the fear on the woman and kids is startling ,when they crossed to hungary border control these poor ukranian  woman and kids where been shoved out of the way by despicable people who i think you know who i mean as we have them here, they were not coming from ukraine but trying to get here or other places using this as a way to do it. 

[Guest DoesJackHunt]

23 minutes ago, morganowl said:

ukranians are wonderful people there very loyal and think of others . on day 1 of the bombardment locals in kiev went grocery shopping and guess what apart from 1 and that was a non ukranian they only took enough food what they needed ,they could have got a months supply but no they didnt and asked why they said we want everyone to be able to be able to buy food.  ive watched this american youtuber well before all this watched him 2 years ago when we had nothing to do or go to during lockdowns ,he decided well over a year ago to settle in kiev , he often remarked how nice people are and when he went back to the states 2 months ago to see his parents he saw how most of usa has turned into a terrible unsafe place where in san francisco any looter can rob any shop in the daytime of upto 1000 dollars and face no arrest or prosecution ,hence the centre is almost a ghost town with businesses and shops boarded up and gone for good , he witnessed this while he was there ,despite at the time of russian threats he still went back as he wanted to be in a place of good people . he luckily managed to escape and has documented this scary experience ,seeing the fear on the woman and kids is startling ,when they crossed to hungary border control these poor ukranian  woman and kids where been shoved out of the way by despicable people who i think you know who i mean as we have them here, they were not coming from ukraine but trying to get here or other places using this as a way to do it. 

I don't know who you mean, care to elaborate?

[Beighton Owl 87]

30 minutes ago, morganowl said:

ukranians are wonderful people there very loyal and think of others . on day 1 of the bombardment locals in kiev went grocery shopping and guess what apart from 1 and that was a non ukranian they only took enough food what they needed ,they could have got a months supply but no they didnt and asked why they said we want everyone to be able to be able to buy food.  ive watched this american youtuber well before all this watched him 2 years ago when we had nothing to do or go to during lockdowns ,he decided well over a year ago to settle in kiev , he often remarked how nice people are and when he went back to the states 2 months ago to see his parents he saw how most of usa has turned into a terrible unsafe place where in san francisco any looter can rob any shop in the daytime of upto 1000 dollars and face no arrest or prosecution ,hence the centre is almost a ghost town with businesses and shops boarded up and gone for good , he witnessed this while he was there ,despite at the time of russian threats he still went back as he wanted to be in a place of good people . he luckily managed to escape and has documented this scary experience ,seeing the fear on the woman and kids is startling ,when they crossed to hungary border control these poor ukranian  woman and kids where been shoved out of the way by despicable people who i think you know who i mean as we have them here, they were not coming from ukraine but trying to get here or other places using this as a way to do it. 

Kyiv not Kiev. Kiev is the Russian name for the place.

[SUAOwl]

If enough of us change the colours of our avatars on a Sheffield Wednesday football forum, we might just stop the tanks. Believe!

[Junglejay]

1 hour ago, seat172 said:

Done.

Every avatar on every site!

Lets do this people.

 

 

I don't want to sound like a ********, although I appreciate I probably will come across as one by asking this.  I know you generally can't do this online without it coming across as aggressive or it turning into a slanging match.  However, I want to ask a question out of genuine curiosity, rather than mocking you or anyone else but I've always wondered exactly what people are trying to achieve with things like this. 

 

Granted it's not doing anyone any harm and you'd have to question anyone who is offended by this.  However, other than self gratification, is it really doing any good? or is it going to make any difference?  You'd have to look pretty hard to find someone who isn't aware of the terrible situation in Ukraine and certainly someone in the western world who isn't disgusted with the whole situation, so I can't see it would be to raise awareness.   

 

I don't know you or many other people on here, so for all I know you have family links to Ukraine, which makes perfect sense.  Like I say, I'm not having a dig at you or anyone, I just wonder if I'm missing the point as I'd have no intention of changing my avatar or putting a flag in my window without understanding what it's likely to achieve.  

[morganowl]

12 minutes ago, DoesJackHunt said:

I don't know who you mean, care to elaborate?

watch it yourself  on youtube he is called  johnny hd  and its called  chaos trying to flee ukraine put on 1 day ago . think half of the rat population just got released while those poor ukranian woman and kids were waiting for hours trying to get papers . make you own observations . 

[Guest hirstysfags]

26 minutes ago, Junglejay said:

 

 

I don't want to sound like a ********, although I appreciate I probably will come across as one by asking this.  I know you generally can't do this online without it coming across as aggressive or it turning into a slanging match.  However, I want to ask a question out of genuine curiosity, rather than mocking you or anyone else but I've always wondered exactly what people are trying to achieve with things like this. 

 

Granted it's not doing anyone any harm and you'd have to question anyone who is offended by this.  However, other than self gratification, is it really doing any good? or is it going to make any difference?  You'd have to look pretty hard to find someone who isn't aware of the terrible situation in Ukraine and certainly someone in the western world who isn't disgusted with the whole situation, so I can't see it would be to raise awareness.   

 

I don't know you or many other people on here, so for all I know you have family links to Ukraine, which makes perfect sense.  Like I say, I'm not having a dig at you or anyone, I just wonder if I'm missing the point as I'd have no intention of changing my avatar or putting a flag in my window without understanding what it's likely to achieve.  

It does absolutely nothing apart from keeping it people's consciences.  

[WalworthOwl]

44 minutes ago, Junglejay said:

I want to ask a question out of genuine curiosity, rather than mocking you or anyone else but I've always wondered exactly what people are trying to achieve with things like this. 

 

it's a fair question.

 

The West has decided not to get into a fight, which is probably sensible, so what can stop Putin, or what can make him turn round? The opinions of his rich cronies and the opinions of ordinary Russians are important to him<  he has a huge propaganda machine and in the short term he can manage them, but I still guess that in the medium term Russian opinion is the best chance that Ukraine will be saved. Of course the West should pursue other avenues too, like supplying defensive weapons so the Ukrainians can slow down armoured convoys and hit the morale of the invaders, but I think Russian public opinion is the most important factor.

 

Putin tries to seal off Western views but Russia is not North Korea, Russians do get an idea of what others think. Putin is an expert at finding maverick views supporting Russia, sending bots to upvote and follow the mavericks, and telling his people that these are common views in the West. These views can be on the left or the right – the analysis of Jeremy Corbyn and Nigel Farage is very similar, saying that Russia is making a reasonable response to provocations from NATO and the EU.

 

That's why I think even tiny things like support for Ukraine on Owlstalk make a difference. All views expressed against the invasion make it a little bit harder for Putin to keep his people behind him.

[Guest DoesJackHunt]

1 hour ago, SUAOwl said:

If enough of us change the colours of our avatars on a Sheffield Wednesday football forum, we might just stop the tanks. Believe!

i don't like you 

[Junglejay]

13 minutes ago, WalworthOwl said:

 

it's a fair question.

 

The West has decided not to get into a fight, which is probably sensible, so what can stop Putin, or what can make him turn round? The opinions of his rich cronies and the opinions of ordinary Russians are important to him<  he has a huge propaganda machine and in the short term he can manage them, but I still guess that in the medium term Russian opinion is the best chance that Ukraine will be saved. Of course the West should pursue other avenues too, like supplying defensive weapons so the Ukrainians can slow down armoured convoys and hit the morale of the invaders, but I think Russian public opinion is the most important factor.

 

Putin tries to seal off Western views but Russia is not North Korea, Russians do get an idea of what others think. Putin is an expert at finding maverick views supporting Russia, sending bots to upvote and follow the mavericks, and telling his people that these are common views in the West. These views can be on the left or the right – the analysis of Jeremy Corbyn and Nigel Farage is very similar, saying that Russia is making a reasonable response to provocations from NATO and the EU.

 

That's why I think even tiny things like support for Ukraine on Owlstalk make a difference. All views expressed against the invasion make it a little bit harder for Putin to keep his people behind him.

 

Thanks for the response,  I completely understand the background and associated politics  I do completely agree that the views of different countries and major corporations will no doubt make a difference.  Various sanctions, no matter how small will not have gone un-noticed by some in Russia, whereas plunging Russia into an immediate recession is certainly going to hurt Putin and also unfortunately severely impact their population.   

 

I still don't see how people on football forums etc changing their avatars will make even the smallest difference.  To some extent I'd get it if we had Ukrainian players/owners etc. That said, it's certainly not hurting anyone so ultimately what's the problem?

[A47Owl]

2 hours ago, SUAOwl said:

If enough of us change the colours of our avatars on a Sheffield Wednesday football forum, we might just stop the tanks. Believe!

Unnecessary comment. Obviously it's not going to make a scrap of difference. Nobody will expect it will . There is not much we can do but show support in some small way. Do you have a problem with that. You would have been better to keep your thought to yourself  

[A47Owl]

2 hours ago, Junglejay said:

 

 

I don't want to sound like a ********, although I appreciate I probably will come across as one by asking this.  I know you generally can't do this online without it coming across as aggressive or it turning into a slanging match.  However, I want to ask a question out of genuine curiosity, rather than mocking you or anyone else but I've always wondered exactly what people are trying to achieve with things like this. 

 

Granted it's not doing anyone any harm and you'd have to question anyone who is offended by this.  However, other than self gratification, is it really doing any good? or is it going to make any difference?  You'd have to look pretty hard to find someone who isn't aware of the terrible situation in Ukraine and certainly someone in the western world who isn't disgusted with the whole situation, so I can't see it would be to raise awareness.   

 

I don't know you or many other people on here, so for all I know you have family links to Ukraine, which makes perfect sense.  Like I say, I'm not having a dig at you or anyone, I just wonder if I'm missing the point as I'd have no intention of changing my avatar or putting a flag in my window without understanding what it's likely to achieve.  

Regretably it will a achieve nothing. If it makes us feel a bit better then what's the problem. 

Same as clapping the NHS achieved nothing but I bet the NHS staff appreciated it regardless of how ineffective it was in solving the problem. 

 

Do you clap when your team scores? 

It shows appreciation. That's all we are doing. If you don't want to do it then dont. 

[Guest DoesJackHunt]

1 hour ago, morganowl said:

watch it yourself  on youtube he is called  johnny hd  and its called  chaos trying to flee ukraine put on 1 day ago . think half of the rat population just got released while those poor ukranian woman and kids were waiting for hours trying to get papers . make you own observations . 

 

I've watched it, I also saw an section on the news last night about black people trying to flee Ukraine at the boarder and the Ukrainian boarder control segregating black people from Ukrainians and processing their boarder crossings at a ratio of 10 Ukrainians to 1 "foreigner". Maybe information of this type was driving the actions amongst the people in the video you highlighted

It's obviously a desperate situation where everyone is fleeing for their life's. I personally don't think that one person life is worth anymore than anyone else's. Unless it was a child over an adult.

I do believe in queue's because I'm British and it's a thing here...........but in many cultures it's simply not a thing and if you're fleeing for your life, it's probably not a time where you are going to adopt queueing protocol into your cultural dynamic.  

 

I just hope everyone who wants to gets out of Ukraine safely

[A47Owl]

Have you noticed that there is no fighting or pushing and shoving  by the refugees trying to escape potential death. They seem very dignified. 

A bit different to people fighting to get the last bog rolls off the shelf at the beginning of the pandemic. And the scrapping on Black Friday to grab a bargain. 

That's why the Ukrainians deserve every bit of support we can give. Even if it's just changing an avatar on Owlstalk 

[Junglejay]

7 minutes ago, A47Owl said:

Regretably it will a achieve nothing. If it makes us feel a bit better then what's the problem. 

Same as clapping the NHS achieved nothing but I bet the NHS staff appreciated it regardless of how ineffective it was in solving the problem. 

 

Do you clap when your team scores? 

It shows appreciation. That's all we are doing. If you don't want to do it then dont. 

 

Like I said, it's not a problem and lets be fair it wouldn't really matter if it was, what you or anyone else does is entirely your decision. I don't approve or disapprove, I've just never managed to get my head around it. 

 

Just asked a simple question without trying to sound like a ******** as I never have understood the purpose of things like this, although I have always suspected it was more of a public statement to show everyone that "I care", even more so with the NHS clapping and people feeling the need to film themselves in the act.  Again, each to their own I wouldn't look down on you or anyone else for doing it, the same way I wouldn't expect someone to question why I wouldn't get anything out of doing something like this on a football forum.  

.