Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
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Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evolving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
Rules For the rest of the Site also accessible on the sidebar.
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Apologies, I didn't see a notification!
Crete is built on a fault line so there is no mystery about cracks. We get earthquakes every week - often daily. Occasionally we even feel the quakes. I've felt three in the last 15 years. In addition, houses have been built in stupid places. You wouldn't believe how many thousands of houses and hotels cling to cliff faces.
Not far from me, some consortium built two hotels in a dry river bed. The problem with a dry river bed is that occasionally it rains here very hard for a long period. You can see where this is going. You can probably guess where the cars in the hotel car park went, one rainy day in 2008.
A few weeks ago, the nearby volcanic island of Santorini (Thera) was in the news because of earthquakes going on for several days and the likelihood of eruption or even a tsunami like the one that allegedly wiped out the Minoan civilisation on Crete. Some people were evacuated. In the end, it all died down and nothing happened.
We see these scaremongering "panic" articles all the time. It's not news unless it's scary. Yes, we live in a dangerous zone, the same as California. No, we don't plan to evacuate any time soon.
The original island houses were mostly built from rocks held in place with mud. Many of them survive to this day. https://files.catbox.moe/6bsgyd.JPG
My own house is steel & concrete, built on a flat area of bedrock some 300 metres above sea level. Relatively safe. No cracks yet.
There might well be DUMBs here but I have no evidence. Allegedly we get visits from UFOs but, again, I haven't seen any.
Just my thoughts.