wanttaja
En-Route
Agreed. The problem is, there are posters who bring their Spin Zone manners, conflicts, and attitudes to the "General" boards. You'll be reading a "Hangar Flying" thread that's a bit argumentative, then WHAM... a big slam against somebody for their liberal/conservative bent. And you wonder, "Where the heck did that come from....?"Agreed. There are no bad threads, only bad posters.
Jim mentioned the USENET newsgroup rec.aviation.homebuilt; those who participated might recall when several folks group started their own "splinter" group because people were complaining how rough they were. They'd come over to RAH on occasion and post things like "You a******s should come join alt.aviation.fun!" Oddly enough, there were few a******s that actually did.
I enjoy a good spirited discussion, but the discussion should be based on the *ideas* exchanged, not the ideology of the poster, or the person's comments in other threads. I don't want to hear you complain that Ron Levy is a know-it-all *****; I want to see you post logical arguments to refute what he said.
Generally, things aren't bad. But one way to look at the boards is try to imagine the discussions being performed verbally around the water cooler at work. Too often, the discussions sound like drunken frat kids arguing at the next table. You can come up with good counter-arguments with what they're saying...but do you *really* want to get involved?
I see some comments about about "thin skinned people should stay away, anyway." News flash, folks: Most teenagers have pretty thin skins, but they're the kind of people we need to lure into flying. We need a more professional, helpful, environment.
Ron Wanttaja