henry wrote:

Do I need to research a topic before throwing it out to
this group to see if it had been talked about last year? Swearing, name

calling, and politics etc need to be eliminated somehow. The
woodturning group and others that I've seen dont have this stuff going
on.

You should. If the right guys get to the message first, you will be OK
with your questions. If some of the regulars that consider this their
personal forum get to you first you will bet blasted with sarcasm, and
made to be felt like an idiot. They talk to people in mean, arrogant
way that would certainly get them bitch slapped silly if they did it to
another man in person. But internet anonyminity makes everyone here
pretty courageous.

There are a lot of talented people here, professional and hobby guys,
and most of them only lurk since the current tone of the group is as
you see can be dicey. It comes and goes. But the more it changes, the
more it stays the same. After a while, some go away, some new folks
come on board. The group seems a little nastier than usual now,
though.

But some leave with great fanfare, have an online pity party on their
own behalf right here, and lament the unfairness of how they are
treated for being a fountain of knowledge. It is hilarious. Those
wackers never stay gone for more than a month or so as no one else
wants listen to their baloney in person. So they bravely come back,
like watching Oprah, they decided to bravely try again to get share
their knowledge and experience and "not let the *******s get them
down". These are guys that just love too much, I guess.

While there are a lot of really nice folks here that are really helpful
(Mike Marlow just spent some great effort to help me with paint
spraying) the highest and best use of this group is now and probably
will always be the archives.

If you spend any time here at all, you will notice that by far and away
the longest threads with most participation are the most negative,
petty, and venal of the postings. Searching the archives make this
really easy to get around.

If you have a real time question to ask you should be ready for
anything, as you see on this thread. I would encourage you to ask
away, but be ready for the snotty sarcasm from those a little that have
that tiny fragment of information that they think makes them a genius.


I would encourage you to go to a moderated forum if you don't like the
wide open format here, as the kids indeed do play nicer because Dad (or
Mom) will blank the sarcastic, ugly, profane or off topic responses.
You can try woodweb, woodcentral, and a few others out there for a
forum atmosphere, but this is a public forum so "it is what it is".

Robert