Arch,

Guilty as charged. I bought my Stubby about six years ago and have
posted very little here about it. Shortly after my purchase, three
other Stubby owners invited me into an email group. This eventually
grew to about 15 people when we decided to set up a Yahoo group. We
are way over 100 now.

Funny thing is, most of the discussion there is from new people seeking
advice on buying a bigger lathe.

I think the reason that a lot of the big lathe discussion has
disappeared has less to do with big lathes and more to do with people
being tired of answering the same questions over and over. If you go
back in the archives five or six years ago, you will see that I
participated on this forum and others quite extensively. Over the
years, it got to the point where I had provided answers to many of the
questions many times over. I simply quit with the attitude that it
was others' turn to answer those questions or, as the body of knowledge
grew on the net, a participant could simply look up the information for
themselves.

I am guessing that many long-time web users have gradually tuned out
the heavy participation. I know that the r.c.w. crowd now is almost
completely different than the crowd from six years ago.

I still occasionally jump in on a few topics where I can maybe offer
unique advice. Before I do, however, I usually read through advice or
discussion already given. I don't usually jump in to just say "me too"
or "I agree".

All of this, of course, applies to the large lathe discussions too.

Stubby 750 owner. Heavy user of the Vicmarc VL 300. Light user of the
Oneway 2436. Wouldn't change my decision after all these years.

Joe Fleming - San Diego