And yes, in case you forgot, I turn wood. ;-)

No additional response is needed, and I suppose I should have prefaced
the subject line with OT.


I may be a bit sensitive to these things. When I read what was on your
site, I guess it got my ire up as there have been so many attempts at a
stealthily starting a political thread.

The ALWAYS wind up with everyone at each other's throats with name
calling, threats of beatings if they ever see them in person, and
people that normally get along quite well ready to tear each other's
lungs out. In just 2 - 3 posts on these unmoderated groups people are
so far off the topic

This NG has been wonderfully free of that. At the woodworking NG, take
a peek at the longest threads there; it used to be how much they hated
Home Depot, and whether or not Norm was a "woodworker" or a
"craftsman". Now anything to do with any politics gets the most posts,
and by the third or fourth post, it is ugly. So when it gets to a
couple of hundred, you can guess what the tone and content of the posts
will be. The whole group was so confrontational after a while that it
wasn't even safe to post your opinion on your tools.

Now many have quit, and won't come back. Some won't be missed; some
will. And a small spark can easily start a forest fire over there.
And it has been a common technique on NGs and forum across the 'net to
draw attention to one's website and its content by asking innocently of
someone could take a look at it and make sure a couple of the links
work.

This obviously wasn't your intent. I like the peace and quiet here,
the focus on woodturning and related subjects, and the noticeable lack
of righteous political podium banging. Good luck with your site.


Robert