There were definitely a few bad apples who seemed to get off on being obnoxious to newcomers and unfortunately they seemed to gain quite a few adherents. I tried to go against the tide and be a bit more friendly to newcomers but the others just created so much noise that I ended up blocking a bunch of them so probably missed out on some of their mean commenting. The forum is better off without them.Very true on many points there... it sucks to be the mouse. I know you are right about other forums back in the day when it was at its worse here. That was a period in time where someone who might be the nicest person you ever meet in person was a total A hole online because everyone grew internet balls and treated others poorly. I think in todays world with all the politic battles and crap that happens people are more cognizant that its an actual human they are beating up not just a computer screen.
I saw it as a bunch of old schoolers with huge ego's that they felt grew by degrading others. At that time I was also not as old and grumpy and intolerant of that kind of stuff so going quiet was an easy choice.
I think it still happens now and then and even I have had a bad day in RL and come online all pissy and not been nice as I could have been but I never tried to up my reputation by tearing down others. We are humans and I don't think any forum can exist without some degree of it.
I carry a much higher opinion of this forum these days though. I see others helping others and it is always cool to see a young person or someone just starting and watch them have that same fun we had in the beginning. I would for sure agree this is a better place than it use to be.
I know one thing that honestly gets members to stop coming here on a daily basis and that is if you do not have real strong self control you can end up dumping 10 grand in a weekend here. Then there are all these "special releases" and if you try to keep up with that it adds up super fast. I have noticed several members back off visiting here just because their wife is going to murder them in their sleep if they run up any more credit cards
Thank you for your concern... this round of surgery has been a lot bigger deal than some of the others I have had. An interesting thing about titanium I learned this week is human bone bonds to it stronger and better than most other metals! They had to remove a rod from my leg to attach the hip and it had so much bone grown onto it a planned 2 hour surgery turned into a 8.5 hour surgery. I am getting through it though and have some real high hopes the end result will be getting my life back so I can go enjoy the outdoors again.
