Sydney Hoeltzli wrote
The function of a newsgroup is to exchange information.

Pac sez: (note, too tired to use a spell checker on this one.)

Good post Sydney. No Snowbird, I agree with Mike (just what is a
Nafod anyway?) :-) and Bob Reid on this one. The current function of
a newsgroup is really multi-faceted: its entertainment and
socializing, interupted by galactically stupid questions from mere
mortals that have nothing better to do than interupt our fine
conversations... he, he. ;-) But seriously, newbies simply need to
phrase things in the form of a respectful question, some old fart with
massive background in exactly that area may be lurking and will
accomplish that sharing of info function you mentioned. If no one
answers, keep trying or call EAA.

snip good stuff
As such,
it functions more like a small town or a local community than a
"busy intercity freeway". People need to get to know whose advice
is generally sound and what other people's personal tics are.
Some meet IRL and break bread together. The topics of conversations
may vary, and a certain amount of off-topic stuff is inevitable,
but some kind of social compact is necessary for the group
to be able to serve its intended function. You allude to this
yourself. snip

Can't argue with that. There's a lot of on-ramps and off-ramps and
you can access any part of it your heart desires.


Suppose they happened to have gobs of experience flying and building,
well, what good does it do anyone if instead of sharing it, they
spend all their time and energy picking fights and being disruptive?
Other experienced people are unable to share their experience or get
disgusted by the atmosphere and leave. snip

You and Bill have issues to be sure. Time to realize that RAH is not
real. Why any day now Google's going to get a brass-tacks DBA manager
who going to start eyeballing all that "unused" RAH storage space.
And you know what? Those old posts are going to just go up in smoke,
just like some of the old pre-Deja news stuff did. Why don't you two
just bury the hatchet?

My point is, and perhaps I mistake you, you seem to be on the
one hand pointing out that there's no mechanism to edit content
other than the "social compact" as it were -- individual choice
to either post a "sharp reprisal" or to refuse to associate
with an individual by killfiling them, and the sum of such
individual choices. snip

What's important to specify is that the "regulars" at least in this
group, have, and in some cases continue to cheat death on a regular
basis, in many cases for years on end. They have a greater breadth of
background, say than someone who buys a helo for cash and assumes that
the FAA is capable of watching over this highly questionable
experimental offering. For one of the regulating regulars like BWB to
point out "you're going to be a long time dead if you fly that thing"
is ten times more valuable to a homebuilder then a hundred flowery
writeups in the "Zoom Tunes Review" that are later reversed.

snip
And you're right.

But, on the other hand, you seem to be criticizing Dan and
"Big John" for pretty much doing as you say -- making a "sharp
reprisal" against some stuff they don't like. If it's a "free
newsgroup" where anything goes, aren't you playing "Netcop"
yourself by critiquing them?
snip snip

Yeah, I just don't feel language or style is worthy of a witch hunt.
Now if someone claims their new helo is flawless, and others know
otherwise, that's different and disservant of sharp reprisal.

Syd, I know you got burned pretty bad by the terminator and his new
model. Third degree burns and all. Sorry. But thats not going to
kill you. IMHO most of you need to be more like a duck: let that old
water roll right down your back. From where I sit, the profanity
issue is just not high on the list of what's wrong with aviation in
America. John is a gentleman, and to him it's outrageous. The same
is true with Dan (my appol. Dan if your reading this.) Bill, however,
is a pirate in real life and on the net. To me, the diversity of the
group is what makes it rich.

Bill made some great posts Once Upon a Time. Like, more than
4 years ago. It seems pretty clear to me he's no longer willing
or able to do so. Just how much "reckless driving" does your
community tolerate from someone who used to be a contributing
citizen? Do you believe in fairy tales?

Well, in the Philippines, we all drink and drive and race all the
time, and no pilot has ever really gotten hurt. RAH is a frontier.
So, my answer is, do what I did for six years in the frontier: prop a
beer up on the dashboard, and if you spill the damn thing, pull over,
shut it down and catch a jeepney. BWB's been running you guys off the
road and spilling beer on the dashboard for some time. When he gets
this drinking and driving thing out of his system, like I did, I wager
he will return to the old radioactive personality he used to be. In
the mean time it really wouldn't hurt if you appologized to him for
being such a know-it-all all the time. (costs nothing, even if its not
true.) ;-)

Best regards from Captain Know-it-All himself,

pacplyer - over and out