On Sep 2, 11:18*pm, "Jay Honeck" wrote:

Below is what was published today on the moderated piloting group, "Pilots
of America"...... (the rest snipped)

Jay, I appreciate the invitation and I may take ya'll up on it but in
my 15 + years of Usenet I have never seen a web-based forum that I
liked enough to stick with it. For various reasons ranging from
complexity to shallowness of participants to overly-strict moderators,
Usenet has grabbed a part of my heart that has yet to be satisfied
with anything web-based.

I do admit, at the moment RAP is full of the worst kind of immature,
childish nonsense, some regretfully from highly-experienced pilots. In
the 4 Usenet groups I've been heavily involved with over the years
this kind of thing comes & goes. The other 2 groups I'm involved with
are on the upswing from a 2-3 year period of childish garbage &
trolls. I have seen them both go bad then good then back again a
couple of times. Excellent, legendary, knowlegable posters have said;
"to hell with this" and quit, unable to use their filters or just
ignore the manure, which is almost always the way an attention-starved
troll leaves anyway, by being completely ignored. I don't even use the
same I.D. there that I do here for fear of ushering thumb-sucking
idiots from here to there. It seems to have gotten worse in recent
years, though across the Usenet board. I remember a time when Usenet
as a whole was much more civil, mature, respectful and meaningful.

However, the unmoderated freedom of Usenet is a real treasure for me &
the millions who use it as it should be used.
It's simple, direct, no-frills, unmoderated and legendary. I use
Google for access which sucks real bad at times but I do have Agent,
which just requires an hour or two of free time for me to get it
configured and strangle some info from my server/ISP. I don't have an
hour or two free right now & haven't for weeks.
I'm sure POA is wonderful and I may try it. At the moment life is too
busy for lots of Usenet (or internet for that matter), anyway, so
perhaps when I finish A&P school in Dec. & have more time online I'll
check out POA. Just got a job at L-3 BTW working on C-130s & P-3s with
incredible pay & benefits & a flying club w cheap rentals to boot!
Just like flying, an A&P is a licence to learn as I'm realizing almost
nothing in the last 2 years of school has prepared me for what I've
done the last week in my new career. I've learned an amazing amount in
just 1 week.

I'm glad ya'll seem to have a good group but I've heard criticism of
POA in the vein of web-based group problems I mentioned above. I hope
it flourishes and I'm sure I'll come over for a visit sometime in the
near future. If nothing else, it may be a breath of fresh air, It's
really stinky in here right now!

Ricky