Thank you for your post Jinks.......and reading it I do detect a sense of your own self importance but as human beings we all experience that. Wheter we decide to express it so candidly and at such length is another point. I believe you allude to some important points about the flight sim environment. As a relative newcomer...just twelve months it has taken me a while to learn the 'etiquette' of the various fora. I certainly notice that it is generally a faux pas to criticise in any way freeware even if it's done constructively. You may get away with it if you sandwich the critiscism in between some very positive remarks and make use of appropriate emoticons...and don't ever say anything about Mike Stone's work..you'll be struck down, as you've noticed! I suspect that it's something to do with the fact that he is prolific and all for free and recently decided to withdraw from all this due to receiving more critiscism than he could tolerate. Incidentally, I often use his very good aircraft for their very friendly frame rates, but I always use other panels and I always repaint to achieve an aged look, because I prefer that to the pristine finish that Mike creates....just a matter of taste of course!My own belief is that we should be able to make constructive critiscism, constructive being the operative word, and I believe that we should also make the effort to write to those people whose work we like and use, to thank them.best wishesIsmetM

All,Thanks for everyone's posts.I am going to exercise my moderator powers and lock this thread. This is a pre-emptive measure. It appears opinions from all sides have been voiced.As to locking and banning, trust me when I say that we moderators do not like to do either. But we find that they are effective tools when needed.Regards,