>I was really hoping that this thread was dead and buried.>I never once saw anything like this on the Compuserv forums>when I first became interested in FS (Sub-Logic ATP)>I really wish the moderators would start doing something about>these types of threads.If it gets out of control they do... I don't think the current level would qualify for closing the thread (as it's mainly positive) or even banning people.I don't moderate this forum but elsewhere where I do moderate forums I'd not close this (though I would watch it carefully in case it escalates).>I also think that getting timely answers on this forum is not>an entitlement and I would like to see a return to the time>when these forums teemed with posts where someone dicovered>some cool tweak and shared it with the community and not>treating these forums like the be all end all replacement for>the FS manual or the readmes that come with most addons.>Those days are long long gone I guess.Well said. Seeing from the average level and type of post I find elsewhere it's a general trend though (and not just in the FS community).I hang out a lot in professional software development forums and there the exact same phenomenon is happening. People calling themselves professional programmers but they don't even know how to unpack a zipfile sometimes, or how to run a compiler (never mind that it comes with excellent documentation) and then complain when you refer them to that documentation that you didn't solve their problem.And don't even let me get started about the kids who post their entire homework assignments word for word, then scream bloody murder when they don't get a ready-made solution to turn in within 5 minutes.

Thanks for the replies - positive and negative.My comments on the forums were based on my observation that they contain a pretty typical cross-section of people in general. This has been borne out by the replies.

You mean replies like: "I'm not sure I want to learn much about the flightsim community."Which cross-section does that place you in? Part of your thread seemed to be directed at making us examine our own place and attitude in the forums, so I am curious if you have any remorse about that remark?-John

JohnCiThat post was in direct reply to one that said "Frankly, anyone who has only a year of experience here still has much to learn about the flightsim community"

Considering that was your motivation for the remark, I understand your reply. I thought you were raising a question to the other concerns raised. I accept yours as an honest reaction then--we all do that when challenged.Regards,John