Sled, as a poster that may very well be placed in the category you so eloquently describe, especially since I recently did a self-described "cannon
ball" into one thread recently, please know that I do fully understand the frustration you're going through. I do not, however, feel that I'm an
out-and-out "troll" and, OMG, I would NEVER wish to chase anyone away from a discussion site that I've only been on for a very few years myself. I
honestly believe that everyone at SOME level has something to contribute even if you have to rattle their cage a bit to get it out of them.
All that being said I do have to shake my head and wonder when people wander into Internet forums such as ATS like Thoreau to "live deliberately"
when, in reality, what they're getting into is like Crocodile Dundee wandering the streets of New York for the fist time saying "g'day" to everyone he
passes. It can be like wandering into a wood chipper! The world is a varied place but it stays within a range from age to age. As big as ATS is there
are plenty of areas to frequent, such as your para-normal section, that could be considered "safe zones" but nevertheless I would still reconsider
leaving.
One suggestion that I would offer, and I realize I'm probably exposing my gross ignorance of how this site works, is that the links in the "MyATS"
section to threads that a member posts to go directly to the first submission a poster has made in a thread rather than the first page of the thread.
Also, while I know I've had quite a few replies to my submissions, I don't think any of them have ever shown up in the "Replies" section of "MyATS" or
that icon doesn't work or perhaps I'm misreading the purpose of that area on the page.
I fully understand that there are a lot of things that I have yet to learn about submitting and working in this webforum but if a poster had the
ability to see who had, indeed, replied to their submission, or lack thereof, it would make it easier to pick and choose those they would want to
reply to and ignore the rest. Few have the time to read through and digest pages upon pages of any one thread to assimilate the information and form
some coherent submission. So,if a person making a reply is overly aggressive you are free to ignore them. Believe me - I KNOW about being ignored
here!
I ran across a great article in a fairly well known on-line magazine a couple of nights ago and I offer it to anyone that has the time for a little
homework:
www.cracked.com... The article is about a year old but it's had something of a
life of its own since it was published. I'd had quite a few cups of coffee that evening so perhaps it was the caffeine that caused me to like it so
much.
edit on 3-1-2014 by Ollie769 because: (no reason given)