ZuluKilo66;
A thoughtful and welcome post, thanks.
I don't advocate exclusion, nor do I think that "cleansing" is the right thing. The most important aspect of discourse of any kind is a willing suspension of judgement and ego in favour of thought-full curiosity. Implied in that stance is a wholesome respect for those that know more than one, (I very much include myself in the latter category because I have learned a great deal from others about my own profession - I even include non-specialists who ask intelligent, seeking questions without pronouncing from afar).
I realize the job of creating another layer of qualification is a headache and another layer of rules. It can be done and has been but the sad thing is, a lot of very good learning is lost to those who may benefit the most when a thread is locked away from them. How does one judge while keeping the prole-factor down?
The key here, and it cannot be controlled (nor should it) but it can be engendered in an air of expectant reserve, is a modicum of self-discipline and plain old manners; - but we live in an age when such personal, human qualities are not only eschewed but intentionally trampled upon because, it is perceived, that "in-yer-face" trumps courtesy in a badly mistaken notion that "loud and rude is right". Take a look at the model that all television and not just public atrocities like Fox, offer as examples of attention-getting, argument-for-the-sake-of-it. Geraldo is calm by today's standards, but we see such qualities right here and I think it is unacceptable behaviour, (that someone would even express this is, in itself, a foreign and even "controlling" notion to many).
The agenda, as I perceive it, is a serious discussion for aviation people of all backgrounds and for those with a serious interest which they nurture and not just shove out into the public sphere for the sake of filling silence. Such a discussion should welcome disagreement but not ego.
Such a change would go a long way to re-civilizing the public discourse, (fascinating topic in it's own right).
Gerard13;
My plea is to not close the forum to non-professionals, but if you need to establish some type of credentials to allow posting and eliminate all the nonsense, to let the "rest of us" read the posts only, rather than exclude us altogether.
I have no say but that would be exactly my plea as well - perhaps even looser than that to keep the administration reasonable. For me there are no "the rest of us"; it's a subtle difference, a shift rather than a rule, that I would advocate.