[effects dodgy scouse accent and shouts "caam down, caam down"]
Having a row is dead easy on a bulletin board. Someone goes fishing or throws an ill-judged remark into the debate, someone else bites, everyone takes sides and off we go. That’s one of the downsides of communication on the internet – people have the cloak of anonymity; we cannot see an expression, hear a tone of voice. We can only express ourselves through what we write, and some people are better at it than others.
It doesn’t happen face to face. I’m fortunate enough to have met many of the contributors to this thread (in various states of inebriation) and there isn’t one of them I wouldn’t want to have a pint with again. At my first Gatbash a group of us stood in a circle and, after the introductions were out of the way, one of the first comments was; “This is Pprune - shouldn’t we have an argument now?” And we all had a good laugh.
For anyone new to Pprune, or anyone who doesn’t get the chance to put faces to names at the bashes, don’t take it too seriously – I certainly don’t. It’s only a website, after all.
To reinforce the message much more eloquently than I can manage, take a few minutes to read the best posting I have ever seen on Pprune – Sick Squid’s reply, 4th post from the top:
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...5&pagenumber=2
Yes, there are some silly comments made by some pretty silly people who should know better. C’est la vie. Be prepared to sort the wheat from the chaff, and Pprune will provide you with many real gems of information. IMHO, this thread is a classic example of that.