Okay - I now thoroughly regret having reopened this thread. I am therefore closing it again.
This forum is somewhere that people can come and ask questions of a technical nature and receive answers in a manner that does not insult them. I don't care if non-aviators come and ask questions out of interest. I don't care if people ask questions trying to appear more knowedgeable than they are. I don't care if Reginald S. Potter asks how many rivets there are on a 737-900 compared to a -700.
If you can't answer politely, don't answer at all. If you choose to answer, be professional and polite about it. After all, we are all supposed to be professionals. Not many have been behaving like it. If a Wannabe asks what you consider to be a stupid question, recall that there are no such things as stupid questions (except the one that people are too afraid to ask), only stupid answers.
And remember when you knew nothing. You got where you are by asking questions.
If this forum degenerates to the point that people are afraid to come in and ask anything for fear of some hoity-toity knowitall mouthing off at them, the forum will die.
If there is any repetition of the level of personal abuse on this forum to the extent that I have seen on this thread, all perpetrators will be banned for a significant length of time.
I hope I make myself clear.