Capt. Stable;
Yes it is relatively quiet in here "but" , in some of the other forums there is sometimes a significant level of vituperous backbiting and personal attacks taking place that I can really do without.
We, in particular Pilots, are usually our own worst enemies and I don't think that PPrune was created with the idea to facilitate character assasinations etc.
I do regret that we are rarely able to maturly discuss and debate matters of interest to many of us, as a result my visits and contributions to the Forums have abated after the initial enthusiasm of being able to communicate with colleagues all over the world from my relatively isolated location.
Also, in my opinion, it is difficult to discuss certain sensitive items in a wide open forum such as PPrune, perhaps we should consider levels of access. I am sure that many members are very senior in their respective organisations and as such perhaps involved in labour negotiations and all sorts of other specialised committee work which could be a great source of information, these forums present an ideal means of disseminating information, some of which is probably not suitable for Jo-Blo who once took a leak in a stall next to an aviation professional and since then thinks s/he is one as well.
As for me, I will contribute something, be it a copied news story or personally written commentary, when I feel it beneficial to do so, I am also happy to respond to sensible inquiries from anyone, but I am not going to do their homework for them. So if a 200hr Pilot from another part of the world wants to know what his/her chances are to landing a job in the right seat of a passenger jet with national carrier, I'm not likely to respond because I consider it frivolous chatter and I'm getting too old and ornery for that.
To those of you that contribute real aviation industry material, I want you to know that I am interested and thank you for the time you take to make your contribution, for despite my 30 plus years of involvement with aviation I am painfully aware of how much I don't know about it and am therefore willing to read and debate and learn.
One more point before I conclude my rant; to me Nicaragua or Alaska or any other place on this globe are equally important in this global industry of ours, I will quote one example; at my place of employment we once had a CEO who was seriously considering to hire US$ 25k per annum Pilots (Captains) from latin america, because we, the local Pilots and members of the association were pushing for a small increment to our US$ 75 - 90k salaries. Needless to say those latin Pilots had no clue that they could not have survived at our cost of living.
Mr moderator, I thank you for your work.
I wish you all a healthy and prosperous 2005 (that will automatically bring some happiness)
fluf