I would like to add to Robins comments above.
There seems to be a misconception that this forum is there for anybody from Dunnunda to post topics on anthing they want to air. WRONG! This forum is for discussion of professional aviation issues that affect those of you dunnunda.
Too many people have assumed that this is a free speech forum where they can mouth off about anything that irrespective of the subject matter or content. THis is not a forum for Ozmates or Kiwis to rant on about their xenophobic beliefs or private pilots to discuss the best place to buy cheap 100LL or for spotters to go on about their latest 'spot'.
This forum is for topics that are about professional aviation down under (from the rest of the worlds perspective) and as long as those of you who have the intellectual capacity to understand this you are more than welcome to participate. For too long many people have assumed that because they are living in Australia or New Zealand and have an interest in professional aviation they can spout off on anything and everything.
This is not a recreational flying forum. It is not a spotters forum. It is not free speech for pilots forum. It is not a computer virus forum. It is not a political discussion forum. Too many people have the misconception that they can use this to post jokes or greetings or to slag off others without comeback. Well, the time has come to start drumming the idea home that this is a professional aviation forum for issues that affect Australian and New Zealand.
As for those of you lamenting about lame and his little band of followers, I will only state this one more time. I banned lame because he has for years tried to dictate to me and the moderators what should and should not be allowed on this and other forums. Whenever we decided to put a stop to his persistent whingeing he would threaten to leave PPRuNe only to reappear within hours. After the last episode I decided to help him on his way and gave him 'cold turkey'. The fact that he would spam my and the moderators mail with one line whinges and dictats didn't help his cause either.
As for the rest of you who want an unmoderated forum then I am prepared to set up a membership only forum for that purpose. Because it would have to be member only that takes time and effort and so a fee will be charged. In the past I have found that I can cover my costs for server space & bandwidth as well as my personal time to set each person up for a cost of about AUS$30 a year. Experience also tells me that 99% of those who have the most to say are too tight to put their money where their mouth is so it will probably never come to pass.
If someone sets up a seperate bulletin board for their fix of rant and anarchy then good luck to them. Just remember that it took me many years to get this website recognised and because of its present success I will not allow any free advertising of this new site. You will have to do it the hard way just like I did and get the search engines to recognise it or wait for your mates to email you the address. Of course you can pay the standard fee for a banner advert which will link to it but then we come back to the tight fisted response of those with a lot to say but sod all to back it up. Not one Australian enterprise has ever paid for an advert that would have gone to supporting the cost of running this forum. It takes money to run a website of this size and I am not about to give up all my and my friends' hard work that made it what it is today just because a few people can't get to grips with the fact that this is a professional aviation forum for those professional aviation issues down under.
Not too difficult to grasp but obviously way beyond a few individuals comprehension. To the rest of you I hope you have a prosperous new year and are able to adapt to the real concept of this forum.
[ 27 December 2001: Message edited by: Capt PPRuNe ]</p>