Allright folks, time to lay down a few ground rules, I feel.
Firstly and most importantly I believe, and I feel the vast majority of contributors and regulars in this forum would agree with me, that there is one thing that makes this forum stand out over and above the others, both on the web in general, and even just on this site. That thing is a shared sense of community.
No matter who we are, where we come from, or who we choose to play with in our time off we all ply our trade on board aircraft, or want to ply our trade on them. That is why we are here, first and foremost. After all, the entire raison d'etre of this site is to bring people with a common love of aviation together, from whatever walk of life or community.
With that in mind, I don't think it is right to create some sub-grouping on here based on sexual orientation, or any other arbitrarily chosen maxim. I can see this thread heading down that direction, and it will inevitably drag strong dissenting views with it. This thread has been very good natured, with a good sense of humour so far (still is) to the credit of everyone who is contributing.
So, if I have to prioritise anything on this forum I will prioritise the overall sense of community. That for me is the most important issue here... no matter who you are you are welcome here as part of the aviation family. Lets not subdivide any further than that.
Secondly I feared from the outset that this might just possibly turn into some kind of 'contact' or 'pick-up' thread. These appear on here in some form other roughly once a month, and are usually along the lines of "Any hot hosties going to be in (pick an airport location, any airport location) on Tuesday, looking for a good time!!!!."
I close those threads down as soon as I find them, or just simply delete them without explanation. This is most certainly not that type of forum, for anybody of any persuasion. If you want to arrange contacts, you are all grown-up, internet-literate people, and therefore are aware of the multitude of ways to do just that using your computer and some ingenuity. This thread is now stepping firmly into that territory, and in order to be even handed, I should close it down. I've got to deal the cards as fairly as possible in here...
What I'm most certainly not saying is don't flirt, don't suggest, keep your innuendos under wraps. Not for one moment would I propagate that atmosphere in here....
I just feel that it is more important to maintain a sense of "being as one" with an interest in the mutiple trials and tribulations of this Great Game than creating special interest groups within a special interest group. Other websites for Cabin Crew have chosen to do just that, and more power to them. They have the luxury of being specialised towards Cabin Crew, with mutliple forums at their disposal.
We don't have that luxury on here, so we have to build on what strengths we have. Our biggest strength is our community, and you are all part of that, no matter who you are. And everyone is made equally welcome on here.
Fair comments, folks? Thanks for listening. Now I can resume pulling the legs off this particularly recalcitrant spider I have here!
Happy Hogmanay....!
£6
[ 31 December 2001: Message edited by: Sick Squid ]</p>