I can pretty-much guarantee you that most of the people sounding off on these forums with petty name-calling and insults would be completely different if you were having the same debate around the table in the pub over a pint. That's the unfortunate nature of anonymous internet forums.
There's camaraderie, which is all well and good, but if camaraderie stretches to trying to convince each other everything will be alright when faced with no job and repayments on a £75k loan (before interest) secured on your folks' house, then brutal honesty has to come to the fore instead. Unfortunately the way some choose to put that honesty across on here grates with others - understandably so, but if you can read between the forceful choice of words the points made are often very valid. I'm glad one9iner has taken the time to point out that the stories from those of us who have now been through the system and are in the airlines (or importantly,
not in them, in the case of many) are of use - even if it helps only a few people to make a sensible, rational decision rather than blindly throwing a large 5-figure sum at an FTO on the basis of some fancy
PR, then it's been time well spent.