First off, I wanted to apologize for some of the behavior I've shown over the past few months here. We certainly have a community filled with many opinions, and I feel as of late certain discussions have turned from generally pleasant ones, to slightly less then pleasant. It has never been my goal to drive people off, but I have a feeling I may have helped contribute to this recently. I am going to work to improve in this area, and feel free to call me out if you feel I've crossed the line. I hope others are willing to speak up, even if it is someone like myself with a red name who is doing it. Ultimately, this community is not mine, but something that belongs to everyone here. If there was ever a time where I felt I needed to stop hosting it, I'd hand it off, much like PaulH did years ago. I hope no one feels that just because I host the site, I am somehow exempt from following the general guidelines of having a polite and civil discussion. If anyone has any concerns whatsoever regarding this or sees a conflict of interest, feel free to speak up.

I'll admit, part of what drove my behavior in certain posts recently was due to what I perceived some others were also doing. However, I chose poorly in my way of handling it. Instead of pointing out some of the nitpicking was getting out of hand, I tried to mirror the behavior, to the point of upsetting Bitt. And I think my repeated posts going after Matt anytime I see him going after Bruno have probably caused some more recent issues. I want to specifically apologize to both Bitt and Matt here for doing so. Countering what I perceived as bad posts with additional bad ones does nothing to improve the situation.

To address the situation more directly, I'm asking for people to try and be a little less antagonistic with their tech posts (or as Tony F calls, them, religious discussions ). I've been guilty of this myself, and it's something I'm going to work on. I'd ask others to do so too. Ultimately what people choose to use is their choice. I'm sure my own recent behavior has just reinforced Matt's reasons for avoiding any Apple products. There is a fine line with evangelism and zealotry that once crossed, just turns annoying for those involved on either side.


With all that said, I'd like to see what others think about the future of this community. Clearly it is shrinking, just as a nature of being one based on products that haven't been on sale for over 6 years now. There are a number of old regulars who have stopped posting, or post far less frequently. There is still enough of a group here though that continues visiting daily, posting hummingbird photos, or their latest band exploits. Anyone have any suggestions on changes to the forums that they see as beneficial? Or any insight in general they would like to offer? I'd like to keep this a welcoming place open to any discussion. There has been some really good ones over the years on a number of touchy subjects, threads that couldn't exist in most other internet communities. I hope to see that continue, and will do my part to try and keep things civil.