Lamar, I read your post shortly after you posted it. I typed three different responses and posted none of them. Sometimes even I have the intelligence to walk away from the keyboard before posting, granted it doesn't happen often, the proof of which lies in the archives (JAIWAK), but for your post I decided to exercise some discretion.
Post attempt number one clearly took on an accusatory tone.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN CRITISM? Us criticize? How dare you come into our home and.... well you get the idea.
Post attempt two was more conciliatory.
Welcome to Pond Boss, don�t let a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch, blah, blah, niceties, pleasantries, sugar and spice.Post attempt three was a blend of one and two.
So here the fourth attempt to respond. Hopefully this will make the final cut and get posted because I�m tired of writing and deleting. Here goes�.
Lamar,
I�ve been on this site for a little over three years. During that time I�ve been praised and criticized, called a genius (ok that was by me, but I had a valid point), and a complete idiot. I�ve had people tell me they like my posts and others have told me to stay out of their threads. In fact let me tell you a little known story, a few of months after my first posting on pond boss I had one individual contact me and basically tell me that I was a waste of band width and that I should stop posting on Pond Boss � and I almost did.
Why am I telling you all this? Because if it seemed like harassment and harsh criticism to you then it might have seemed the same to the neophyte (jeez I hope that�s not a bad word), just like the criticism that I received early on, and it might have discouraged additional questions. Which is exactly opposite of what Pond Boss it all about.
We�re a family here. Many of us have met, many of us talk back and forth outside the confines of the public forum. We poke fun at each other and yes on occasion it gets out of hand. Unfortunately sometimes on occasion this occurs in a �newbie�s� thread and the entire purpose of the thread gets lost in the melee. Sometimes we forget that a newbie may not realize that we regularly poke fun at each other and therefore take a comment as a criticism when in fact it was meant as a joke. I don�t believe that any of the folks that post here on a regular basis are mean spirited and would intentionally belittle a new poster. In fact most of the people I�ve had contact with here are quite the opposite.
I�m going to ask two things of you. One: stay around, post on Pond Boss, become part of the family. It�s a great forum in which you are granted free access to the best minds in pondom (is that a word?). Two, if you do see a post that �feels� too critical to you then take action. Either PM the member that made the post and point it out to them. It might not have sounded harsh or critical to the poster. Sometimes the mere omission of a word or the choice of a word changes the entire feel of the post. Or you can do what I�ve done in the past and post in the thread something like�
Jeez guys that�s a little harsh � often times that will change the nature of a thread.
Welcome to Pond Boss Lamar, we�re glad you found us.
Welcome to the forum Lamar and thank you so much for the new ammunition...... I think Jhap may have needed to reload!
Naw, no need to reload. Heck I didn't even "chamber a round."
