I am normally very game for a good heated debate with lots of passion.

All I see in this thread (which I have been following closely), is a very broad sort of "shotgun" approach to a topic of whose nature I am not certain... spraying out a whole lot of statements that pepper the thread with a whole lot of small impacts, but nothing really you can put your finger on.

Is there even any disagreement here? Everyone seems to be saying completely different things with no real bearing on other people's statements.

Basically, are people putting on a "game face" without there being any game to play? One of the "rules" about debates is that outside of the debate topic there are no hard feelings. No grudges. The Flapperons debate was pretty well concluded with everyone agreeing to disagree, and the "old timers" can sit back and call the 3D enthusiasts in the beginner's forum "misinformed", and the 3D enthusiasts in beginners forum can call the "General" enthusiasts in the beginners forum "traditionalists". Well, so be it.

BUT (and I know it is wrong to start a sentence with BUT).... it is a mistake to make things personal.... Trust me on this. I have 30 years living experience, and 12 of those years on things like arpanet, nntp, BB's, ethernet, gopher, talk, irc (before there were colour monitors), etc. I have seen what happens when things get personal in an online forum. No-one wins. If everyone in the world agreed, it would be a boring place to be... So, on that note, keep things in perspective ... people always have differences, it is how you deal with them that projects your personality.

Well, I was on my high horse for that one.... Good thing I have a really high horse.

FWIW, the only person on an online forum that is worse than a person with a grudge, is the person who tries to be philosophical about it and tells people to hug and make up ;-)

gus

-----
... if only
I refuse to have a battle of wits with a person who is unarmed.