I have been a reader for 4 years on this site and, being on vacation this week, I just signed up. I have been a longtime active member on other sites, and I have noticed the the people who populate ETS are more friendly. On some other sites, if you have not been a member for 5 years with 2000 posts and a gold star, you don't get many serious responses to your posts. I am looking forward to passing some frigid winter days talking about survival, the outdoors, and equipment with the knowledgable folks at ETS. To those of you who read this and have not yet signed up, I put my hobo mark here. This is a friendly place.

I agree. This place features civil, informative discussion. Either that or the Mod's hit squad is very busy.

Four years before stepping into the discussion, that's restraint.

Welcome aboard!

:-)

I agree too. This is a VERY unusual forum in its genuine nice-ness and respect.

Every once in a while we'll get someone who is out there, but the moderators do a great job in either teaching them what is acceptable, or removing them.

There are some great and very knowledgeable people here. I've only seen one problem in about five years and the mods resolved it quickly.

Welcome to the dark side... err I mean posting

Welcome, pull a log up by the fire, and enjoy

Friendly place - there have been 3, count'm threads I've moderated - 2 were spam, one was me jumping the gun, and _I_ made a mistake

Nice to now this place hasn't gone downhill since us new mods took over! Hopefully we won't let y'all down...to much.

-Blast, humbly.

I feel sorry for guys like that. When the computer screen goes dark, they still have to live with themselves. Why get mad? With the huge variety of interests, experiences, geographical locations etc, how would anyone expect overall agreement on anything? Big knife-little knife...Bear Grills -Les Stroud. The banter and opposing views is what makes it fun.

Welcome aboard, Byrd_Huntr.

I learn something new from these folks nearly every day. It's a great resource for all of us. Looking forward to your ongoing contributions.

One of the great things about this crowd is that while we have definite and pointed opinions, we don't feel obligated to swing at every pitch. A bit of civility is the result.

BTW, hats off and three cheers for our Moderators, who show enormous tolerance for our various peccadillos, and tactfully steer us back onto the road when we go feral. No doubt they've been overworked since the Haiti disaster, where every post is potentially political. Sincere thanks, guys, keep it up.

Have to agree with all that was said up to this point. Friendly, knowledgable people that are as varied as the post that are discussed here. It is nice that people can agree or disagree with each other and not loose their minds about it. The Moderators are tolerant and informed. Unless the discussion is going in the wrong direction, they are just as likely to lay down their .02 in the discussion like any of us. It is that attitude and behavior that makes me respect and admire most that post here.

I could have done a lot worse then picking this forum. Welcome Byrd_Hunter, grab a cup of whatever keeps ya going and make yourself at home.

Welcome home stranger.

I find _I_ don't generally have to do much steering. I'm actually pleasently surprised how LITTLE I have I have to do. The only place I've seen as civil (that is open to the public) is the old CompuServe, and there, no one was anonymous, so the Mods knew who everyone was (remember, you HAD to pay, so...)

I actually have to thank the MEMBERS - they keep themselves, and each other in line

Welcome, and thanks for the compliment.

I have to agree - seems like nearly everyone here does a good job playing nicely. Even disagreements are settled civilly, which is amazing.

My thanks too to the new mods - picked up the torch nicely from our former. Wonder what Chris is up to nowadays.

Welcome Byrd_Hunter,
I also lurked for a while and ETS is the first and almost the only forum I post on. Sometimes we differ in opinion here, but you never get any hassle.

Mike

Exactly my situation as well - welcome

Hey NightHiker, lighten up will ya'? I lurked here for 3+ years before I joined and nobody had a problem with me.

what, do we have a punishment chicken or something on this forum?

P.S the punishment chicken is a SOSAK forum reference

No, something much, much worse: wet cats.

Be afraid. Be very, very afraid...

-Blast

*coffee up/out the nose* -Blast +1

Welcome Byrdhunter

I've never had a cat look like that after a bath!!

In all honesty, I haven't ever had a big problem when it comes to having to do things with cats, perhaps its a matter of trust on the cats part.

Do a forum search on Blast's cat story. Worth the read - almost (and I say almost) as good as the 2 banned topics from the ModelEng list - Wheatabix and Foucault Pendulums - The second started as an on topic, the other as a joke, BOTH while the ONLY moderator was on a 2 week or so vacation - at one point we were getting something like 1000-2000 OT posts/day!!

Gentlemen and ladies, I believe we have witnessed the birth of an institution.

Eloquence and tact are joyous of course, but all we need to keep us on the straight and narrow is that picture, posted by the Sheriff, with the appropriate caption:

"Do Not Feed or Provoke the Punishment Cat"

LOL!! Yeah, I think that's just the ticket...the nightmarish, terrifying, bloodcurdling ticket!

Release the hounds of war? Bah, tick me off and I'll release the Punishment Cat on your soul!

-Blast

I can see it now "Joe Blow, you get a scratch, keep it up and you get a bite"

-Blast

p.s. Sorry about the thread hijack, Byrd_Huntr.

This is a freaking CAT-tastrophy!

[quote=Blast...snip...


-Blast

p.s. Sorry about the thread hijack, Byrd_Huntr. [/quote]

That should be Yee (double E)

Gah - for some reason I learned the history of the "Thorn" character Þ (let's see of the forum software suports it - Lowercase is Alt+0222 and upper Alt+0254 - anyway, the Thorn Character (pronounced "Th" as in The) eventually became stylized as a Y, but still pronounced "th" - so it needs to be Thee

Charlie - being pandantic about wierd trivia, and even more strangely, knowing that thorn is still supported in HTML