snip

D. Carolan
(Wish I hadn't de-lurked.)

D.

This group to has a sine-function noise-to-signal ratio with an
amplitude that can test the hardiest of souls but hang in there. Do
not regret having "de-lurked" because this group and its cousins have
incredible amounts of good information provided by Kim Keller, James
Oberg, and others. I have been reading the group for over two years.
Others have posted thousands of ridiculous itmes and most recoginize
who the authors are. The name callers are easy to pick out by doing
Google searchs of their names on the news groups.

Your point about name-calling is well taken and perhaps the best way
to seperate wheat from chaff is to watch which posters stoop to such
tactics and mentally filter them out. If a particular poster starts a
thread, I will not read it. Sure, you might miss something good in
the rebuttals but for me, if I see a thread from one of those I choose
to ignore, it's Dead On Arrival. Mr. Kozel does not post frequently
compared to others, but I do read his material.

If I ever choose to post, it is with the recognition that this is a
form of conversation and if the conversation becomes debate, the first
debater to raise their voice or to hurl an insult is generally
reconized to have run out of intellectual ammunition and lost the
match.

Returning to "Lurk" mode . . .

John Pelchat