buttman writes:

But anyways, to illustrate the point I'm trying to make a little
further, consider for a minute what would happen if I were to go back
to 2002, find a well received Dudley post, and post it here right now
under my name. Will it get the exact same response as it did under
Dudley's name? *Should* that post get the same response? If it doesn't
get the same warm response, why not? What if MX reposted it instead of
me?

I've already tried a similar experiment, copying and pasting statements from
very reliable sources about aviation here in this group, and watching the
reaction. Invariably, those statements are rejected when they are posted
under my name, proof that the principle you describe is at least partially at
work. I'm sure that if someone in the treehouse club had posted the same
thing, it would be gospel.

This is pretty typical of most public discussion venues, especially those
dominated by men. I've seen considerably worse than this newsgroup, but I've
also seen better.

That is what is wrong with this group right now. No one judges what
your post contains, they only judge who you are, or worse, who they
think you are.

It's human nature, especially among people who don't know what they are
talking about, or are insecure about their knowledge. They don't understand
the concepts and/or cannot discuss them objectively, so they resort to a
discussion of personalities. They cannot validate statements on their own, so
they depend upon their subjective opinion of the person making the statement
for their evaluation (and are often hopelessly incorrect in consequence).

What I'm trying to say here is if this place truly needs *less of* is
creating more celebrity-type personalities to further underminethe
creation of true down-to-business aviation discussion.

Like all venues afflicted in this way, it needs to stop discussing people and
start discussion the nominal topic of the group (aviation).