Seems to me we have a fairly typical site visitor representation analogous to those who visit Quetico.

Some go solely for the fishing - it;s a bad trip if the fish don't bite.
Some go solely for the mother nature aspect - and get cranky when it rains for 4 of their 5 days.
Some go solely for photographic opportunities - and can't get the shot they want.
Some work in the IT or bleeding edge techonology fields and go to get away from the machines - can't lose scenario: "the machines" are illegal or frowned upon.

The Quetico/BWCA is a vast area that makes room for all as long as you don't make a mess. You can choose to "roost with your own kind", or you can choose to mix with other kinds, or you can go alone.

As in every trip to the parks, visits and contributions to open web forums require some amount of tolerance and patience: the weather may rain and blow; it may scorch and flame, it may be perfect. The fish might not bite(otherwise, it would be called "catching"), the moose might hide in the deep woods, the bear might get you (literally).

I think this site offers the same sort of opportunities and choices - If you don't like it, wait it out or move on to greener pastures.

But please don't make a mess of it for the rest of us.

I agree with Ed. David doesn't charge us for the bandwidth he uses (some of those scripts are killers); he gives us a fair opportunity to learn and to teach (do you know what guides/outfitters charge for the information that's been passed on this site?); he doesn't even hide his source code from those who'd like to learn to develop web pages (and this site uses some pretty slick code).

David has a right to his say, just as the rest of us, and the right to develop the site as he sees fit. I only hope he doesn't decide to take the site down because of the hassles he has to weather. It's the only way I get through the winter and my travel schedule.

Posted by Skip Guyer on February 15, 2000 at 19:13