i've received a few warnings here and here on various fora, including one here, mostly for fairly innocuous stuff. some mods are a bit too taken with their duties and some fora a bit too controlling.

i'm a firm believer in the need for thick skin. when someone says something stupid, the masses should blast him and they should be allowed to do so. hate speech is a different story

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'07 DL1000 '08 DR650

There's thick skin and there's I really can't be bothered. Most of us come on forums like this either to contribute what we can, to learn, or even, occasionally, to be amused and pass the time of day. Either way it's done voluntarily.

If I find I'm being subjected to a torrent of abuse or even if there's the fear of abuse because of the general tone of the forum why would I bother? I don't need this or any other forum and managed to get through most of my pre internet life quite successfully without them.

I have no problem with strongly argued points and where there's some rational basis to it I'm quite happy to fight my corner but many of the spats come from nothing with people just being offensive for the sake of it, a personality defect more than anything. How else would you explain this exchange from another bike forum -

"You sick bastard xxxxx
You need help

And banning from here forever

Now piss off "

Mild compared to some I agree but it came out of nowhere and was pretty much unjustified. Just someone playing mindgames. And, within half an hour some kind of feeding frenzy had developed with insults flying in all directions and a baying mob wanting to lynch xxxx. Even if it all calms down I'm never going to contribute as aggression is too close to the surface. That forum, btw, wasn't full of teens /20's hyped up on a surfeit of testosterone but is populated mostly by OAPs who really ought to know better.

If that's the way this forum goes then it'll be without me. I'm not going to spend much time in a pub where people are getting glasses shoved in their faces or visit a cinema where fights break out in the ticket queue. I. and I'm sure many others, come here because we want to, not because we have to.

I now await the "well why don't you piss off then" responses but only those with argued valid reasons why I should will get any sort of reply, and even then only if I feel like it. And here's the spirit in which this post was made -