Yes, I will send a video of myself invisible....

"Harvey and I sit in the bars... have a drink or two... play the juke box. And soon the faces of all the other people they turn toward mine and they smile. And they're saying, "We don't know your name, mister, but you're a very nice fella." Harvey and I warm ourselves in all these golden moments. We've entered as strangers - soon we have friends. And they come over... and they sit with us... and they drink with us... and they talk to us. They tell about the big terrible things they've done and the big wonderful things they'll do. Their hopes, and their regrets, and their loves, and their hates. All very large, because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar. And then I introduce them to Harvey... and he's bigger and grander than anything they offer me. And when they leave, they leave impressed. The same people seldom come back; but that's envy, my dear. There's a little bit of envy in the best of us. "

I wanted you to post you doing the monologue. Kids these days.

Show off the talent!

I will not mock you, other may but I will not.

Alright, I'll see if I can rent out one of the Cameras.

Very well done, as always. Just one thing that's bothering me...

Coyotemike, my good man, we may not agree on some things, but I think your Gentleman articles are spot-on.

I was initially somewhat annoyed at this site for being somewhat cliquish (ie, all the private, exclusive groups), but it seems I've carved out a nice little niche here.

Looking forward to seeing more of the same.

That pretty much sums it up. Nice.

Is it bad that i can spout off at least a few names for each disease?

I loved it!

This one is totally going to get you laid.

This is the crux of the issue, I think. Or one of the most important--and usually unrecognized--principles. I'm a moderator over at candlepowerforums (a board for people who are way too into flashlights) and there have been a number of people who have taken advantage of the community by offering up a custom flashlight for sale, taking lots of money in pre-orders, and then never delivering, or failing to deliver most peoples orders anyway. Sometimes this was just bad business practice and there was no intent to defraud. But in at least one case, the person ran a sort of ponzi scheme by starting new projects and collecting new pre-pay monies before the old projects were finished. I recognized what was going on and started investigating and started a sort of expose thread in the hopes that no more people would be taken in.

So, people sort of nominated me to be the organizer and spokesperson for our online community in this matter. In particular, people wondered about what sort of legal action could be taken--and we're talking about 20,000 to 25,000 dollars all told. So, I called the local police department where this guy lives to ask about small claims or what not. And the woman detective I spoke with very quickly wondered what the hell my part was. Why was I calling? And she totally did NOT buy into the notion of an "online" community. And when she found out that I also sometimes sold custom flashlight stuff, she immediately questioned whether or not I was trying to underhandedly destroy a competitor.

The only recourse for those people would have been to file in the local small claims court, and FLY there for the hearing, and then be responsible for collecting the judgment (if any) themselves. WTF? So, I told people to just go to iccc and electronically make a report. Fat lot of good that did.

If this guy had actually done what he did LOCALLY to a bunch of people, he'd be in jail right now I suspect. But because he earned the good faith of the online community and then exploited it, he got away scott free. Well, except that he totally lost his standing at CPF and the other flashlight sites. We at least managed that much.

And more generally, there are so many people who show up on the boards and post a question that has been asked LITERALLY HUNDREDS of times before. Or make the same inane and offensive observations that have been made time and time again. They don't read the rules. They don't take a little time to scope out the lay of the land and get a feel for what is acceptable behavior and language and what is not. And then they act as if they have been totally abused and mistreated when there are repercussions or their thread gets closed or other members react negatively to their trolling or baiting. And this isn't even mentioning the spammers and how they find ever more annoying ways to get around various rules and restrictions in order to post links to up their google search showing.

Real physical communities have developed ways to combat these things and to promote a positive and healthy community. But online communities aren't even RECOGNIZED as communities by most people. But that's what they are in my experience!

Anyway, nice guide to online etiquette. Thanks!

That was the first thing I thought of when I read this. I can't imagine how many creepy messages you get. I get plenty and I have 1, non nude, not really all that flattering pic. You girls must get swamped.

wire coathangers.

Good, really good information. This was fun to read...Gracias!

Works for me. Thanks.

thank you. 'nuff said.