With a few notable exceptions it appears that quite a few folks agree, at least to some extent, with my original post.

It’s common knowledge that all things evolve and it’s also common knowledge that change can be positive or negative, all depending on an individual’s viewpoint. For me it has been a slowly evolving negative change. It used to be a rare event to have a thread in 50+ locked, and even then it was often at the OP’s request. Now we just had two locked in the same week.

Discussion and opinion sharing is entertaining and educational unless the opinions are doled out as absolute facts by self-appointed know-it-alls who never climb down from the pulpit. As I mentioned in my opening post, I’m not awfully bright. Often I miss many of the meanings and directions that some threads take. I’ve started threads that were not worded so as to be ‘political argument proof’ and wondered for a time how things got so out of control. Eventually I figured it out.

As I originally stated, I’ll not report any cycling incidents that I encounter for fear of firing up all the experts resulting in another locked thread. I could just resort to posting ride reports, but I usually ride the same area all the time and everyone’s getting bored of that stuff. Oh wait, I posted a ride report last year with a couple of pics and accidentally started another flame war. At times, posting here almost gives me a feeling of being a piece of chum in a shark tank.

For a while, I think this will be a good place to read when I’m bored and to do research when I’m stumped or to request an answer if my research comes up empty.

Thank you all for taking the time to reflect and respond in this thread. Your thoughtfully worded posts have allowed me to realize the changes I’ve seen are at least partially real and not just a warped observation of an aging old cyclist who wacked his head once too often.