I'm going to attempt to respond to this thread as well as the one Curtis started "Something wrong in the 50s forum", and Tom's sticky "The Tone in Here...", in as thoughtful a manner as I can muster.

After lurking for almost a year and visiting other segments of BikeForums, I first started posting here in March of 2006. In this period of time I've seen the 50+ forum go through various cycles of ups and downs, new members, loss of old members, disagreements with moderators, disagreements about what should or shouldn't be allowed, varying thoughts about the cliquishness or lack thereof in this forum, and very, very rare admonishments from moderators. Yet, despite all of these elements within the ebb and flow of an online forum, this remains one of my favorite online places to be. There is more civility here than in most online places I've visited. I think there is a level of maturity in the reasoned approach most of us tend to take on this forum that is often absent in other places. Yet, even with this level of maturity, there are times that I find myself annoyed with the posting of another. In some way, his or her post has negatively affected my sensibilities of the way things should be.

This, however, is my experience of life in general. Whether at a party with friends, at a professional conference, even waiting on the train platform to catch a train home, I'm sure to find someone at sometime that just isn't my cup of tea. Typically, when in such a situation, I try to ignore or move away from that which offends me. If, however, I feel the need to say something, I always attempt to do this one-on-one and as privately as possible. In the years I've been posting, I've only felt the need to send private message to two or three individuals who were part of the 50+ forum, and have only blocked the post of three. That leads me to believe that I'm a remarkably tolerant person (not especially likely) or that, for the most part, this is a group of good people that have good days and bad days, of which the good days seem to out weight the bad.

We've had people on this forum share with us as they struggled to keep their very lives when fighting disease; we've had people share the loss of those they've loved; we've also had people share their victories and joys. I wouldn't trade any of this for any other forum on BikeForums. Are we always, "bike" related? No. Do we always agree? No. Do we sometimes forget our manners? Yes, Do we sometimes feel the need to thump our chests? Yes. Do we sometimes make attempts at humor that are misunderstood and/or backfire? Yes. But in all of that, there is an underlying attempt to stay balanced with what it means to be a human participating in the lives (I'll admit it's a virtual life of sorts and somewhat limited) of others who share length of years and a love of cycling with us. I wouldn't want it any other way. Sometimes I think wisdom means learning to take a deep breath and pause before doing what one might want to do instinctively.