[WideRight05]

First off, concerning Hawksrule and I - these are only jokes we are shooting back and forth. We have even sent PMs about how lively and fun it was.

As I have mentioned before, I posted on here way back in the ancient days of 2005 and 2006. The culture was much different then. There honestly wasn't a lot of debate on the site, but rather more discussion. There was never an intense discussion. Toward the time I quit posting in 2006, that changed. There was a lot more calling people out, people fighting back and forth, etc. It wasn't the reason I quit posting, but it just shows that things were changing. I still got on here and read posts almost every day. By 2008, 2009, the site got a lot more strict. There were also problems with some moderators deleting posts they disagree with, etc. These types of things happen on the other site. But I will give credit to the fact that unlike that site, QQ and the administrators took care of business and cleaned house. Things changed and the site opened up the rules a lot more.

I have done numerous presentations on cultures in the workplace. You go to work, your workplace has a culture. You go to Church, your Church has a culture (some more dressy...others not so dressy). Organizations you are involved in have a culture. This website is no different from a workplace, Church, or organization when it comes to cultures. Right now we have a loose culture where even cussing is tolerated. Two - three years ago, the culture was completely different. Two - three years from now, it will probably be different from where it is today.

From seeing some of Dusty's posts in the past, he has mentioned how he was not liked when he first joined the site. Neither was I, but for different reasons lol. For your first 200 - 300 posts, you are meshing in with the culture - and likely bringing in a different perspective from what people are used to seeing. If you make strong posts that challenge the views of people posting with you at first, you are likely going to take some heat. I think of Wideleft01 - yes, he trolls. But after a while of him posting people are used to him and he has been accepted as part of the culture.

As somebody who was a moderator for three years on another site and created an NKY discussion board my junior year of high school, it's pretty normal to see the site down at this time of year. People are planning vacations, kids are getting out of school, etc. Then when football season rolls around, things start to pick up again. It's like a big cycle. I don't think we will see much more trolling on here. The reason being, it's not fun being a troll when there are no rules to break or could lead to being banned.