People are people. I doubt it has much to do with the community. Some people are assholes. But I also get the sense that you don't get sarcasm which is what a lot of posts were, that respond with cynicism. You bitched at PepticUlcer because they took the time to go through your posts and try and understand your point of view? I don't understand why that makes them a troll from your POV because that makes them someone who took the time to research everything and understand.

Seems like you're complaining, just because someone offended you, and instead of bringing it up with that one person, you targeted the whole group. Thanks for being a team player.

The Seattle "community" is extremely fragmented. I've met a few other people during our meets in the past years that vibe the Crab Mentality a bit too, or are simply in it for the ride. Needless to say, most of those never made it back to any of our subsequent meets.

If we can't overcome our hubris about exploring or the locations we have, or helping each other out, we will never have a big community here, we will never match MSP, Chicago, or the Clannies.

It looks like Monkeyhawk's complaints have been well-analyzed and discussed. So I am now locking this thread. I compliment everybody on maintaining a generally civil tone. I hope that things go better for him in the future, wherever he posts and explores.