SirK
Glad you spoke up, as you did nothing wrong!
In fact, TonyP saw it correctly, didn't he!
Lately, this sort of thing (those who can see it know what I am referring to) has been giving a lot of experienced growers a bad taste in their mouths, and it is getting worse and worse. The "ebb & flow" of TF (the term used when someone felt I needed it explained to me) is sad for me to see, for a lot of the long time, experienced growers are being treated with disrespect. (But Oh! Don't say anything to upset the poor little ones, for they don't know any better!)
And this BS about not posting unless you can agree... where did that suddenly become the rule? This is a forum, and when you post, you are subject to the opinions of others. (What amazes me most is how often the opinions of the inexperienced is preferred over that of the experienced growers who have already proved themselves around here! It seems in the past year or so however, you join the group and then start claiming your own rules right off the bat! How nice!)
I have already hurt some of the fragile egos here, and have also been blatantly disrespected or 'mouthed off to' in reply to offering legitimate help, assistance and even free plants! (Even had a moderator mis-interpret what I wrote him in a PM, and instead of talking it over to clarify things as I would expect in a moderator, he simply jumped to conclusions, cast judgment and chewed me out for things I didn't even say or mean!)
Indeed as was said here, I too am now leaning toward only dealing with those I have traded with in the past, or who have over time, shown their experience, respect and maturity, and will likely be someone worth dealing with. Which is too bad, for it wasn't that long ago that people treated each other with respect, and found out about a questionable situation and gave people the benefit of the doubt until they found out otherwise.
Now-a-days here, people think it 'normal & proper' to jump to conclusions, get all upset... and then try to find people to agree with you so you can feel justified in going and chewing someone out!
Forget about trying to find out the facts of a situation or simply learning about something,
before running out and screaming foul! Instead, get a mob riled up and go out and smash heads!
Wow, what a nice way to handle things!
(As I said, even some moderators seem to see this as a viable way to handle things.)
A lot of us who have been here for a while or have been actually growing plants for more than just a year or two, are getting tired of being misjudged, misunderstood & disrespected when explaining the same thing over and over, even to those people who are too lazy to do even the most basic research themselves! (What do they think the "search" tab is for?)
I am not saying that I or anyone else (experienced or not, young or old) doesn't want to share information and advice, for that is why we come here!
But when a person has to endure snarky remarks and disrespect in exchange for the time they put in offering good advice & information, it just doesn't seem right to me to just let it go on without saying something, ...for fear of offending some immature, rude and obnoxious individual simply because "he is only a kid" or "new at growing and doesn't know any better"!
What ever happened to the value of experience and wisdom, and those who have it? ...and treating others with the respect they deserve?
Problem seems to be that a lot of people can't even identify who really knows their stuff from those who don't anymore.
Okay, I have ranted enough
, & have wasted enough of your time. But I had to speak up as it seems that time and again, that there is only the concern to make peace without addressing these things that keep on happening and indeed are forcing a lot of the really experienced growers to begin avoiding this place. If no one says anything, how can they expect it to not keep repeating, I don't know! Half the time when someone around here does something really offensive, disrespectful or wrongly accusive, their posts are erased in the name of "peace", but in the process others can't see what a jerk that person really is! Time and again, certain people even go back and change their own posts, so they hide their tracks and what they said to someone wrongly! Talk about devious! As for me, I don't want to be trading with people like that, as if they are that way in one thing, I wonder... can they be trusted in other ways?
Well, as I said, I have ranted enough! Besides, like others I am just exercising my rights to express my opinion on this open forum!
You all can go back to whatever it was that some of you thought you were doing. I am still not totally sure what that was going on here, but I do have a very good idea! Ah, the joys of age and experience! At least there are some besides just getting old... for some of us at least!
It amazes me the issues that people have here, as if it really matters half the time!
Some things are not getting all worked up over, and some are...
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=c3rqPPJPwLg
Where are peoples priorities?