[Devil]

When I first joined the PO forums, only a month or so ago, I thought that, at last, here was a serious place to discuss energy issues.

I'm not talking about this Open Discussion forum, which is, by its very nature, often far-fetched and/or controversial and/or tongue-in-cheek and usually has nothing to do with energy or PO. Nor am I talking about the HoF, which is the refuge of the desparate. I'm talking about more serious matters.

In the short time I have been lurking (and contributing, here and there), I suspect that I've seen this site degrade a notch or two. How? First of all, my impression is that there are an increasing proportion of far-fetched hypotheses or ones that have not been thought through to a logical conclusion. I'm not saying these should be discouraged, but it is not very helpful to say that, for example, cars can be fuelled by crapping in the tank, without an analysis of the means, methods and the farthest consequences. A simple statement is insufficient.

This has led me to wonder whether my observations are a false impression. So, where do you think the forums are heading?

[nigel]

And there was me thinking this site was full of inflammatorily tagged people like you gratuitously accusing complete strangers of being rascist when it ought to be more serious!

[Soft_Landing]

We've had a lot of new people since the oil price jumped. It's definitely not the same site. There are some good effects and some bad effects. I voted, "far-fetched", but I have hope that the more serious people will show stamina, and the influx of people will end up being a positive.

If you want to see going down hill for real, check out the yahoo Energyresources group. It used to be full of very knowledgable people having serious informed debate. Since the oil price went up, it's turned into an utter slagfest.

[Matrim]

I do think it has gone slightly downhill due to the ever more often incursions of folks like YamahaR6 piping in with Ultra-long/distracting threads about why we're all a bunch of idiots for wanting to discuss the possibilities of PO, and being alarmed at the ramifications. This in itself wouldn't be such a bad thing if these folks would ever BACK UP the things they claim with facts of any kind instead of just saying "well I know I'm right so it doesn't matter if I prove it to you........cuz you're just a whacko"

Well we may be whacko but if you don't wish to discuss the facts and "enlighten us" with your superior knowledge of the facts, then WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE? Oh thats right you're here to try to make us all mad for your own personal amusement. It's pathetic. Thank goodness Matt "left" (I know you're reading this just don't post under your actual name) he seems to be drawing away all the fools with him. They always did like attacking him most. see the thread by Yamaha "If Matt's leaving then I guess I'm leaving too...." Yeah because none of your arguments had a leg to stand on and you just wanted to make fun, but now your patsy's leaving *sniff* so sad.

That said there's still lots of productive discussion going on I just think we need to weed out a few ummmmmm weeds??

My suggestion: if you see a thread dedicated to "why do you think the worlds gonna end" or a thread thats llike 7 pages long, ignore it. It's probably 95% BS the other 5% has been covered somewhere else

and if you want to start Off topic threads this is the place Not the ROUND TABLE.

[Aaron]

We appreciate the concern Devil has expressed here, and this topic is something that we discuss on a regular basis...

As the site grows, the traffic comes to reflect a more generalized distribution of people, and all that this implies.

We hope to encourage some additional folks to volunteer to Moderate, or otherwise contribute, including a more formal set of forums evolving from the broad categories we have now.

The Ask the Experts forum is our latest attempt at this... <working>

In addition, we are looking to implement an "ignore" function in the forums which should allow for greater customization.

The guy who started this site does not post at all... despite being well informed on energy topics. I post less than I used to... spending more time working on the site and promotions. His interest in this topic and problems with Yahoo boards are a large reason why this place exists.

So it's kinda up to you folks to keep the flame burning.

There are a number of very good posts here and many well meaning posters. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

And if you think it's bad now... just wait...

We do appreciate all the good info, and are working to make it even better...

[Licho]

I don't think it's the people. I think that we covered most obvious technical topics, and there are no new to talk about. There were interesting fact-based discussions before last hacker attack (and subsequent lost posts). I remember those where I was involved too, TDP process, GDP/energy ratios, oil-burning powerplants..
Since then, there was fusion topic (again) and solar power sattelites, both are by nature much more speculative, although not as much as "let's import methane from Jupiter" thread

[Terran]

I think nothing much has changed. So there is more new members, which is a good thing. More members contribute information and ideas to this site, which makes it more rich. On the opposite end we see some lamers, trollers, people who are just plain stupid, and people who think the whole peak oil concept is bs. They are who degrades the board. This reaches an equilibrium, so it remained constant.

[jato]

The only thing I would like to see reduced is the conspiracy types promoting far fetched theories. & I am guilty of engaging them.

I have a lot to learn. My wife is now fully on board with PO. We feel like we have Cancer and we don't know how long we have left (10 years or 40 years). Many will not understand why we are so pessimistic. Growth in southern California has been incredible! We are going to get hit hard when the energy slowly (or quickly!) gets cranked down. I am worried mostly about the continual availability of clean water since we essentially live in a desert.

I have noticed people have different views on PO and how it will impact society. This is great. I want to hear it all. A person living in suburbs of San Diego (where there are few resources) may be different than a person on a farm who has plenty of resources nearby. It's harder to imagine starving to death if you are surrounded by farmland. It's hard to imagine riots and roving gangs of hungry thugs if you live in a sparsely populated location.

I want to hear from the optimists the pessimists and everything in between. I don't usually get involved in the threads about alternative energy because there not much I can do about it except for putting up some solar panels.

[Devil]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Hawkcreek', 'D')evil - Would this post have anything to do with Bart ripping one of your responses to shreds (logical fallacies), in the thread asking if TV is evil.