I wonder where MonteND is?

That was a fun review of the early days of HT.

but I had a look at what was still there and found this from BV, how could I ever disagree

The Islamic religion really IS a peaceful theology. It embraces the idea of peace, just as much as Christianity does. And just LIKE Christianity, it has its fringe radical groups who believe that violence is the way to get it done. Also, just as in Christianity, there have been times in history where their religion was used by misguided leaders to try and repress others (re: the Spanish Inquisition or the Crusades)

Anyone remember ginalawnless and riotofcolor?

Good times.

I remember flyboy, blossom girl, and swanz participating in the it's-Friday-and-time-to-bash-the-Muslims threads.

I miss Spewey.

I miss Spewey

LOL. I remember those threads well and who can forget "Its a bewilderment". ;)

Ditto on Spewey.

I too miss Spewey, and his whacking some sense into some. I hope he's well...

I also miss Oceanna, and Aunt_Jen. And Pidge - to name but three more...

Carried a couple of Straw Men with him where ever he went.

I miss him, too.

Hay

If you think that Jodi has a fan club, you should have seen Oceanna's - vicious.

I have found a recipe or two, though.

I can't recall when I found HT and began posting... not that it matters. It seems that regardless of the forum, the same things are regurgitated over and over, the same questions asked by multitudes of people, and it just gets a little tiresome arguing about what's logical and what's not.

Helping people learn about gardening, discussing plants and whatnot through shared experience is fine... but there is always one... sometimes more... troublemakers in a group, and it just makes for poor conversation.

The players change for a variety of reasons... lives change, people move, some get tired of the bs, and some get banned... but the games remain the same. They always will; it's the world wide web, where anything goes.

I have better things to do than spend as much time as I used to here.

In fact, I always did.

But, life does intrude - off to find a few peonies for one of the beds I'm reworking.

I remember Fancifowl who raised chickens and lived in NW PA. But there was a troll far worse than he when I first joined the forum. He was pretending to be military, had stolen someone else's monniker, was caught, and later left, thank goodness. His posts were extremely inflammatory and insulting to anyone who disagreed with him politically.

There was also another pseudo-religious rightwingnut, who lived in Alabama, who claimed to be a writer. Equally nasty, and sent viruses to the computers of those with whom he disagreed politically. I sicked Spike on to him.

What I've always appreciated about HT is the absence of persistent experts. They don't stay around to be challenged much. Can't say the same for some of the other boards on GW that I used to contribute my opinions or even facts.

I had a fleeting hope for the Antiques forum, but that was and has remained a one woman show.

Bet she never admitted it, lol.

Even if it does feel good when you stop, beating your head against a grainy picture of a 1980's reproduction lowboy somehow isn't worth it.

There has always been a mystery about the place for me apart from an unexplained difference between conversation and discussion, and that is why some topics can be made hot just because someone wants it to be. It is like a forum called Hot Topics is a troll magnet or a place where people come looking for an argument.

Anyway some of the people who fell by the wayside did actually try to raise the game and some had fragile ego's others who saw this place as entertainment or a baiting pit got tired and went away.

There are considerably fewer conservatives posting on this forum than liberals, certainly less than the makeup of likely voters in this country.

Liberals obviously like to sit at their computers a lot!
(Apparently I do too).

It's obvious we all have a considerable amount of leisure time to pontificate and snipe on this forum. So life can't be too bad if we're all able to have a computer, the internet, we're sitting and posting and able to communicate.

I'd bet we could spend our time in a more constructive manner. We could even build a Habitat for Humanity House.

Nah, I wouldn't feel safe around some with a hammer in their hands.

It's just that so many enjoy sniping.

I never did enjoy it, but confess to giving back what I got when I got it first. Still do on occasion.

Not good of me. I try not to do it much now; it's easier to ignore because it truly is a waste of time and I have been doing considerably more productive things with my time lately.

Truly, I believe that MOST people who post here do truly care about this country and don't come here just to criticize and castigate the other half of the country that does not believe like they do.

MOST of us have been able to have civil conversations and discourse and actual concern for one another irrespective of our differences.

We just differ as to how we believe our country can be it's best, what path we should take, and what that means.