[rat156]

Hi All,

Well I hate to start a thread in the General Chat section, it usually doesn't last that long, but here goes...

There's a thread that's been recently closed in which a poster brought up a closed club feeling that new members can experience when there's a few people who contribute most of the traffic on the forum.

Well, that doesn't only happen to new members, it happens to old ones too. There have been many times on this site when I have felt that I was not welcome, infact on more than one occasion I have been abused to the point that I have given up posting. Sometimes by the site admin as well as the moderators, no apology has ever been received, perhaps it wasn't warranted, but if the positions were reversed I certainly would have made more of an effort, ce la vie. It doesn't really worry me, but now I generally only post when I have something specific to say. I don't publish my photos here anymore as they seem to be unappreciated, obviously I am not one of the clique, again I don't really give a fat rat's clacker, I do the hobby for my own reasons, not for the gratuitous "great picture" posts from people who post that to every other picture. When I do post a picture here I would want people to suggest ways to make it better, but no-one seems to post anything, so you get the feeling that they don't care, the pictures aren't perfect, so you get this exclusivity feeling.

I just re-read this and it sounds like a big bleat, it's not, it's just feedback for the clique. I'm happy posting the way I do, but I bet there's a few others who feel excluded in the same way I do.

My $0.02 worth.

Stuart