I'm only responding to this because Zeke e-mailed me and requested I read, etc., because apparently I mischaracterized or misunderstood something.
I have now read the post, and I need to ask Zeke to re-read my post, because I feel that he has minunderstood something.
If you look at what happened, you may understand my reaction, which was anything but overboard. I arrive on this site, having been invited by a popular member, and join in the fun with honest and harmless enthusiasm.
Only Valium and one other member responded to my introductory thread with a welcome. Nothing wrong there, as such threads are often overlooked, but two other very established members, including the site Supremo, posted critical remarks. These are not attacks, and I did not suggest they were attacks. I suggested they were criticisms of conduct, which is exactly what they were. Read these posts and you will see that, while they were not attacks, they were entirely negative.
Now, from my point of view as a new member, being criticized immediately by the boss and a long-standing member sets me in a bad light and really dampens my enthusiasm to wish to participate in the fun.
Imagine if I arrived at a gathering of all members. I introduce myself at the door, and only one person pays any attention. But the chap that runs the party and his best friend come up to me in turn and criticize me for attempting to make my presence felt at the party so soon. You should be a wall-flower for a while before starting a conversation, says one. And the Boss agrees. It's a breach of ettiquette to begin so many conversations so soon. Remember it in future. And then they walk off.
Now, most people with any dignity would leave the party. So I did.
To my mind, the only way to make yourself known among a group of new people is to begin lots of conversations right away. This is an initial strategy that never fails to make people at least notice you're there and get to know you. Then you can begin to fade back a little now that people realize you're there. This strategy has worked for me on many forums, and it never fails to make me an 'established member' much more quickly than your suggested strategy of hanging in the back for a while.
Furthermore, examine Zeke's reaction to my reply. He mis-quotes me by saying I accused people of 'attacking' me whereas I only said I was 'criticized.' Then he proceeds to implicitly compare my breach of understood behavior to 'eating soup with your hands'. Surely, beginning four conversations at a dinner table and monopolising the conversation for a few moments is not comparable to eating soup with hands. Now, if I had begun 100 threads and posted blue pictures and possibly made insulting remarks, the comparison might be appropriate.
But Zeke has again been critical and then attempts to make it all better by saying, 'Oh, by the way, welcome to the forum.' No marks there for tact, Zeke. I think possibly this is more akin to eating soup with hands than beginning four threads in a day.
Remember, I'm only replying now because Zeke asked me to read his response. Understand that I am rather tired of administrators, moderators, and established members taking forums so confoudedly seriously that they enforce protocols that are definitely unwritten and almost certainly very vague and individualized in conception.
In examining Zeke's post, it seems not so much that he is apologizing to me as he is stating that he deserves to be recognized as being cleared of any slip of tact. I never asked Zeke for an apology and didn't expect one. Likewise, I am not going to comment one way or the other as to whether Zeke 'can be forgiven.'
The good Chancellor and I are members of a Doctor Who related site where we converse regularly, and I am a moderator on his own personal forum, so I look forward to further enlightening exchanges between the two of us.
I am sorry not to have the opportunity not to get to know any of you better, but I always set great store by first impressions, and my first impression of this site was that I was far from being a welcome addition and that the Supremo and established members take the site far too seriously.
Therefore, I leave. Please terminate my account Zeke, as I cannot for the life of me determine how this is achieved.
I sympathize with the cancellation of Enterprise. A fantastic show I think. But it has reached its end, as all things must end. Possibly you can join in the celebration of Doctor Who's return and maybe find joy in followingn this new programme, which has a great deal to offer people who like similar shows, such as Star Trek.
