Good to see you posting again, Rob. Was concerned for a while there that you'd taken off.
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The temptation to do so has been there, at times, but when the whole thing is viewed in perspective the positive far outweighs the negative. In fact, the negatives are not really much to do with the site and its photographic direction at all, but with some of the attitudes displayed on occassion - possibly my own, too - where patience vanished into its own point. I have learned quite a lot from this space - the Tutorials, for example, have helped a lot at various stages of my learning curve which, for a fairly ancient film-educated pro, has been (still is) fairly steep.
I don´t feel it´s right to use the site´s content without putting something else back in - all I can offer is a little bit of experience in the old ways and very little of the new. I do enjoy the odd argument or two but always get saddened when folks take it all too personally and decamp; there is far more to be gained by simply staying on and putting one´s point of view on life and photography out to view on occassion - one can´t expect the world and its wife to agree with everything, but where one thinks they have both got it wrong then why not explain just what makes one think so?
The main stumbling block, I expect, will always be religious opinion because it works on the basis of faith and not proof. There is no sensible way of dealing with that, other than to accept it. However, sometimes that isn´t enough and more is expected than one is willing to give. On that point, I´m really sorry to find that one or two people whose voice I liked have left...
Rob C