snip

But it struck me as I was enduring the pain of that
massage that participation in the newsgroups gets more painful by the
year, but no longer holds any particular benefit for me. Technical
discussions break down into pointless bluster as often as not (ala
"jim beam") and discussions about social issues have long since ceased
to hold any promise of civil discourse.

And it only gets more and more shrill as time goes by.

snip

As a long time reader (and a very infrequent contributor) I'm also
finding that participating in this newsgroup is becoming less and less
enjoyable. I don't mind an occasional, spirited political or technical
discussion. But the venom that some people pour into their posts is
totally uncalled for.

What is sad is that the wit and humor has slowly drained out of this
news group as the temperature of the political debate has risen. I used
to count on rec.bicycles.misc to provide me with a few good chuckles
every day. Now those funny posts are few and far between.

I know that we live in a f---ed up world and it is hard to shut the
problems of the world out. And I certainly don't advocate that anyone
ignore the problems our world is facing. But, come on people; RBM is a
bicycle discussion group. Bicycling is supposed to be fun! RBM is
supposed to be centered around the joy and fun of riding bicycles.

Mark, all the best to you. We are going to miss you here. Hopefully you
and I can get together sometime and go for a bike ride. A bet it would
be fun.

--

Paul D Oosterhout
I work for SAIC (but I don't speak for SAIC)