Off-Topic

As I prepare to go home for the evening I look back at our discussion forums with sadness. The most popular sections these days are the Milestones section where people rarely get offended and the Off-Topic section where non-geocaching threads are.

In the Off-Topic section the two most active threads are "Joke of the Day" and "Can You Explain This". There are other sections on the site with more posts, but once you edit out all of the fighting you are left with the Off-Topic threads. I don't often participate in these threads - my primary interest in this site is geocaching. The reason these threads are so active is there is nothing in there to argue about.

I think about all of this just two short hours after receiving my second "warning" about inappropriate behavior on the forums. I may be banned right now, I didn't check back to see.

I won't pretend I took the high road. In the end it doesn't matter. As a group we are afraid. Afraid to discusss the merits of ammo cans vs micros. Afraid to discuss urban caching vs rural caching. Afraid to see what is on the other side of the hill. I don't just mean GOWT or JAG. One group after all is simply a small but growing subset of the other.

I never wanted to argue. I wanted people to be able to rationally discuss geocaching issues/topics without some moron(s) trying to ruin it. We in GOWT were not prepared for morons to overrun our group. We were not prepared for a worthless stump to become our president. [Editor's note: The worthless stump resigned on May 3rd] I haven't given up on GOWT. I told some folks the other day: "It's not how hard you can hit, its how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward - how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!!" I didn't explain to them why I posted the quote (from Rocky Balboa) - why I find it relevant. I figured it would become apparent. Maybe it will.

The only thing I can guarantee is that I will get up tomorrow and keep moving forward.

I still have one question that I'll probably never get an answer to: What part of the "Jackson area" does Dyersburg fall in? I looked at a map but it appears that Dyersburg is not in the Jackson Area.... :-)