Believe it or not, I'm still around. I still cruise through rec.boats
now and then, but not on a daily or even weekly basis like I used to.
I'm saddened not only by what's happened to rec.boats, but USENET in
general, which used to be such a wonderful place where you could find
knowledgeable conversation on virtually any topic.

Of course, back then (mid-late-80s), USENET was populated by professors
and grad students, and hardly anybody else. Off-topic posts were
virtually non-existent, and "advertising on the internet" was unheard
of, except in a few scattered .forsale groups.

Now it's just overrun with loonies, like the famous Jerry Howe, who has
destroyed rec.pets.dogs.behavior, which is *supposed* to be a group on
dog training. Skipper's another one. While he has yet, after all
these years, to make one single post to rec.boats indicating that he
even knows what a boat *is*, he floods the group with his silly, trite
little verbal spitballs. I mean, this guy actually *hunts* for
boating-related threads to destroy with stupid, off-topic insults and
feeble attempts to sound cute. And he has succeeded.

Harry Krause does indeed post OT more than he should, but he's
basically going with a pre-existing flow in that respect. But the
difference between Harry and Skipper is that Harry is a seasoned,
boating veteran who DOES know boats, and is always jumps in to
participate in boat-related discussions in a focused, knowledgeable
manner.

Skipper, however, knows utterly NOTHING about boats, NEVER posts about
boats, and can't stand the embarrassment of everybody talking about
something he knows nothing about, so whenever we try to talk about
boats, he jumps in a sabotages the thread. Idiot.

Ron M.