What does it take to leave a forum?

I am proud to be a member of www.my-pipes.net – a grand, if not folksy online pipe forum.

It was started a few years ago from some folks that wanted something more from traditional pipe sites. What we have become is an extremely tolerant, self moderating site with members from all over the globe consisting of both men and women and people of all denominations.

The site offers insight, knowledge sharing and more than it’s share of humor.

We have had some long time, upstanding members leave our site over posts on religion and politics, and to be quite frank, they are sorely missed.

So I thought to myself, what does it take personally to get me to leave a forum that I’ve contributed to regularly and am considered ‘one of the crew’?

Maybe I’m extremely tough skinned, but I see each member as unique, and as long as they don’t intentionally attack other members, or post hurtful content, then I go with the flow and respect their rights to their opinions whether I agree or not.

Some folks follow some untraditional beliefs and values, but who am I to even make that determination? It’s my opinion. These folks have joined the site to share their love of pipes, tobacco and sometimes the comraderie of the forum.

Am I too shallow? Should I give enough of a shit on certain things to walk away if I find a member to be abrasive or making statements that go against my moral fiber? To each his own I guess.

I may be looking at this from the wrong side of moral ethics or allegiance to what I believe in. I certainly respect those that make a stand and decide to walk away. I just find it a shame when folks that I see as good friends walk away.

There – I got that off my chest and thanks for stopping by.

Took a break, glad to be back!!

There are a lot of times when I visit, or join a site – am enthralled with it for the time being, and then it loses my interest and I leave for good.

I am a member of www.my-pipes.com, a really neat pipe web community that does not get its kicks out of wolf packing folks and flaming them out of their little burb.  It is an eclectic combination of information, hilarity, and communication that I cannot find anywhere else.

I ran into some health problems over the last 6 months that sidelined me big-time, but now that I’m back into the mainstream, I fired up my favorite site, and even with new members, MPC is funny and strong as ever.

I urge anyone who wants to enjoy themselves just as they are, without fear of predatory flaming, visit this site.  They (and I) get a little wierd sometimes, but it’s all in good fun and we all need positive vibes in our lives.

Lets get things rolling, shall we?

I am brand new at this blog thing, but I am relatively new to pipe smoking and am enamored by the pipe smoking community and the beauty of briar in all its grained elegance.

 I will be using this site to journal my growth as a pipe smoker and soon to be pipe crafter.

Stay tuned, this should be fun!