As a complete newbie I am glad that I paid for my premium membership before looking at the forums. Threads like that one make me think that this is not the hobby for me. Yes I have seen dozens of friendly threads, but those rabid threads realy kill off the family friendly feel.
When I signed up for my account I found that most variations of my usual internet handle where taken, and chose Fenrir101, When I signed my first few cache log's I actualy used my normal handle out of habit, and frankly the thought that the cache owners could decide to disallow my finds because of that is not a happy one.
I know that once any forum will start picking up more extreme members as they grow, but the fact that within 7 hours of that thread starting someone honestly equated not signing the log with commiting murder and appears to be fully serious is just scary. And its not just that thread, I have been doing a lot of searching to find answers to some fairly common new guy questions and every single one that I have found has degenerated into similar levels of commentary.
Most of you folks seem fairly nice, but the weirdo's sure are loud around here
As a newbie myself, I have been browsing the forums looking for tips and whatnot and have found some interesting posts myself where people acting downright ugly. I am from Ohio and I guess I am used to a mostly friendly response from people, but come on, some people can seriously lighten up! It's a game, have fun!