Hi Kevin,

Since we seem to be in the business of clarifying things, can we clarify the issue of having opinions regarding .NET without ever having used it?

JohnP and some others would quickly dismiss some members' statements of opinion regarding various aspects of .NET once they found out the the members in question ahd no (or very little) hands-on .NET experience.

The dismissiveness, often bordering on ridicule, was one serious factor that made the environment "unpleasant", particularly when ridicule was added to the mix.

Now CoDe, UT Magazine, others I'm sure, and countless web sites usually have tons of articles/words/etc regarding .NET.
Why is it invalid for a person to reach an opinion that, say, .NET is poor with data or .NET remains overly-complex or .NET is severely lacking in official documentation or whatever based on reading and digesting articles and reading of difficulties and other commentary in various fora???
Sure it's possible to refute such 'allegations' with specific examples, but it is in fact equally possible to find some true-blue .NETter lamenting each/any/all of those factors (and many more). So why is it that experience trumps informed opinion?

I, being a male, have the luxury like all of my gender have had forever of being able to make my own decisions about ALL things pertaining to my own body. Women, on the other hand, didn't have that same luxury for a very long time and are fearful now of losing it again after only a brief period of such freedom. Now I see probably as many males as females fighting by virtually any means to put an end to abortions of any kind under any circumstances. Under the requirement to have experience to be a comment-worthy individual, what is it that allows any male to have any opinion whatsoever about the issue of abortion???... males cannot get pregnant, males have never had laws prohibit anything as egards their own bodies. Should ll men be kicked out of the discussion forthwith?

What about the war in Iraq? What qualifies ANYBODY who is not in possession of ALL the information available to the Administration to pass any kind of judgement on the war there? You know, even people who have sons/daughters/fathers/mothers actually deployed there should have no opinion because they do not possess the experience necessary.

See, there are countless areas where experience is virtually impossible yet opinion blooms. Why is it any different when that opinion concerns .NET and is based on good solid information but little or no "experience"?

cheers
Jim