Tony, I have been out of town and I just posted this below but I will add it here again since that post is so far down.

I should add that you are not entirely wrong, IMHO. I think there is alot of truth to what you are saying about newbies and others being intimidated and put off by aggressive, know-it-all, opinionated, agrumentive, etc. attitudes and behavior.

The problem in my mind then becomes how do you break the news, so to speak, to a person who has posted a picture of a species, subspecies and/or locality specimen that is obviously not what they think it is? IMHO it is just as bad, if not worse, to let them go on thinking they have something they don't, than it is to question them or just come out and say that their animal(s) aren't what they were sold or represented as.

There are also real attacks and real fights and in that climate sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between a derisive or contemptuous post and a post where someone is just trying to inform someone of unfortunate realities.

I try to be respectful always. I don't think I've come off as insulting very often, if ever, but I wouldn't be suprized if some of my posts came off sounding like a know it all. But the fact is if you specialize in something for a decade or two you should know more than the average newbie. Hopefully in trying to share that knowledge and be helpful I haven't offended too many poeple.
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