Hi Dale and Dick,

> Next, her/his writing in response is that she writes under the other person
> and snips portions. Rarely have I ever done that.

Writing style apparently counts for little these days, at least when
some members have just enough tools to lead them on an IP witch hunt.
Same goes for years of membership, thousands of posts, and genuine
off-list conversations. Wow, Dick, if I knew you invested so much into
AFW to reap the reward of being labeled as a fake, I'd never have
walked away those years ago.

One of the things that has puzzled me about those crying foul on this
list lately, is that perhaps these members are not accustomed to
dealing with uninformed wine enthusiasts who ask sincere (albeit
newbie-style) questions. Some are very basic. Some ask about specific
wines or wineries. Some make no sense at all.

To draw a comparison, in the four years we've been running our site, we
have literally received thousands of similar questions. We ask visitors
to *please* ask us questions, so we can better understand what they're
looking for, where they're coming from, if there's anything we can do
to help, etc. And I have to admit, Audrey, BigCAWine, and others AFW
members have all asked questions that, compared to the ones we
regularly get through our site, seem almost identical in structure and
style.

The point is -- this is what sincere questions about wine "look like"
when posed by people not necessarily experience or accustomed to the
topic. Think back -- way way back if you must -- to your university
days. Remember when some of your classmates asked seemingly questions
during a lecture, but you happened to already know the answer because
you'd done your homework? Now think about the same way some of the
questions on AFW are framed. Really...

I understand that stealth marketing is a problem for online forums and
NG's these days, yet some of the 'suspicious' posts haven't even
mentioned a URL. Some have simply mentioned a winery or wine by name.
How, might I ask, is that *any* different from what the "indoctrinated"
AFW members do in their day-to-day posting here? I fall back to a prior
notion that each and every one of us is already providing free
marketing for our favorite wineries, wines, varietals, growing regions,
etc., whenever we post tasting notes or share news about such.

That new members turn to AFW for information, seeking advice, is a good
thing. That they don't understand there is now apparently some secret,
illuminati communication code one must use when posting questions to
AFW, lest it be met with reproach and suspicion, is a bad thing. AFW
has a definite opportunity here. If members want to avoid it becoming
an old boy's club (OBC), this entire game of crying foul should end
immediately. And *certainly*, members should NOT accuse the good
Richard Neidich of being a woman -- that definitely is OBC rhetoric,
and probably the reason why so few female members ever speak up, let
alone actively engage in a conversation.

It does make you think, to what degree has GroupThink taken over AFW,
when independent voices on AFW are insulted, accused of impersonating
the other gender, labeled disingenuous, and even kill-filed (that is,
if one particular dolt threatening to kill-file can ever figure out how
to do it right). Last I looked, the "W" in AFW stood for 'wine', not a
fascist administration. Then again, I could be wrong.

Cheers,

David