The rub with a thread like this is (besides the obvious) is that people are bound to start poking at things they like (and don't like) with each subset of the bigger community. Inevitably, some people are going to get their feelings hurt, start throwing out generalizations, and then we end up with division. Again.
As James said, you're not married to us. It's a big internet. Find a place you like to call home and get on with it. Be happy. Chase some joy in this life. For many of us, "home" isn't tied to a URL. Our community gets on airplanes, we pick up the telephone, we send texts and email. We are real friends with a real connection. The forums are just another way (albeit convenient) for us to connect. When BaM died, our friendships didn't change. Forums can come and go (even this one) and it has little to do with reality.
If you don't believe me, stop going to your favorite forum for a few weeks. After the 1st day or 2, you realize it was just a habit; an addiction. After 3 or 4 days, you realize you were probably caught up in a whole bunch of really mindless drama. And after a week, you wonder how you ever let yourself go from being a musician with an actual soul to something far less powerful. And all the while, the people who had your back before you left STILL have your back. The people who were your friends before you left are STILL your friends. When your life returns to focus, you might find that you don't really want to go back. And if you do, it's never the same.
At some point you will realize that nobody owns YOU. NOBODY!
So let me get to the business at hand -- I've had enough of people logging in under pseudonyms and stirring the pot. I don't expect all of you to be able to see it when it's happening but I think its fair to ask you all to read into the subtext of these posts before playing into someone else's hand. You might think it would be easy to just nuke the troublemakers -- but then we're no better than those who rule their tiny little world with an accute case of xenophobia. Whether we like to admit it or not, the friction created by opposing views is the very tincture that compels growth. The question is, can we handle it with a modicum of grace or do we allow ourselves to be baited - to be puppets?
I'll let this thread remain (for now) knowing that it's a powder keg created for the sole purpose of exploding. I won't lock it (yet). But pay attention. Little by little, a dig here and a slight there will spawn side-bar discussions and links to this thread will make their way around to other parts of the net (both public AND private) and people who count on us, the PRS Guitars company forum, to maintain neutral ground might wonder... "why would they deliberately allow discussions that could alienate en entire community of PRS fans? Shouldn't they set the example?"
Answer #1: Because controlling forum members exclusively with [ban] and [delete] buttons shows an appalling lack of leadership
Answer #2: Because transparency is the only way to create real trust
Answer #3: Because if we lock the thread (or ban the OP under his pseudonym) without doing our very best to shine a light on the truth (as a first course of action), we take a step backward
But maybe I'm wrong. MAYBE... we're better than all that. Maybe you guys won't get baited and this thread won't go south, as the OP intended. Maybe you'll see that there is no winning with a thread like this and you'll simply ignore it along with similar threads that are sure to follow.
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