Hi!
As it is pretty normal I guess to still lurk at a Forum after you have left, I found your thread Bob - and it left me quite a bit baffled.
I'm no little drama queen - and drama in general is not good for forums, thats why I besides asking TylerC for account deletion only told two other members about my decision. I was at exactly this point once before, but simply stopped posting.
I could write a lot about the why - the short version is that I became rather thin skinned in the more recent years of being online, that I found me asking myself why I would still participate on the internet almost constantly and that I considered, and still consider a lot of what I did in the past a waste of valuable time for various reasons.
At the moment, the "old" me (pre 2015) is definitely gone and I'm struggling with the update. Kinda like the annoyance of missing DLL's when you try to install that new software/update. (Maybe that's why I bought a Mac at some point, failing to realize that if it's not missing DLL's, it's something else)
And I apologize that my personal struggle hit the FOG at a time where it better hadn't.
First of all, Bob you got my respect for starting this thread and I'm going to say this as I would to your face (if no kids are around), it takes b*lls to open a thread like this right in public. I never would have called you out on this, as your comment was just the tip of the iceberg, which in that very moment tipped me over the edge. (And just to be clear, the rest of that iceberg is not solely to be found on the FOG in anyway)
I apologize to you Bob for bringing you into this situation - that was not my intention.
For clarification, yes, your comment hit and hurt me - because the way I have read and understand it - it was questioning my ability to decide on a gift for a dear friend whom I know for a long time, whom I "talk" to on an almost daily basis and last but not least whom I connect to on a level that lies far, far beyond spending a couple of hundred bucks on tools - even if he might never put them to, what most here would consider good use but instead use them for some minor tasks. I could write pages about reasons, about a certain lifestyle, about my or his situation - but why would I do so in public? And what would that thread have gained by it except for a lot of personal information that I'm not willing to share?
I intended that thread in question to be entertaining and hoped to find a couple of tools/accessories I hadn't thought of yet. Because I want to have fun, that's the very reason I'm here. I love high quality tools, I love working with them, I love what I do. I'm not a pro, I don't need my tools or work to earn money for me. I want to have fun & entertain people who also like high quality tools, working with them and what they do.
I try to only reply to topics that I know something about and I try not to mess up important threads were I clearly don't have a dog in the fight with my funny attitude and rather "unprofessional" view, as I do understand a lot of people here earn their money with what they do and to them this isn't solely about fun.
It gets to be a lot less fun for me when I come to find that I have to double or triple check every post I make because it could start some drama. And that is the reason for my harsh reaction a couple of days ago. I started what I felt was a very "innocent" fun thread about tools, and the first comment, sorry that that was yours, gave it a nod in a direction that could only end up going further down south from there. (It's not the first time that has happened, albeit not your fault of course) I lost my patience because, and I can't stress that enough, all I want is to have some fun. I didn't want an in-depth analysis of my "gift", it's value, my friendship to someone or a judgement based on so minor information that I gave out because this is still a public forum. And I was at a loss for words that something so trivial could trigger a comment like yours.
But yes, your thoughts were absolutely valid - your opinion is - absolutely no question. But like I wrote above, it's not what I was asking for in that particular thread - and it had simply very bad timing - I snapped.
I understand where you are coming from, I understand that you too had probably very little thin skin/ patience that day especially considering what is going on in your country - an please accept my heartfelt well wishes for the future considering that matter.
I had to admit that the other day and I'll do it again, if English was my native language I probably would have read/understand your comment in a different way and if it had been under different circumstances I might just have replied to it and all would have been good.
In all honesty, after two nights and a Saturday spent woodworking - I do look different on this and yes I was lurking when I found this thread because I thought that it maybe was the wrong decision to leave the FOG.
But I also tend to keep my word, and without your thread I would definitely not have re-signed up. And this really doesn't mean that I don't value the opinion of the two other members I talked to, but by then I had sent TylerC my request for deletion and it felt stupid to ask to forget about that.
Thank you Bob for starting this thread and for choosing this path for both of us. It would feel very cheap to me to simply say I accept your apology, because under different terms, maybe face to face over beer - there would have been nothing to apologize for. So thank you for apologizing, I accept your apology. But I would also like to ask for you to accept my apology, too. For causing this drama and putting you in the middle of it, I didn't intend that in any way.
To all of you nice souls posting here, Thank you very much!
Kind regards,
Oliver
