Dave hasn 't been a moderator at LPF for over 2 weeks now. Of course you'd have no way to know that, so I'm not blaming you, just letting you know now.
As far as your banning, I honestly have no idea what you're talking about as I avoid the drama over there as much as possible. If it irks you so much, email Avery with a reasonable e-mail and see what he says. Maybe you've already done that, I don't know, but it's worth another shot since you seem to care a lot.
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As to the overall topic of this thread, it's interesting. There are some knowledgeable people over there, certainly, and I try to contribute what I can. Certainly a lot of people start out there because it's the most trafficked and the easiest to find laser-related forum, by far the most active. And it's certainly a step-up from where many current "hobbyists" really got their start: likely an idiotic kipkay video. There's a lot of riff-raff, comes with the territory. And there is certainly plenty of off-topic discussion, in the Off-topic area. If you don't like off-topic discussions then don't go into the off-topic area, it's clearly delineated. The riff-raff is tough to control, and it does get old. But just think, if the riff-raff didn't end up at LPF first, they'd likely end up here instead, probably the next easiest to find forum on a related topic. Don't you appreciate the fact that LPF acts as the flypaper/filter for all the miscreants who watch a kipkay video and want to do it themselves, or all the people who saw an article on the Wicked Arctic and wanted to discuss nothing else? And many of those do get set mostly straight at LPF. Is LPF the place to learn how to be a laser professional and learn every aspect of laser safety? No, of course not, but it's a step up from a youtube video telling you to plug a diode into a maglite, and that's enough for many people. LPF dissuades many and begins to educate others. Those that want to be educated will continue to seek out knowledge beyond LPF. Those who want the easy way out will get bored fairly quickly.
Both PL and LPF have their purposes, I think they can co-exist. There are even a few that post on both, like me. LPF can certainly be a frustrating place at times. It's nowhere near perfect, but it can be fun and it can be educational.
Like most any thing else: it is what you make of it. If you stick to the right sections, avoid the threads that are clearly drama, and don't get caught up in the noise, there is plenty of useful info for many people.
You need a well-tuned lock-in amplifier to find the signal in all the noise, but there is some signal there.