Let's not let this fall into stupidity. Get back to the subject. Full body scanners and what we like or dislike about them.
V - It's not about me. It's about you. You have hurt people with your comments. This is the umpteenth time it's happened. Please stop hurting people.
Jeez, does even the most innocuous thread have to descend into a pissing match / full in depth character analysis ? No wonder I hardly bother reading or contributing any more. Seriously, there's more problems here than the spring break forum.
First, To quote Steve, why does this have to descend to a pissing match? I was told I was being stopped for explosives trace. The bag was wiped with a circular patch of cotton, which was then placed in a machine clearly labeled as to its purpose. As to gunpowder sealed in bullets, I clearly stated that firearms were stored. GSR from the firearms is sufficient explanation for the cross-contamination. If you want to go head-to-head with me on molecular detection, I'd be glad to...off the board. Those here who know me know my academic background. Second, arriving luggage is routinely sniffed, albeit randomly. That will soon change as more hardware is purchased. Your tax dollars at work. There's also an assumption, although not reliable, that some degree of examination took place when the luggage departed from its home nation. Third, if you're joking about the marijuana, put a smiley next to it. If you're not. besides being a know-it-all, you've got a lot of frickin' nerve. When I last looked, lots of states still consider possession of marijuana a felony. Accusing someone of felonious conduct in a public forum is a no-no.
Sorry, Steve. It's a hell of a thing when the founder, moderator and chief factotum of a really busy board gives up on it. I, like RG and several others remember when this board was a fun place to be. The descent into pissing match territory is easy to document, if you take the time to look. I'm not sure if posting this particular item is going to get me banned from the board, but frankly, it's your responsibility to moderate what's gong on here. If you do a quick user analysis, you''ll see lots of familiar names no longer posting, some familiar names with incredibley high short-torm post counts, and other familiar names with declining post averages. These are all indications of a poisoned board. There's also considerable off-the-board email and on-the-board PMs about what's happened here. As of today, I will be severely reducing my participation on this board because I am tired of the gain-saying, tired of the infighting and tired of a small group of people who have hijacked almost every thread they contribute to and seem to start topics merely to increase post counts. I've been a fairly active member since February 2006, yet there are posters on the board who have been active for about a year with several hundred more posts than I. Are those kinds of counts just prolificity or are they indications of some other agenda? I realize that you have other major concerns that are more important than this board. Perhaps you should think about delegating some authority (I know you can't delegate responsibility) to a moderator to try to wrestle this board back to the fun place it used to be. For the moment, I'm withdrawing. I'll still read the board, so my page hits will still be registered by Ad Sense, but I'm about done contributing. If anyone needs the kind of help I've offered in the past they can always PM me.
I really hope you reconsider. I don't know you but you, River Girl and a few of the others that have been posting here make it worth reading. I understand your frustration. I'm starting to feel like every time I try to have a conversation about a topic with people it ends up in a pissing match. But in order to keep things calm and friendly we need to police ourselves because there is no way Steve can keep up with every thread that goes on in here.
First of all Mixz, I dont ban people for posting constructive criticism. Never have, never will do. You're right it is my responsibility to moderate here, but it is also a responsibility of those who post here to self regulate themselves to a degree. I have thought about adding moderators, but to be honest I couldnt think of anyone who was both a regular and 'moderate'. It's become factional and choosing one faction over another to moderate wouldnt help things at all. I realise the board dynamic has changed over the last year or so, boards do as people come and people go. New posters have become reluctant to become involved in what appears as either a clique or a faction war - leaving us with a stagnant pool of current members. But I'm not going to boot people simply because others do not like their posting style or the number of posts they make. The criteria for booting people is and always has been repeated breaches of the terms and conditions accepted upon sign up, and I havent seen that happen. This particular forum was started because it was supposed to be a place to learn about living in Cancun and to help form a friendly community of people who already live here. These days it seems to be about neither of those things, when a newbie does dare post a question they invariably get told to use the search function and we never see them again. Instead we have long winded monologues and pissing matches over the slightest of difference in opinion. I've never actively sought people to post here and I've never begged anyone to stay, that wont change. Suffice to say if this section of the forum becomes any more distant from it's original objectives it will be closed, simple as that.
Sigh.. here we go again... yes the drug reference was meant (mostly) as a joke (barring something you didn't know about) and should not be taken as some sort of accusation of wrongdoing... and thanks for specifying that they did indeed tell you it was an explosives trace that set the machines off... I still find it weird that simple gun shot residue from weapons stored in the same general areas would be enough to set off those machines, especially given the number of people who do have and keep guns in the US, you'd think it would be non-stop alerts if thats all it takes.... The departing of home nations is where the bigger security hole is as you eluded to, for numerous reasons including as have been mentioned. PS: I'm as guilty as anyone when it comes to steering some threads off-topic.. but I don't intentionally start "pissing matches", although lately people have been getting offended by my (bad) attempts at humor and witty retorts more frequently than I would expect. I've been operating under the impression that a "forum" was the place for debate and opinion as well as a place to argue your point to others... I've also be operating under the assumptions that most posters here don't take these things too seriously. When I post a rebuttal post to someone I'm not saying "liar liar pants on fire", I'm just adding my own crackpot ideas to the issue. When I do disagree about something I try to give my reasoning for that disagreement with examples. It would be a really, really boring world if everyone just agreed with each other all the time.
These machines are very accurate and can detect the tiniest traces. Wikipedia isn't the most accurate source but it gives you the gist. Explosives trace-detection portal machine Explosives trace-detection portal machine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Homeland defense I know what you mean, Life. If somebody was actually seen starting to pull something in a plane, he'd be lucky not to be ripped apart by everybody that could get a hand on him. Those air marshals would be needed to protect the terrorist! Don't have any ammo around, so I've never set off any alarms, but I did get a lot of special attention, one time, when traveling one way with no checked luggage. They ran circular pads over places on my carry on bag where I might have touched it, then put those pads in a machine designed to check for explosives residue. They also had a lot of more pointed questions about where I'd been, and why, than anytime I've traveled. Almost enough to make you want to pay for a checked bag.
