Guys and gals, we are a proud bunch here. There are several top notch umpires here, and then several who want to be top notch. (And then of course, there is me.)
Anyway, over the past couple of weeks I have noticed a different temperment on this board, one that resembles in many ways the problems that we all dealt with at McGriff's, or even what the small board still deals with over here. There seems to be less tolerance of "stupid" questions, as many of us fear a troll in our midst. We used to answer courteously all questions here, regardless of the level that umpire may have achieved. What has happened that we still don't do that??? There was a first year umpire here who may have been asking what he felt was a legitimate question, and some of our old timers lambasted him for asking it. Why not just simply answer the question, or else lead him down the road of learning by asking him relavent questions to get the thinking process going? Don't make him feel less than just because he didn't understand a rule that you may feel is basic. We all had to learn once.
And I know that there is at least one troll in our midst. Let's not let one poster take away from us an enjoyable and valuable resource. Let's go back to being the congenial folks we have always been; welcoming all questions, treating everyone fairly until they show that they deserve to be treated otherwise. We owe it to them, but more importantly, we owe it to ourselves.