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Somebody created a screen name of "The All Knowing Garth", lists his home state as Washington and uses the WFB quote used by GarthB as the sig line. Dislike? Hate? It just seems like satire to me; a mocking of Garth's tendency to come across like a charter member of the umpiring-knowledge oligarchy.
That aside, I think you guys give the OF and the internet BBs in general way too much credit. It's entertainment far more than information. Just looking at OF, at a given point today it had 16,717 registered members and a bit over 464,000 posts. The top 60 posters accounted for 224,000 of the posts--about 48%. While certainly some good information can be found here from time to time, it is really more the personal playground for a few guys who either like to debate or have something to say about everything than it is a "valuable tool". There's precious little original material here; its greatest value is in the ability to get someone else to look up things for you in order to feed their need to be recognized as an expert.
While the baby left, so did the bath water. Garth did his fair share and more of lampooning people, but when somebody did it back, it was characterized as a "personal attack." He had tons of posts that were better suited to private emails (his health problems, his family life, etc.) than posting on a BB. His leaving will likely open the door for wider participation by people who didn't care to post as long as he was around. Many of them have resumes, too.
Just because people try to give offense doesn't mean you have to take it.
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