This message board has existed for several years now. Some of it's posters know one another since almost the beginning and many have met in "real life". Also this is a completely uncensored message board. People can say whatever they feel like saying in here.

I don't know what you (or anyone else) expects of a message board labeled as a "skeptic's" place, but I can tell you what you won't find in here. You won't find "authorities" in here. There are some rather smart guys around, but you'll have to find them for yourself, there'll be no important titles tied to their names and chances are that the others will treat them like anyone else, not like gurus or anything of the like. You won't find automatic acceptance of whatever you say in here. You won't get automatic respect, either, maybe that makes us bad guys or something, but the fact is that around here respect is something you have to earn, and if someone feels that you're full of it, chances are that he or she will say it. Needless to say, political correctness is not likely to be found, too.

What you will find in here is a community, a gathering of people who interact with one another in a rather regular basis, and who like to talk about a wide range of subjects. Yes, the header say "skeptics", but it has attracted a number of people who would describe themselves as believers. Chances are that you will find people interested in your experiences, but you'll have too look around, and probably filter some of the "noise" to get to what you want. IMHO this is far better than being in a place where people are supposed to always smile and say nice things to one another. Here you'll find real people, acting like their real selves.

The jokes and the sarcasm are something you get used to. But, if you are as sensitive about your experiences as your last message seemed to imply, my suggestion to you is that you give up discussing it here. As I said before, chances are that you'll find people interested in your experiences, some of which may even have interesting things to say to you, but the fact is, to most of us there are no sacred cows, if you know what I mean. So if you are not really open to the possibility of whatever you say being treated in a humorous way, you'd better not say it in a public forum such as this.

Last but not least, let me remind you that for every word you read on your screen, no matter if you interpret it as rude or polite, interesting or boring, nice or not, there's some person who wrote it in the first place. And you can't see the face of this person when she was writing it, nor hear it's voice if she were saying it aloud, and you can't know what was going on through her head at the time. Chances are that no one is really on a personal mission to discredit you, or to pick on anything you say. Always try to give others the benefit of the doubt when communicating on the Internet, and don't be too defensive all the time. Just relax, and learn the rather important ability of not trying to answer to everything.

Welcome aboard...