Sorry folks, this is a long one.

It is without doubt that this Forum gives Omega owners the best available chance to keep their car up and running.

In my younger days, I had an 'A Frame' with block & tackle chains and it was a regular occurance for me to have an engine out of one of my Fords for total engine rebuild. Thinking back, I was really cruel to these engines.

For those that remember, we used to strip them down to the bare block, take it to be honed out/rebored and then spend an afternoon rebuilding it with new pistons/crankshaft/top & bottom end etc. You rarely see people working on cars in their driveway now. My parents would see this as a good thing, after years of seeing completely dissected engines in their outhouse.

I feel that this Forum has given people the confidence to tackle jobs that they would have otherwise been afraid to tackle. The wealth of knowledge & offers of help is overwhelming. Offers of help from people you have never met.

I am thankfully able to tackle most jobs on my own but only after I have been pointed in the right direction by someone more knowledgeable. After all, as my old apprentice master used to say, it's only a lump of metal with a load of bolts holding it together.

As for 'clique', I agree with previous posters who have said that actually meeting people in the flesh goes a long way to breaking barriers. As I am a sociably inadequate person myself, this was the part that I dreaded most. Such is my social inadequacy, I hovered around the Forum for best part of two years before I became a member.

I am hopeless in that department and it doesn't help that I am totally deaf in my left ear & not that great in my right ear, so communication isn't great. Trust me, if I can go to a meet, anyone can. Somebody will always break away from the group to speak to you which means the next time you go you have someone familiar to chat with.
As for posting, I'm not a big poster myself. I only post when I'm certain of the answer for fear of being shot down. I do not join in argumentive posts and I would never reply rudely to anyone.
The Forum is great for Omega knowledge but I'm not sure what is expected of the General Discussion area. Obviously it is seen to have lost its humour which in turn means it has lost its humerous posters.

In this day and age, I think it's great that members are willing to help people they don't even know. By keeping it polite and showing a bit of common decency to other members is enough for me but maybe not enough for other members.

I am extremely grateful just for the knowledge on here, the rest is just a bonus.

Regards
Alan