Good one Ludwig, never saw a post from you that offended me.
I however remember some including a farewell to a poster we both liked who died.
OLO?
how do I start?
Years ago hand writing a three page weekly news letter and photo copying it 38 times.
Faxing it all over NSW kept my Sundays indoors [work related as a union delegate].
An ex government 486 PC came my way.
It had to, my spelling was so bad I could not understand it!
Spell check had a nervous break down and the NSW RTA bought the best it could find for me at work.
A country Foreman took the time to teach me and I found a forum.
The old was it Australian politics?
My thoughts are forums do far more good than harm.
But would find some of my scrabbled eggs posts there, even here in early days hard to take ownership of.
Attempts to replace that forum failed.
One who posts here took one replacement over it struggles.
OLO?
Yes it is good we do not wast our time each of us must understand we are not always right.
But I have a motto to live by , remember I did what 1000,s of eldest country children do, left school young to work
While I live I learn is my stolen motto I have learned a great deal here in OLO.

The scarey thing is Ludwig is that I've been posting on OLO consistantly for 4 yrs and you have excelled my number of postings.I thought I had OCD.[Obsessive compulsive disorder.]Hey I was posting before comments were recorded.

The good thing about this interaction is that it does improve our writing skills and does give us facts and ideas which don't happen in the mainstream media.There are subtle changes in our opinions which over the years we don't notice.Experience rather than interaction changes opinion more.

Graham you have an excellent site and have to a large extent eliminated the abuse and poor quality comments I see on other sites.Do not feel downtrodden by your detractors.Perhaps it is time to re-invent aspects of your concept,but the basic foundations are sound.

Good on you Ludwig, keep hammering the population growth, & immigration problem. It's going to take a mighty effort, as it's much easier to manage growth, than a stable economy, but time may tell.

Who would have thought that the greenies would have so much infulence, 30, or 40 years ago.

With that thought, you had better plan a long life mate.

Hi Ludwig

Interesting thoughts. I am not sure that the pollies are sitting in anticpation at each posting on OLO to guage public perceptions but perhaps their minders are just a little bit. The pollies of today seem very poll-driven so maybe the comments on OLO might act as a thermometer on certain issues.

I think we might be a biased sample, most of the posters seem to be over 40 but I might be wrong.

OLO is one way that we the public can have a say - whether it has much effect we cannot be sure, but it is certainly a Forum where you can get your opinion out even if in 'real life' one is not so opinionated.

Graham's point about changing minds is probably correct although I can say that some posters have made me re-think my position on a couple of issues. Maybe because of the collective age of OLO participants we are all pretty set in our ways with our entrenched viewpoints, prejudices, biases and intolerances.

(ps. you are a lovely bloke and it is always a pleasure to see you on OLO)

OLO is a great forum for the fundamentalist. This includes Christians, Atheist/Secularist. Pressed hard enough everyone holds to absolutes. They just vary in nature. Topics where world views clash are common place. I think Graham Y does a great job overall. The forum has taught me how much of a hate their is in our community for biblical absolutes although talking to people in the community suggests that these views are a little over represented on OLO. I am also surprised how many criticize the Holy Scriptures and then claim to have Jesus on their side. One thing is for sure and that is that what is in people's hearts are revealed (for out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks). I think at times some posters are high on dope or just had one to many wines. Shalom.

Ludwig,
Good on you. Like many posters on OLO I do not always agree with you view but in the main I think we have much in common on some issues.

I have learnt a lot from OLO as there are many threads that I read and learn from but not neccessarily take part in the discussion. I try not to get annoyed when another poster seems to deliberately misinterpret what I have to say. That teaches me to give more thought to what I say and how to put it. I get a bit frustrated though when I cannot think of the word I want, until it is too late.

But all in all, I think it is beneficial to all who read and post here. I do not really try to change anothers point of view but think that some other person just may take on board some of it.

Graham you and staff do a good job IMHO, so keep it up. I look forward each day to see what articles come up for discussion and my interests have broadened.

Ludwig, hope to see many more of your posts. Agree or disagree, you have my respect.