Keep telling yourself that. Anyone with over 4000 posts in a 3 year period is anyhing but a casual observer.
Well, it indicates that I'm an interested observer and an active participant, who is very likely addicted to the Internet. But it certainly doesn't indicate that I would take the time to do as you have asserted. In any case, I', not sure why you want to turn this into something personal. Clearly, I have done something to offend you in some way. For whatever it is, I do apologize.
So when you are bored with your casual forum surfing, you decide to entertain yourself by insulting your fellow expediters and forum members who have made a business decision to contract with a certain company.
Apparently so, yeah. Those who feel insulted likely have a reason to feel that way, tho. The reality is, however, I'm poking fun at the perception of the stereotype rather than at the actual reality of it. But, based on your reaction here, perhaps the perception is closer to the truth than I thought.
Do you think that this might be one possible reason that EO decided to create carrier specific forums?
No I don't. People had been asking for them for a while, largely in response to the occasional monopoly that the sheer numbers of whiny Panther drivers could put on the General Forums, and those who were not with Panther simply got tired of having to sift through all that crap. And when he created them, Dale gave his reasons for doing so. Since it has been my experience that Dale is an honest man, so I have no reason to do anything other than take him at his word. I have therefore not speculated as to any of the other possible reasons. However, logic would dictate that if the forums were created even in part for the reasons you suggest, then they would have been created in private to prevent the travesty I have inflicted upon some of the drivers of the carrier in question, so that if you can post there you can read there, but if you can't post there, you can't read there, either. But that's not how they have been set up. Anything further would be pure speculation.
Question: What is the easiest bet for a turtle to win?
Answer: One in which he makes up the bet after knowing the outcome, of course.
That statement says a lot more about you than it does me.
Question: Have I ever given you any reason to believe me to be a liar?
Answer: YES (__) NO (__)
Just mark it with an "X" and fax it in.
It may or may not matter. It is just a little sad that someone with your ability to contribute so much worthwhile information to EO lowers himself (herself? Itself?) to perpetuating negative stereotypes in order to fullfill some unknown agenda that I will not even attempt to address.
The agenda is not all that unknown: I'm here first and foremost to have fun. If it's not fun I'm gone. I am (or was) having fun here poking at a stereotype, a stereotype that you unfortunately validated when you came after me personally. You didn't even address the issues within the stereotype, you came right after me, instead. I wonder why that is? Is it because you don't like me for some reason unknown to me, or is it because you are, in fact, snooty and snotty and you don't like it when someone points that out? If you want to dispel the myth of the stereotype, rather than personify it, you might instead consider
not being snooty and snotty.
This all begs the question:
If tomorrow, you decided it would be in your best financial interest to contract with the Carrier in question, would you?
I'm not sure why any of this begs that question, but to answer it, yeah, sure, I absolutely would contract with the carrier in question if it were in my best interest to do so. I can't think of a single carrier that I would refuse to lease onto if it were in my best interest to do so. When it comes right down to it, a carrier is a carrier is a carrier, for the most part. I have no animosity towards any carrier, nor do I have any loyalty to any carrier. A carrier's first responsibility is to the carrier, my first responsibility is to me. Who I am leased onto is secondary to that. As long as I run my business properly and I'm profitable and am achieving my goals, who the DOT numbers on the side of the van belong to is irrelevant to me.
.
