Arthur,
I second Mr. Meyers note of appreciation above and I was hesitant to weigh in but I do have a thought.
Yes you are correct: There is no substitute for manners and etiquette. However I also see an interesting thing here. This forum almost always is the top of the google list when searching for assistance on 1A2 issues. Thats great, except for when its not because wide exposure means someone may come in, register, ask, and leave without much of a thought about sticking around. I see that all the time in one of the car groups I am on. You are the top of the list so people will come here first....
What you guys have here is a great resource with a lot of very skilled members. (Frankly I like it here better than TCI which I find a bit confusing and harder to navigate) but I think you have a challenge since this is framed as more of a professional group than a hobbyist group and the expectations are different.
I treat it like a professional group. I research my questions, if I cant find an answer I ask clear and concise questions and then respond appropriately to close the loop when responses are given. I think the challenge is that questions from "one off" hobbyists tend to be uninformed or in need of an immediate answer but not capable of timely reply.. But in my experience that seems to be the nature of the hobbyist groups. My car group I haven't been back to in about a year because I finally got tired of answering questions I had answered 50 times before, were searchable, and it was obvious people were too lazy to use the search. I also got tired of the general ridiculous behavior of some members trolling and bitching. Luckily that doesn't appear to be an issue here because of lower volume of members and the, ahem, advanced "maturity" of most of us
I guess what I am trying to say is that you question the behavior of the crickets response. As maddening as it is I can tell you from what I have seen in other groups its not the "worst" behavior, irritating as it may be. My personal peeve is answering a question for someone, accurately and succinctly, and then having them post a followup, without thanks, "does anyone else have an answer to this?!?!?!" that one makes me bonkers.
Anyway, I don't know if this helps at all. Im not trying to excuse poor communication or manners, but it is a style a lot of people consider acceptable these days.
I wish we had more discussions on here. I check every few days and always enjoy reading what has been posted even though I may not be able to contribute to the thread. Its always nice to see something new pop up that is an interesting topic or an anecdote about some historical job or one of the members projects. And yes, your, and others, assistance, is valued and appreciated. Please don't take a powder.
I cannot speak for the original poster of this thread, he may have many good reasons for not responding back but I am pretty sure lack of respect isn't the top of the list. I personally would be embarrassed if I had generated a thread like this that ruffled someone. And I too am interested to see what he has... So there's that aspect. Perhaps this traffic will make him reappear, hopefully not sheepishly, so we can continue the discussion. That would be a nice resolution.
Thank you all again, and I apologize for being a bit too verbose...
Shawn