Something that I've picked up in the course of life is that it's adaptive to get a read on what's going on and what others are doing before jumping in head first to a new activity involving other people.

Doing this tends to help me develop well-informed responses that others will hopefully find interesting, relevant, and credible. (Notice I did not say "necessarily agreeable").

I spent months lurking FlyerTalk before joining the fray as a "Talker." My delayed entry was as much to see if FT was going to be something worth devoting my time to as it was to get up to speed with what and how things worked, so I could hit the ground running if I decided to join in.

If I had decided to just wantonly jump in, without doing my homework, I don't think most folks (I know I don't when others do this) would find too much to respect with something along the likes of, "Hey, what are the ways I can earn frequent-flier miles other than just flying?" Worse, that would set the tone for anything I might say in the future. As with anything, it helps to start on the right foot.

However dynamic it may be, there is a culture here, one that happens to be very suspicious about unfamiliar names popping up who post in numerous forums about a commercial website. This smacks of spam.

I, for one, am very annoyed by freeloading let alone internet spam, and I know I speak for others in saying that I would certainly fight that type of thing propagating here.

We have nothing against new Talkers. This entire bulletin board is as vital as it is exactly because new ideas, fresh information, and newly gained experiences are presented here for discussion and often critique. But make no mistake - this can be a group that's as tough and critical as it is experienced, generous, and sometimes, funny - so what is said and how it is said very often, in itself, becomes the focus of discussion.

Case in point with pezzy.com.