My first experience in writing posts was over at Powerline and I concur with Trap's sentiments. Here I was, a middle aged guy with absolutely nothing in his life requiring application of my Political Science degree (from a fantastic, very small Quaker liberal arts school.) Then one day, shazam! I discovered Powerline and made a few comments. Back in the day, your comments could be rated, and I became obsessed with producing informative posts with a quirky humorous angle. Then, those miserable PL bastards stuck a dagger in my heart, bloggus interruptous, by bailing out without any notice whatsoever. Did I just just a naughty word to describe those selfish ingrates? Bastards can't help being bastards. They are just born that way.
Eventually, most of us landed at that other site, hosted by an admitted drunk and fantasist, nanosecondwhatshisname, and the Great Tone Wars began. I became disgusted, and along with the creme de la creme of the CT folks, migrated over to Its About Freedom. Not to be a conspiracy theorist or anything, but apparently some of the losers over at CT, jealous of the success of IDP's IAF, complained to the Proboard's owners like the whiny little bitches that they are, and we get shut down with only a week's notice.
So I say to the newbies: Welcome to our world! We are the grizzled veterans of the Tone Wars. We give no quarter and ask none. You better be able to back up your opinions or suffer the consequences. Enjoy a laugh or two, get to know the personalities behind the scenes here, and become a part of our little family.