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Don't be scared, you'll do fine on your ownAre there any chances of meeting members of opposite sex there? Of course, plenty of them! Only, you have to be female. The women really are a rather rare breed in the forums, but there are some and those are that much more prominent, not only because they are rare but because the contents of their post reflect a slightly different approach to life and therefore sims and are always interesting to read. When you get into a discussion with them, do not make the mistake of treating them any different just because they are girls. If they decided to step forward in a place that is predominantly macho and testosterone packed, you can bet they are thick skinned, in the know of simming and would more likely than not give you a hard time if you ever got to meet them in an online dogfight. As Andy Bush, a former USAF pilot, put it in a thread on the forums here: 'Air combat is a gender-free environment. The gun, missile, or bomb does not care what kind of undies a person is wearing.'
So, my young apprentice, you've mastered the art of forum roaming. If you are comfortable with the forums on this site, you can tackle the forums anywhere. There is but one place where the final test of your trolling and flaming skill and avoidance can truly shine. This is the world of the Usenet. You can access it by either Netscape or Outlook if you have access to a news server, or through a site such as Deja. The newsgroup for combat flight sim fanatics to look for is comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim. To see what's going on there, head over to Dogfighter to get the latest edition of The Flight Sim Follies. These are a summary of the flight sim happenings at the newsgroup and are written by Scharmers, a guy loved by a few, hated by some more, and known by all that read the posts over there, and guilty of trolling and flaming as much as anyone else over there at the newsgroup. Much like your regular late-night show host.
If you can stomach the newsgroup, you can take it all. It may sound strange to you now, but do not forget this while being there or in any other forum for that matter: sims are your hobby, not your religion.
