When is it okay to go on a forum?

[Johnny Gotham]

I was pondering weather or not it's ever acceptable to talk to people on a forum, then I remembered this anecdote. I had gone against my better judgment and began posting on the On-line Baptist open forum. Understand that I had a question that could not be answered by anyone else, and I figured that a group of fundamental, Bible-believing Christians could answer them. They did answer them, and they did so well. Well enough that I asked a few more questions which were also answered to my satisfaction. However, I made the mistake of getting comfortable, forgetting that forums are full of people, and people are idiots. I misinterpreted one post, and before you know it this one guy was on my back about it. I wrote a rebuttal, but then I got in deeper and deeper. Plenty of the usual open forum stupidity followed, and I decided not to go back for a while. So to summarize, it is appropriate to go on forums when you have an urgent question that nobody else can answer, but to log on for any other reason is just ridiculous.

By the way, I do recommend OnlineBaptist.com for Bible questions, but just remember not to linger.