Kayaking For Simians

Ever stopped by a real drinkers' bar?

It's smoky - long, long happy hour, conversation at a dull roar - and busy day and night. Filled with alchies, stoners and their hangers on. Here and there you'll find an alpha-drinker holding forth on anything from presidential politics to pussy
willow, and who has ALL the answers to EVERYTHING - put forth in a leering alcoholic spew of bad breath and worse ideas. Yeah, YEAH! agree his beta admirers. If only they were runnin things! And it goes on, and on, and on, and....

The lowest common denominator rules.

That's what KFS - and internet - is becoming (refer to "Cult of Amateurs", Andrew Keen, linked elsewhere). A din of dummies lecturing dummies. And solving nothing, focused on nothing, achieving nothing and understanding nothing. And so it goes - til "last call" and off they weave and trundle home to the spouse and the kids, and long past their bedtime.

Following is a list of the Top 87 in order by (a) posts and (b) alphabetically. It's so very important you know who these alpha-posters are and understand they run the show. These 87, representing a mere 0.8% of KFS' nearly 10,000 members, literally dominate most sections with a barrage of BS - over 150,000 posts, almost 2/3 of all posts. They average 1812 posts each (compare to 15 for each of the rest of the members) and you don't stand a chance...

For every well reasoned post you offer, each of the alpha-posters will bury you with 182 primate postulations of their own.

Note: Are all these alpha-posters dummies? Of course not (just most of em). But you'll figure it out...

Jon 12014 LunaSea 10362 ricksconnected 6414 SCOTT 5319 mrsinbad 4735 salty h2o fly 4174 Stan 3928 ORF 3765 bnz 3644 CPP 3509 lconn 3343 Terri 3115 Yak-a-lou 3064 Apalach 3064 Caspar 2858 r wolson 2744 fishon 2559 Kneedeep 2403 Joe B 2403 joeykayak 2371 Ken L 2354 Vivian 2307 Choupique 2086 Artie W 1949 Prowler Guy 1894 River Raider 1873 Santiago II 1854 Jim W 1643 Paddlin 4 Reds 1536 Bernice 1485 ValFitzAndrews 1474 The Riddler 1412 dduffe 1399 Reel Rush 1323 David D 1304 Surf Monkey 1280 Esox 1223 Jesse Johnston 1151 Phil on the Fly 1142 Joe V 1121 Fuzzy Bruce 1085 Sea Flea 1071 Dogdad 1055 Vfisher 1031 aweiss44 986 Braves Win 980 East Coast Kayak 960 PSAUCIER 950 Harold Ray 910 Sailor 908 Hungrymullet 905 AlohaDan 898 Bill Becker 870 pmjasper 866 Josh Kaptur 866 Punisher 858 Dr Wilki 856 cliffblair 855 Jesse R 850 Kingfish 849 vakayakangler 822 dmac 821 NH Explorer 817 Mark T 813 YakontheFly 812 msqdan 800 Agent 800 E2 796 Big Pompano 782 Matt Miller (Hobie Rep) 773 Daiwa 771 ART R 770 Shipwreck 767 Houdini 758 mr mom 758 beagle 756 Flyguide 741 North Shore Tiger 734 NC Lefty 732 Thomas 726 Steve1 725 coydogcaller 719 Ron Harrison 701 fishingrod 669 Hank G 668 Socrates_thinks 662

Agent 800 AlohaDan 898 Apalach 3064 ART R 770 Artie W 1949 aweiss44 986 beagle 756 Bernice 1485 Big Pompano 782 Bill Becker 870 bnz 3644 Braves Win 980 Caspar 2858 Choupique 2086 cliffblair 855 coydogcaller 719 CPP 3509 Daiwa 771 David D 1304 dduffe 1399 dmac 821 Dogdad 1055 Dr Wilki 856 E2 796 East Coast Kayak 960 Esox 1223 fishingrod 669 fishon 2559 Flyguide 741 Fuzzy Bruce 1085 Hank G 668 Harold Ray 910 Houdini 758 Hungrymullet 905 Jesse Johnston 1151 Jesse R 850 Jim W 1643 Joe B 2403 Joe V 1121 joeykayak 2371 Jon 12014 Josh Kaptur 866 Ken L 2354 Kingfish 849 Kneedeep 2403 lconn 3343 LunaSea 10362 Mark T 813 Matt Miller (Hobie) 773 mr mom 758 mrsinbad 4735 msqdan 800 NC Lefty 732 NH Explorer 817 North Shore Tiger 734 ORF 3765 Paddlin 4 Reds 1536 Phil on the Fly 1142 pmjasper 866 Prowler Guy 1894 PSAUCIER 950 Punisher 858 r wolson 2744 Reel Rush 1323 ricksconnected 6414 River Raider 1873 Ron Harrison 701 Sailor 908 salty h2o fly 4174 Santiago II 1854 SCOTT 5319 Sea Flea 1071 Shipwreck 767 Socrates_thinks 662 Stan 3928 Steve1 725 Surf Monkey 1280 Terri 3115 The Riddler 1412 Thomas 726 vakayakangler 822 ValFitzAndrews 1474 Vfisher 1031 Vivian 2307 Yak-a-lou 3064 YakontheFly 812

Summary: if you think the immensity of these numbers is intimidating here, just visit the site. The great majority of normal, relatively infrequent posters are simply overwhelmed by the very vocal few. Intelligent counterpoint, alternative viewpoints and constructive criticism are not tolerated. Worse yet, the near lack of moderation allows the discourse to descend to a level of crudity and brute force that you have to experience to appreciate.

Although quality content does exist, it requires sufficient expertise - lacking by the newbie - to find and distinguish it from the mountains of monkey droppings. Accordingly the amount of misinformation is massive, and the newbie simply doesn't stand a chance. This netwide trend - of mediocrity, error and mis/malinformation - is well covered in Cult of the Amateur.

In this wonderful book, author Andrew Keen so well brands these denizens of the digital world:

"It's ignorance meets egoism, meets bad taste, meets mob rule... on steroids".

See also:
1) KFS: Kayaking For Simians
2) Kult of MonKeYs!!
3) KFS: Commercial Cult Central?