I KNOW i wont be missed.

P.S.

whole hobby of astronomy way too seriously

Only the Universe is known to exist.

Astronomy is the study of the Universe.

Astronomy is EVERYTHING.

Paul, I for one will miss you. There are indeed some who take things, and themselves, too seriously but that is all part of life's rich tapestry and you don't have to either conform or go away.

"be yourself, no matter what they say", as Sting eloquently put it!

Paul,

You are the one who is being "too serious" I think.

Lighten up.

It could be worse.

Have you never heard "cricket bores" talking about cricket?

Now THAT'S serious talk.

So bye bye.

Too many people here take the whole hobby of astronomy way too seriously without any room for non-astronomical social interaction on these boards between users.

I cant exist in that kind of environment.

Well, what can I say.
Look, these boards work pretty much the same as other astro forums on the web, such as cloudynights and iceinspace, or atleaset we aspire to that level.
ok, we might have the occasional argument, but at the end of the day, it usually gets cleared up with no bricks been thrown at anybody.
The astro forum sites simply cant allow alot of non astro stuff here, we simply dont have that kind of bandwidth, we do have good craic and occasional banter,
Non astro threads with long discussion on non astro stuff, thats what boards.ie is for.
You can exist in both boards, it isn't hard.
If you leave, it's you who will be loosing out.

Ah here Paul, dont be so hasty.

If you go to any of the decent astro forums on the web you will actually find this one is by far the most social and friendly. Sure cloudy nights has a bazillion members, and people there are helpfull and what not, but its next to impossible to get to know people there. you will get your questions answered, but you wont know the folks from one post to the next, its quite impersonal.

This foum, at least from my own expirience has given me a whole new group of Friends, not just people on the same site as me. I have met quite a few of the folks here in person, had great fun. You really need to get out on a group observing session. youl get as much banter and then some, plus a ton of laughs!!! Also the folks here, are so decent as when you ask what you know to be a very basic question, nobody looks down their nose at you because they know more, they go out of their way to impart their knowledge on to you.

Also, because this is such a small country you cant help but run into members here on other boards ( photographyIreland springs to mind!)

Seriously Paul, you wont get this anywhere else. Best of luck trying.

Perhaps we should try to arrange an observing night out some time soon. i for one have not been out with my scope since janurary. Im happy to do whatever it takes to help with this, and will have a full license by the end of july so travelling shouldnt be an issue.

Also Paul, one more thing, remember its summer, unless your an old hand at astronomy, your interest may wane a bit due to long daylight hours. wait until after xmas before making rash decisions!!

Paul --

I'll admit that I delete a lot of your threads that aren't about stuff I'm interested in.

But, I do know how to use the delete key. Whereas if you left, I've got no key to say "show me Paul's posts that I am interested in. For you see, there have been plenty of those as well.

So, yes, I'd miss you.

Cheers,
-- Jeff.