"www.flyingomelette.com: The 'game oddities' sections alone are worth a perusal. All sorts of little things that are not widely known (or are misunderstood) about various games. Just avoid the forums."

People like this make me laugh. It never ceases to amaze me that I've been doing this little "Site Tracking Adventures" thing for several years now and yet people still think they can do stuff like this with impunity. "Just avoid the forums and FO won't figure out you're an idiot!" It's one thing if you're just not into message boards, but if you make it a point to purposefully avoid my forums, then why the hell would you care about the rest of the site? Sometimes, I wish there was a way to keep people like Mr. Phoenix from finding and visiting my site, but then where would the Site Tracking Adventures be without them?

At first, I thought I'd handle this in a more civilized manner and simply contact Mr. Phoenix and ask him to kindly remove my link from his post. But this is what I was greeted with when I clicked on his profile:

I think Penn & Teller have something relevant to say about that:

One of these days, I'm going to write up a Forum "Do's and Don't's" list that will outline all of the reasons that *I*, personally, would avoid a forum. But here are a few types I steer clear of, just for starters:

1. Forums that make you register to view something. I'm a window shopper. If I can't decide whether or not your forums are worth my time to register for based on browsing them first, then I won't go through the trouble.

2. Forums where people use phrases like "Lettuce begin".

3. Forums where people actually think that "Evil Overlord" list is entertaining or informative in any way.

4. Invisionfree boards in general. Seriously. I like actually being able to SEE what I'm typing. And I don't need your goddamn emoticons taking up half my screen.

5. Jesus God, this guy's got some serious issues! No wonder he avoids my forums. Port Saiid actually has living breathing people with thoughts and minds of their own on it. Mr. Phoenix seems to avoid earthlings like the plague in favor of talking incessantly about himself, to himself.

I also love how Mr. Phoenix slightly misrepresents FlyingOmelette.com in his post there. I'm not saying that information in the Oddities is factually incorrect, but it's more of a humor and odd observations section, and yet he's treating it like it's Encyclopedia Brittannica. No wonder I so often get people who have no sense of humor trying to debunk articles that are just meant for laughs, complaining about people acting goofy on the forums, and saying they don't "get" the RAU Gallery because there are no facial expressions.

Sorry, fella. But my experiences with message boards over the past 13 years (especially coupled with my more recent dealings), have left me with absolutely no faith that your forums are any better (and generally speaking, actually having more people than the admin on it already puts Port Saiid a step ahead of yours). And you'll excuse me if I have no reason to believe that the forums of any of those other sites you listed (which you curiously have no comment on), are all flowers, roses, and peachy-keen, too.

I would speculate that Mr. Phoenix is probably someone I recently kicked out of here, but it doesn't really matter. In a few years (or even less), he'll probably vanish from the internet, like so many other generic bloggers and message board types, only occasionally showing up to annoy those of us who found something worth giving a damn for (which is something people like Mr. Phoenix will never have and never understand).

I suppose it's quite possible that a forum like Mr. Phoenix's could have the same quality in-depth, thoughtful, serious videogame discussion on par or even better than that of which I've experienced with this community... But I won't lose any sleep wondering.

Comments from the RAU Gallery:

	Honen: Eh, zis izn't really anyting to get worked up over. He's doing us favor. Ze more idiots he tells not to go to Port Saiid, ze fewer we'll have to deal with.
	Cory: Except I'm not even sure who he's telling since the board doesn't link back to any website and about 90% of the posts on that forum are his.
	Jack: Hey, guys! The Port Saiid community itself wants to make a formal response to this weirdo.
	Cory: Yeah? So let's hear it, Jack.
	Jack:
	Honen: Aye. Dat pretty much sounds like Port Saiid, allright.
	Robin: Well, avoiding the forums is his loss. That's not going to stop me from putting together my little projects.
	Cory: You got another one, Robin?
	Robin: Sure do, Cor. I think you'll really like it. Hit it, Gordon!