So much interesting stuff in there!
I do love a level-headed back and forth. Keeps the mind keen. And no, I won't reveal your username, but I will be losing sleep tonight trying to figure it out.
That's how my brain works unfortunately.
To my mind, the mods and the crew at SMS are just as liable as you or I are to say or do something intelligent/stupid/wise/daft etc, etc, so I do my best to avoid judging people too harshly even though I do it all the time.
We all do. We can't help ourselves. Just type 'Cognitive Biases' into Wikipedia to see what we're all up against.
I honestly think the biggest barrier to understanding is this text on the screen business >(forums, in general) If say, you, Remco, Bruno and myself were kicking back in front of an open fire with a whisky in hand, any discussion we had would be bound to be very different and probably one hell of a lot more productive and enlightening than we could ever manage using text and emoticons as we do here or over at WMD. It's probably obvious, I know, but I think it's important to recognize how much we read into what's being said and often-times misinterpret things.
Probably the gravest concern I have is how people whose native language is not English are sometimes, though certainly not always, treated poorly by dint of the fact that they mostly likely aren't really sure how to put something across so that it's not misinterpreted. I don't envy them that and I wish some folks would wake up to how difficult it must be for them.
As far as the having a big say thing...
I suppose it boils down to the cumulative effect of a little say.
Think feedback on racing line designs, FFB, corners and curbs, lighting/reflections, voting for favourite cars/tracks, distribution and so on. Or think David Rezac (SMS) recently asking anyone who lives near Donnington Park to take a few happy snaps of certain buildings for example. When I first read up on the project, that was what I pictured would happen to bring it all to life. I'm happy with that for sure, but there are days when I'd like SMS to make the game just for me. Screw everyone else.
Anyway, I'm rambling. Off to bed I go.