Salutations.

Hi Mastertech. Thanks for the reply, and the general thanks. I respect--and appreciate--your feedback.

I can appreciate the need for some type of anti-spam policies on posts-in-general, and granted, 50 posts, if one is active, doesn't take a long time. I find this is fine for public posting in normal threads.

However, I take a different stance on private messaging entirely. I tried to send a private message to another forum member, and I was politely informed by the system that I, once again, had to have a certain number of posts to be able to post privately, more than 50 if I recall correctly.

Without the ability to establish contacts quickly, my ability to form meaningful relationships means that I have to resort to email postings in-thread; this, if the system will even let me show an email address with so few postings. (This makes me have to resort to pseudo-code like: thisprefixATthissuffixDOTcom and such, in place of # and .).

Please understand, I am not expecting these words to change what is obviously working for you. I am simply giving my opinion on the matter, in what I hope is a reasonable, polite, and meaningful dialog. I have had some problems. They have been 'meaningful' to me, in that I, as a new member, am not really able to establish the contacts that I really needed this past week.

I am looking for work. I have been out of work for over a year and a half, and I am still without a job. I absolutely require one-on-one, individual retraining in a truck, and I really need to establish singular relationships with individual people. By not being able to post private messages to people, I am not able to do this effectively.

Now, just how provocative this forum will be in helping me find work, well, I just don't know. I'd like to think that it could help me at least a little, as well as my own experience with life-in-general, as I--your basic forty-something-or-other--just might have a few things to share with some of the younger members.

I may not have much truck driving experience, but I do have a lot of driving experience in personal vehicles, from motorhomes to motorcycles to scooters; I've lived in seven states, and that travel experience has heightened my awareness of life-on-the-road, not only in the getting-there, but also in the living-and-staying-there aspect. I've spent many an hour in truck stops and motels and campgrounds; I am no stranger to the nomadic life.

Vocationally, my experiences with this industry have been a nightmare! Driving a truck isn't so difficult, but convincing others to give me the desired training I believe is best for me, in the manner so-desired, is proving to be an exercise in futility. Here's a link to a consumer complaint/report I did for the Rip Off Report (www.ripoffreport.com) some time ago:

http://tinyurl.com/q7xc46

I also went to one of the C1 TDS's in Springfield, Missouri. This turned out to be a place run by what I would like to describe as 'drill sergeants.' If I had wanted military training, I would have joined up when I was a much younger man.

I finally found a place after three tries. Westwind CDL Training Center in Cuba, Missouri was my godsend, and I can't recommend it highly enough. (The link is: http://www.westwindcdl.com). I'm plugging it because it worked for me, and is manned by genuine human beings who will help you get your CDL and who also have Hearts, and not made of iron, either.

One learns to be a professional truck driver over time, as we all know. Westwind, at least, helped me get past the first stage. I may not get to the next. I believe the industry requires a softer approach to how people treat each other--across the board! Between Dispatcher and Drivers, especially. Too many horror-relationship stories in this area to count!

Well, that's it. Just saying my peace, and I believe I'm done for now. If you have anything further to delineate, I'm always accepting of constructive criticism. Lord knows I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

I leave you with my,
Warmest Regards,

Stephen Brown (Firefishe)