Its OK to weed out those with bad intent as long as it's very clear that's what they are after but we have to be careful as so many people come here at first just because they heard you can pop a balloon, light a match or burn plastic. This forum isn't like others that talk openly about anything they care too and let's be honest, how many of us have actually read EVERY single safety and forum rule and then expect someone new to read them. There's a LOT of information here. I'm all for letting someone "have it" when appropriate but in most instances we need to give a warning first about what is not appropriate to talk about and then it's pretty obvious by how they react to it whether they need the boot or not.
When I first joined (11/12) this forum felt so much more alive and besides for one specific troublemaker we all helped each other and it was much more friendly. There weren't so many diodes to choose from and owning a Dragon Lasers 1W Spartan was still pretty awesome even though it didn't focus. For many of us that was our first really high powered unit and I think I paid around $400. Now you can buy or build a 1W for $60 just 2.5 years later. We've lost some of the wonder of it all now and so much is taken for granted. Although most electronics are like that now one thing hasn't changed with lasers. They are inherently dangerous.
It's great that it costs so little for a higher powered laser but not so great that so many joining now want to jump right into them with little or no experience handling a much lower powered unit first. I know I am not the only one here that owns high powered lasers that just sit in cases. It's like buying hand guns verses a bb gun for someone in a residential area. You can have some fun shooting targets on your property but are you really going to take a hand gun out and do the same thing? Call me paranoid but I rarely take a cheap overspec 532nm with a decent beam outside anymore. With all the bad press I have to be concerned with someone reporting me even though I'm doing nothing wrong.
Someone could make trouble for you very easily. This isn't just getting into the age of "big brother is watching" as WE are also big brother. What cell phone can't take pics or videos. If I had a nickel for every news story I've seen involving them. I'm not into all the conspiracy stuff as I'm not going to let it all govern my life but I will say that things are going to get worse for the world as the rampant need for spying technology goes up. More and more "watching" will be done for the sake of good which will just end up making everyone more paranoid which will make things worse as our freedoms are chipped away.
Must be nice for a laser enthusiast to not have any airplanes or people in your area
This post was meant as conversation and not to get anyone worked up. I'm just talking
Be safe and try to protect the freedoms we have as long as possible as we have a long hard road ahead of us.
