it is self-policing and based on mutual respect. Sometimes one of the members of the family oversteps the mark, and is "punished" by the other members..................I guess life is like that?
Couldn't agree more nihil. I would tend to think most of the member's here respect me as I respect them and we both respect the fact we can learn from each other. As information is shared, you learn to develop certain "aspect's" of respect. For instance, I know very little about SuSe Linux, but if I wanted to know more about it I would turn to a member who does (i.e gore, phish, etc). Point is, we all (like nihil said) as a family have that mutual respect.

Wow, i've been compared with some serious intelligent and historical senior members, am i in the AO History pages now ?
Well I dunno much about the one dude, but based on what I've heard/seen, RiOtEr and the ac1d dude aren't really what I would call "intelligent". More like "juvenile" and "childish" would describe their behavior. Now, I've read some of their tutorial's and they have contributed some to AO in their time, but they choose to make certain decision's and that's what seperate's them from the rest.

Oh, and NemorY: I wouldn't be proud to be "compared" to/or be in a group of those member's. Doesn't seem to be a positive category.