Well, when skuzzy calls him an "innocent," I take the man at his word. And here's why:
Even if he was a shade, when you sign up you have to give your name and address to get an account, and billing info if you wish to maintain the account. I highly doubt someone who was that into the game would not have ponied up and gave his cc info, which would make forging a name almost impossible... that or maybe he paid by money order to cover his "shade"... but I seriously doubt someone would go to those lengths to hide themselves from HTC (unless you're Voss I guess, lol.)
Unless he lied to HTC about his name and info, I have to believe Skuzzy that he was an innocent, meaning he was legit, and was not a vet in shades.
How he handled things was not good though, I grant you that. But don't you think an old vet would know what would fly and what wouldn't on the BBs? He went too far, like hmm lets see, most noobs do when they get hardcore into the game (I can think of 10 examples of guys who cross some kinda line when they actually get decent at flying, a few just from this last tour).
And why did he go too far? Because he thought he'd be accepted and ran with it, and just plain and simple overdid it. What he didn't realize is that the combination of posting with knowledge and being decent from day 1, a lot of people were going to cry shade quicker than the boy who cired wolf. And why? Most can't believe that someone can be good at this game as a total noob. And to that I call total bullpoop. I posted before that if you have flown other sims it's not too difficult to learn the intricacies of another sim quickly because all of the same principles apply. The feel, view system, ballistics, and setup may be different, but an airplane still handles like an airplane. He wasn't some squeaker tard armed with a mouse that sat on the runway on day one of his first day of a flight sim crying about how to take off. He had flown other sims. He actually READ the readme file, all of it, on AH. How many noobs do that?
Is it that hard to believe a guy with previous experience can come here and do well? Think of all the guys who transitioned from AW or WB here. The good sticks from those games came here and from day one were owning people right and left. Again, slightly different feel for the AW guys, but did it stop them? No. If anything this game was easier because of a better FM, ballistics and not the crazy lag in AW where u literally had to guess where the other guy was. So he hadn't flown one of those, sure. But he'd messed around w/ IL2 and flown some other sims like a aerobatic sim. What better to teach maneuveing like a stunt flying sim?
The initial no way reaction by most here smacks mostly of paranoia and jealousy... if I couldn't do it for a few YEARS, no way this guy could do it in a few DAYS. Rubbish. Just because you suck and don't get it doesn't mean someone else can't (this not aimed at you Grizz 
). His attention craving posts fueled the flames for these guys, and the thing raged outta control.
And most of the vets who are supposed bullies here were the ones sticking up for him. Moot, AKAK, myself, and others urged restraint... I mean what was the worse that could have happened? If he actually was a shade we woulda handed him so much rope he would have hung himself specatacularly in Adonai like fashion. There was no need to schlack the guy in his first week. But that was only if he was a shade. I'm sure he wasn't. I think Skuzzy was too.
You have a very valid argument Stang. There are definitely two ways to look at it. I just have to mention to you again that ST never gave any billing information to HTC. But anyways, he could have easily been new I suppose and a good new stick at that but I think what irked everybody so much was not that he was 'good and new' but that he needed so much attention to go along with it. His AARs were good contributions until you realized he was simply writing them to get recognized for his 'quick grasp' of the game. Then he started smack talking to vets on 200 and making people really scratch their heads. Hell some of his own squad members even squelched him when they logged on because he was so annoying. He could have taken the "shade" question as a compliment and been all smiles about it and people would have let it go. But it really feels like he was trying so hard to convince us he wasn't a shade then gave up because he couldn't convince us. Seems like damming evidence to me he was a shade. Shade failed. People wanted him to be a shade because people just flat out didn't like him. And Stang, he did hang himself with that rope, I really dont think you can blame anybody but maybe his parents for his fragile ego.
And Stang, what about that shade pilot musashi that u2007 has killed like a million times? Didn't the end all say all Emperor Skuzzy say musashi wasn't a shade and cleared him? Glance at those stats again and tell me Skuzzy is correct.
