I usually don't bother posting anything on internet forums. Not even polygraph forums, even though I am a polygrapher. In the past I have sometimes become involved in internet forums, and I regret having wasting so much time on such a worthless pursuit. I think it's a waste of time for several reasons:

1. The people on an internet forum usually never see one another and they never interact with one another in real life. Do you really care what a few people sitting at home or at work on their computer really think about you, or anything else for that matter? In our lives we have real people who matter to us. These are real people we live with and we interact with and who contribute to our experiences and our existence. Aren't they worth more time than people we'll never meet?

2. When people don't have to actually interact with each other in real life, some of them tend to let all their nastiness and ugliness hang out for the whole world to see. Do you really want to interact with nasty, ugly people when you could be spending time with the beautiful people in your life?

3. People on internet forums tend to become so involved with their day to day verbal jousting that they are almost constantly thinking about what someone else wrote and what their own response will be. It's really silly when you think about it. They spend so much of their time trying to one-up each other about ridiculous things that it becomes almost an obsession or an addiction. I guess it's a sad commentary on our modern lives that we could become so occupied with other people's opinions and our own responses that we let our precious time just slip away. Nothing you say on an internet forum is going to change the world. The only people who are changed at all by anything you say on an internet forum are the foolish people who spend all day sitting there. They aren't doing anything with their lives, so what difference does it make whether you win or lose a verbal sparring session with such people.

4. By reacting to people on an internet forum, you help them justify their existence and their opinions. If someone, somewhere is reacting to their insignificant opinions, then their insignificant opinions must actually be significant, right? Actually, no, but you help them feel that way. In other words you are an enabler and a contributor to their often inane blabbing. You give them a reason to go on blabbing. If they didn't have you, they'd stop blabbing and get on with their real lives with their real people.

So why am I posting anything on this forum today, you ask? I'll tell you. Lately, when I've come to this forum, admittedly wasting some of my own precious time reading the blabbing of other people I'll never meet, I have noticed that some of you, my fellow polygraphers, have allowed yourselves to overreact to George Maschke's funny little world. By doing so, you look even more foolish than the long-time regulars on this forum. I don't mean to offend or patronize my compatriots, but really, don't you have better things to do?

Polygraphers coming to this forum to argue are wasting their time. They are also justifying this forum's existence. Do you really think that by arguing with George Maschke that you are going to get him to give up the one thing in his life that makes him feel like somebody? If this forum were your baby would you give it up? All the logical, intelligent, supportable arguments that you make on this forum won't cause this man to go away and find something truly worthwhile to do because for most people it is sufficiently worthwhile simply to feel important, and you help make those people feel important. By arguing and berating Maschke and his baby, you make him, as well as passers-by think that their is more to his own arguments than there actually is. When you get overly vocal or he feels that you are beginning to unmask his own foolishness, he bans you and tries to make you look even more ridiculous than you did before when you first wasted your time responding to him.

On the Polygraph Place web site, there is also a forum, but it is only for polygraphers who can provide evidence that they are actually polygraphers. I suggest that if you want to intelligently discuss the polygraph with people in the know, you try that forum. It is a forum for people who actually know about the polygraph. Here is what one person wrote about Antipolygraph.org on that forum:

"It is interesting what you notice when you start to get up close and personal with the folks at anti. The place is full of fakes (and some really bitter people). I'm increasingly convinced that much of the content is unreal". "...All in all, its a house of mirrors"

I have become increasingly convinced that this Antipolygraph forum is a "house of mirrors." I believe it is a couple of guys using several aliases each to bounce stuff off each other and to provide the illusion of a larger number of people. How do I know this to be so? Spend an hour or so of your precious time reading some of the more controversial topics on the forum and you will agree. There may be a few people who come to this forum regularly because they find it interesting and they've become addicted to the day to day arguing with foolish polygraphers who give them a reason for coming back, but you can bet there is only one or two little men who actually spend most of their days and often their nights watching every little response on this forum so they can quickly answer and quash anything that might make them appear foolish for more than a few minutes.

I know that some of you have also read former polygrapher Doug Williams's web site. Williams doesn't provide a forum, but his web site is interesting just the same. Williams, in case you didn't know, conducted more than 6,000 polygraphs as a police polygrapher. Then, despite surely having been involved in catching many, many criminals and other undesirables with the polygraph, Williams retired and wrote a book on how to "sting" the polygraph. Williams came before Maschke, and his little book came out before Maschke's rip-off of William's work. Williams has appeared on many newscasts and shows where he talks about the polygraph. Some of the things he says are just totally off the wall, such as when he claims that over 60% of all people who have taken a polygraph have failed. Also, the "control" questions Williams often talks about are never really control questions at all, but rather meaningless, irrelevant questions. However, despite some insupportable claims, at least Williams has some credibility. At least he was a polygrapher, while Maschke has no comparable credibility of his own. Here is what Williams says about Maschke and other lesser opponents of the polygraph:

"But for the people who believe these clowns can help them pass their polygraph tests, it is certainly not funny, and it is more than ridiculous - it is dangerous! Yes, it really is very dangerous to rely on the bad information these fakes, fools, phonies, and frauds provide because the only thing of value in their material is what they have stolen from one of my old outdated manuals - and like a first grader trying to cheat on a test, they couldn't even copy it right. And to make matters worse, they have all made changes in an attempt make it look like they have something new or better, but the only thing they succeeded in doing was to get it all wrong - dangerously wrong! If you learn from a person whose only experience with the polygraph is that he has failed his test, don't be surprised if you have the same result on your test as he did! Don't make the mistake of following the directions these fools give you, because if you do you will fail your test too."

Of course, Williams has a financial stake in trying to eliminate the competition since he sells his own little manual and DVD for a hefty sum, which should give one pause in believing everything he says. 

Before I stop wasting my time here, I just want to talk about one more thing. Some of you polygraphers obviously feel like you are doing some good by writing positive things about the polygraph and warning unsuspecting, innocent "victims" about taking any of the advice on this forum and this web site. I understand your point of view. You have seen people fail polygraphs because they came here and believed what they read and tried to put it into action. I've occasionally seen these people myself. But think about this for a moment, please, before you waste your time here trying to make a difference with these people. Anyone who would actually come here and take the time to know what this web site is all about, and then despite all that try to "cheat" on a polygraph deserves to fail. Why would you want to help such people? Why do you care? What difference does it make if they listen to the wrong people and fail a polygraph? When we're talking about job applicants and screening polygraphs, such people don't deserve the job anyhow, so please stop trying to warn them or help them ignore the poor advice they get on this web site. If they are foolish enough to take that advice, please let them just take it and pay the price!

Please, please, please, polygraphers, stop giving these people a reason for being! You won't convince them no matter how superior are your arguments. You won't win or have the final say in any argument because the people on the other side live only to argue with you, and they can always get rid of you when you make too much sense. So please go away and spend some time with your special people. Do your jobs because your jobs are important too. You make a big difference in the world, but you don't do it here, so stop fooling yourselves.

Ms. Wonderful:

What a laugh!  You post the longest post in months on Anti-poly, saying why polygraphers should not post here!

You gotta admit, that's funny. 

Nomo