One of the reasons why this is so useful to you is that it directly answers questions you have. You sometimes have to really dig or pay careful attention to even the best book to pick up something you actually need/want to learn.

Socrates (and many other great teachers) was famous for asking questions and letting his clientele wrestle with possible answers. Only then would he comment on his proposed solutions to the problem at hand.

That is a very hard thing to do well. A lot of energy and effort goes into that. One can feel emotionally and physically wrung out afterwards.

However in a forum such as this, your experiences generate the questions and everyone's interest is piked. List members (here and in a number of other fishy places on the net) are led to think of things, insights and questions which would never otherwise occur to them.

School teachers would kill for a situation like that. ;)

An example of how this works for me is that question about potassium permanganate. A while back I picked up the "Tropical Fishlopaedia: A Complete Guide to Fish Care" by Mary Bailey and Peter Burgess. It really is an encylopedic collection of fish care minutia by two (of many) authors I've come to respect.

It turns out that the book, just being read, is brutally boring. I've used it as a sedative several evenings - sometimes not by plan. But it sure coughed up some good info on "that purple chemical".

It is fun, pardon me, a joy, answering questions to someone who genuinely is interested in a set of topics dear to one's own heart. Sort of a meeting of the true believers in a larger world which could care less about small fishes in glass boxes. Also, a lot of mailing list and forum people on the Net are pleasently surprised to find that they actually have as much to offer in a discussion as they do.

We all find ourselves at wit's end, probably daily. (Computers are just the start of my list.)

And it is just neat being actually able to help. In a certain cosmic sense it is also saying thanks to the many who have helped "us". Also whoever those who are who are brainstorming on a topic, they are also growing in the aquarist's craft by problem solving too.

So thank you!