Scott makes the assumption that PIC's (& Microchip's) popularity have
not been affected by time and competition:

Scott Dattalo wrote:
<<cut>> In the last year or so the pic list
> attendance has dropped by a hundred or so (I recall sending a message a
> while back and getting an acknowledgement that 1684 people received it -
> how appropriate.) Most of the reason is due to this childish rubbish with
> which some of you have been attempting to waste our time.

Perhaps the list is actually popular *because* of the OT threads and
would otherwise have dwindled further.  Many subscribers are competant
programmers and achieve their goals easily without expert assistance
such as Scott has offered.

Tolerance for other's viewpoints is common in most long term piclist
subscribers

regards,
Graham Daniel.