As FFN continues to rise in popularity, more and more people are coming to join the ranks. I get e-mails on almost a weekly basis saying things like FFN tops 30,000. FFN tops 35,000. FFN tops 40,000 and still growing strong. I read these and I think to myself "Hey thats awesome, the more FF's we have on the site, the more we can learn from each other, the more discussions we can have, the more brothers and sisters that we can meet and become friends with.

As I read more and more of these new member's profiles though, I'm seeing more things like--

Years in the fire service-- 0

Deartment Name-- N/A

Rank/Role There-- N/A

What you love about the fire service-- N/A

It seems to me that we have more people joining "Firefighter Nation" who have absolutly no relation to the fire-service at all then people who are actually FF's. Now I've met some great people on here who aren't FF's but they are married to a FF, or their parent is a FF, or they want to become a FF, or just have some relation at all to the fire-service. I mean after all... Isn't that why we are all here, to discuss things with other FF's.

Now I already know that some of you are reading this and already have plenty of things to say to me about how I'm wrong in one way or another. Thats fine, my posts usually do get a fair amount of negative feedback. I dont write them to be popular. I write them because its what I think.

Let me go further by saying that I am in NO WAY a racist or sexist person by any standard. This has nothing to do with anyones race, creed, color, sex, or religious beliefs. It's also not because I think firefighting is some glorious job and that FF's are better then anyone else. Sure firefighting takes guts and to a degree, some craziness but I know plenty of FF's that are some really fu*ked up as*holes.

The point I'm trying to make is that I joined this site to converse with other FF's/ EMS workers; People that know the daily grind of what goes on in a FF's life, what we have to deal with sometimes. Yet I find myself seeing more and more people that dont have a clue. I certainly wouldnt go and join a " culinary chef" nation or a " vetinarian" nation. Why??? Because I'm not a chef or a vet. Seems pretty simple to me.