answers..
1. I've found a wealth of information on public message boards. Yes, there are risks there, and there are lots of people with nothing better to do than to create arguments about nothing... But that happens everywhere.
2. When I first started looking at internet blackjack sites (maybe 2 years ago or so) it was apparent that there are "factions" that hate each other (or mistrust each other, or whatever). It is not easy to figure out who is who. Over time, I've made enough "friends" (I use the term loosely since many of us have never met face to face, but we've had lots of electronic interaction) to slowly figure this out. But I've not wanted to "get in the middle" at all, since that's a dangerous location at times. :)
3. I've slowly come to the conclusion (and it wasn't that easy, unfortunately) that probably this site seems to be as balanced as one can be, with people that seem to honestly want to answer questions rather than trying to just impress.
I'm far less worried about "exposure". I'm not that big a "player" 99% of the time, so that I doubt a casino would pay a lot of attention to me and be concerned with tracking me down to find a photo or whatever. yes it could happen. Yes I have been tossed out a few times over the years. But it has been pretty rare the last 2-3 years as I began to get a feel for what I could get away with and what was going to cause me to visit the proctologist to get a boot removed...
I've slowly been able to build up respect for quite a few people here, and I won't go into naming them all. But an example is t-man. We've had disagreements about elements of RFID or whatever, but the discussion always turns to testing methodology, or different approaches, but not to "asshole"... "am not"... "am too". So while he has his own issues (trackjack for one) that is big with him, he's impressed me as knowing his stuff. There are lots of others here as well, and t-man, sorry for singling you out, but since I respect you, I hope this doesn't turn out bad. :) Eventually one forms one's opinion about what to do, where to go, and this place seems to be more firmly rooted in sanity from my perspective.
I probably should have joined GC a while back, because I certainly enjoy playing the game (if one can consider doing this "enjoyable" which is often debatable, but since I almost always go with my wife, and since we always have a good time, it at least meets that level of enjoyment) and I certainly prefer to walk out with more money than I walked in with, as opposed to my old BS-only days where that was not nearly so common as it is today.
The main thing that has me leaning toward GC is to get away from much of the rather repetitive topics that occur over and over every day, including voodoo topics like progressions, clumping strategies, you-name-it. Sometimes the signal-noise ratio is way down there in static-land, where I suspect GC might not be that way (at least from comments others have made to me about it).
So that's my rambling impression about GC. Is it worth the $49 per year? No idea. I'd guess that is a bargain based on some of the postings I've seen on the free page. Will I join. Yep, assuming they will "have me". :) I'll see pretty soon...
thanks for the comments...