Maybe Damselfish could have been a little "nicer" about it, but to be fair, I can see why she brought up a few of the points she did.
Yes, the title of the thread was clear "Want to buy bp/w combo." BUT, then the OP mentions being pretty new (so maybe is not totally sure of choices), and mentions that she's "been told" bp/w is the way to go (which kind of opens up that maybe her info is not 100% certain). Additional things that made me wonder (although I didn't post because, being new myself, I didn't want to sound like some expert wannabe type):
1) She says that "of course she would prefer SS" (but doesn't mention why, so since neither aluminum nor SS are inherently "better" that made me wonder a little bit),
2) She says she's looking for "around 50# of lift, give or take." One can assume a beginning diver is using a single tank, and so that sounds like a lot of lift, without any other explanation about why you would need the "extra."
For example, my BC has 17# of lift and suits me really well. Now granted, that is for tropical waters, so it would not be the logical choice for colder waters/thicker wetsuit/steel tanks, etc. But again, we didn't get that info, and the OP is in Georgia, not Ontario (i.e. not where you would necessarily presume super cold water). Even in colder waters, it seems like 50# would be a lot for a single-tank right though, doesn't it?
In summary, it was a very specific request in the subject line, but then the body of the post had some qualifiers that -- put together -- didn't totally make sense (to me anyway).
What does it matter what kind of diving she does? Are there certain situations where a BP/W is a wrong choice? From my experience they work great in the pool equally as well as stabbing fish at 200 fsw.
But what kind of diving she does does matter, doesn't it? For example, warm, salt water reef diving with minimal to no exposure protection and an AL-80 vs. cold-water diving in a drysuit/thick wetsuit and a steel tank? It seems like those two scenarios would call for different set-ups, so her type of diving would matter. Then there's do you drive or fly to your typical dive site (weight of gear), etc.
I'm not defending anyone "piling on" at all; but just saying that I had some of the same questions in my mind, but just didn't post due to not being a super experienced diver either. OTOH, it doesn't seem unreasonable for someone to post back with a "Hmm, that doesn't totally add up, and I see you are new, so...."
Blue Sparkle