I'm sorry about the core members thing. I think by core members I mean anyone who might care about the future of the board, which I assume is pretty much everyone posting here. Since board decisions are made here, people starting to want to ignore bureacracy could lead to decisions being made while many people aren't actually reading.

I agree certainly with the backing off for a few days approach.

Msbelle -- you'll always see the right-hand column, because the feeling was that it might be easy to forget these very important threads are here if you could blink them away with Message Center. A "mark entire board as read" button might be nice for later, to zap all those unread messages in threads you only occasionally read, but it'd be way low on the priority list.

I think TV-Unamerican probably isn't needed. If I want to talk about Unamerican TV (and sometimes I do), I can go to the nice slow moving Unamerican thread.

Just my two pennies.

Perhaps I can ease the core member's fears by saying that I'll never post another flip out like that again. Regardless of how justified I may have feel it was, it was pretty stupid and something I deeply regret.

And I don't see myself ever worrying about it again. Some people have sent me some nice emails, so I don't quite feel so much one-against-the-world any longer. And if I ever feel that way again, I'll just slink away tail between legs before I lose my cool like that again.

I think I am never speaking again because I keep putting my foot in my mouth, but I didn't mean that you, Schmoker, were the reason people were staying out of the thread. I just meant that the general tone of the thread lately has been making the conflict averse amoung us want to go stick their heads in the sand.

I understand, Sophia. But I was a big part of that conflict making. Just wanted to offer up a mea culpa, for what it's worth.

I just meant that the general tone of the thread lately has been making the conflict averse amoung us want to go stick their heads in the sand.

Heh. I was one step away from changing my tag to, "Giles! No one's using the 'I' statements!!!"

Really, I'm at tabula rasa right now, at least on personal issues. It all got a bit out of hand. Best to put things behind us.

As to thread proliferation...well, I just don't know. I mean, they pop up pretty regularly as it is. (Music, LOTR, Due South.) I don't know if we could sustain something like Mothers Who Think, but honestly? If people feel there's a need/interest in something, I could probably be convinced. We could always shut it down if it dies a miserable death, I suppose.

DO want to clean up that homepage, and archive old threads in a virtual attic somewhere, though. Of course, being the least technically inclined stompy foot, I have no idea how best to do that.

But I was a big part of that conflict making. Just wanted to offer up a mea culpa, for what it's worth.

Thanks for that, but a lot of these are issues we've been going around and around about for a year anyway.

Which makes me feel better, Jesse, but does not entirely remove me from the hook.

In any case, nothing would make me feel slimier than to know I contributed to people avoiding a thread. Ticking someone off now and again is going to happen. Not that regrettable. But causing people to leave a thread is giving me a world of guilt.

No hogging the credit, Schmoker. It wasn't the first time a kerfuffle blew up, it won't be the last.