Hah, I was thinking the same thing. I hate that COMM is getting pushed further down the page.

edit: And then Michele comes in with the sensible suggestion...

I never understood why COMM was in that area at all. To me it's just a normal thread that should be subscribable like all the others. And, ahem, not showing off, but I came up with COMM, or at least resurrected the idea in memory of the similar thread at TT.

And I am not pissed. Excet for the part where I have had, like 3 glasses of wine.

So you're like British pissed, not American pissed, Sophia?

In response to Allyson's posts, I'm only going to assume that her thoughtless rudeness was because she's feeling like the newbies are taking over the zoo. So I want to apologize to her and other "old-timers" who feel like this is the case. It's not. We fully respect all of you for building and maintaining this wonderful community. But unless some here are more equal than others we all have a right to post, to discuss issues, and to be treated with respect as well.

I don't want every decided issue revisited. Nobody does. It's stupid and pointless and offensive to those that came to those decisions in the first place.

I want this issue revisited. Whether we agree or not that a decision or consensus had been reached in the past, it doesn't change the fact that there has been a significant change in circumstances. (See bitterchick's previous suggestion for opening closed discussions.)

I submit the ongoing war warrants a longer and more open discussion on the idea of a war thread that's announced in press and open to the Buffista community at large instead of the 34 people who weighed in on the issue initially. I'd like to ask those who are against the war thread to give it a fair chance and forum, without making a rule or setting any precedent that all old issues are up for rediscussion. Please.

This war affects all of us, and we need to come to a serious and fair decision on how to approach the topic on this board through careful deliberation and discussion with the entire active membership, old and new alike, without grandfathering it closed.

Obviously we still need a fourth second on the issue, then we can discuss it. And if the majority is still against it, then it won't happen. Let's see if we've spent the last few weeks of endless discussions in Bureaucracy building a system that really works. Or were we all just blowing smoke.

COMM is my favorite thing in the sidebar, and I wish it would stay.

I'm with Betsy.

Deena brought up a good point that when this was discussed originally, it was said we would NOT revisit old votes.

Betsy's suggestion was IF WAR BREAKS OUT.

NOTHING has changed.

And with all due respect, the argument "It's just this one issue" holds no water.

I like COMM where it is, John. I tell myself it belongs in the sidebar because it is a Meta thread. As it were.

It may be irrational, but it smacks of someone moving into the neighbourhood and suddenly demanding that all the houses get painted a colour that you happen to approve of. Does that make sense? At all?

OK, I'm the guy at the end of the street who's lived in the neighborhood forever that nobody knows. I'm out of town a lot and hardly ever speak to anybody when I'm in town. But I read the neighborhood newsletter and keep up with what's going on. Decisions get made informally by the folks that know each other, sometimes during the time when I'm out of town. Most of the time I'm OK with their decisions. When I'm not, well, I wasn't around when they discussed it, and they don't know me, so I figure they won't listen to me anyway.

Now it happens that a few folks don't like the way decisions are made. So the neighborhood decides to have formal weekly meetings. Proposals are to be put forth one week and voted on at the next meeting. I figure this is my chance to have my say. I go to the meeting and put forth a proposal. The other folks say, "Oh no, a handful of us decided two weeks ago not to do that, and the same handful of us decided we wouldn't discuss it again for another six months." So I still have no input.

I like COMM on the side bar. But I'd like to see it higher up, as well. My typical buffista & coffee morning goes like this:

coffee, beep me, coffee, press, no coffee to spare my monitor, COMM, then, if I'm feeling particularly brave, bureaucrazy. Followed by more coffee and then I hit the threads.

work is always optional.