Here is something I am noticing-- the tendency for one thing that one person says becomes a "everyone but me thinks...."

Yes. This.

Also very much related to that is for people to see a conversation in here and react as if the topic of conversation was about three seconds away from becoming unalterable LAW, somehow.

This comment, BTW, is not directed at Cindy, or Burrell, or anybody. I've seen a number of people do it, and it makes me wonder why people are having that reaction.

Not to single out Burrell, but her reaction this morning really surprised me. We were just discussing something (and quite frankly, in all the process stuff, I'd forgotten that voting was primarily for thread creation), but coming in here and seeing people talking about it as maybe not working, she got sort of exasperated.

I personally would have prefered if she had chosen some other way to react - a calm reminder that voting was specifically for thread creation, and we haven't had a chance to test it for that purpose yet.

But this is the real problem - so many people come in here, and rather than simply trying to engage the argument, they react as if the barbarians were at the gates.

Again, I'm NOT singling Burrell out here, NOR do I have any wish to dictate her reactions to things.

It was just a convenient example of what I'm trying to understand - how has this place and process gotten so frustrating for everybody.

I think a large part of it is people over reacting to the things that get discussed in here. But were like that, as people, in that we have all kinds, including people who react big. Can anything be done about this, short of forcing people to turn into emotionless automatons?

I'm not sure it's always overreacting. Sometimes it's undercaring, at least in my case.

The "you're going to go over this AGAIN????" reaction is greeted by me stepping away from the thread. Silently. The effect of saying "I'm out" helps point out the effect, but I'm too lazy for it.

Because, really, there are things I don't care enough about to even read another rehashing of.

What it's really boiled down to is that we should all strive to be more like ita.

IJS.

Which is why I got so pissed off about the warn/susupend/ban issue--we had that all made out and the first time we used that people were like "no no it should be different, let's do this". And so we changed it.

We didn't change it. We had no system for actually issuing a warning, which resulted in weeks of hand-wringing on whether there was enough of a consensus to issue one. So we voted to add a method that's fair and more clear to do that.

What it's really boiled down to is that we should all strive to be more like ita.

Well, duh!

What it's really boiled down to is that we should all strive to be more like ita.

But, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate. If you look carefully, you will see that ita is, indeed, part of the precipitate.

billytea, you are SOOOO first up against the wall when the new regime comes into power.

billytea, you are SOOOO first up against the wall when the new regime comes into power.

Don't you think that's a bit precipitous?

billytea, you are SOOOO first up against the wall when the new regime comes into power.

Where he will tell highly entertaining stories about the sex lives of animals you never knew existed, and offer to balance the new regime's books.

Right before they shoot him...