Cindy is still here posting as Xanderella.

Also, IIRC, she pulled back from heavy posting not because of issues with board management or individual posters, but just because it was becoming an unmanageable timesuck for her.

Also, I want to marry Matt's post, and I want all of Nutty's laws and corollaries on a t-shirt.

Teppy, what are you talking about?

Do we need to add stuff to the site ettiquette along the lines of "just about everyone feels ignored at one point or another" and "no one person speaks for the board" and "we value our independence, so anything that smacks of preaching will garner a very bad reaction"?

Yes, please. In filk.

Also, I want to marry Matt's post, and I want all of Nutty's laws and corollaries on a t-shirt.

I've lately developed a hankering for a t-shirt saying "Fetch the Gimp". No good can come of this.

PS: Steph, I don't even know what you're talking about, but it seems snotty.

Actually, it's not that I saw a specific person being pissy as the problem, but rather repeated incidences of pissyness becoming more accepted, and hurting more people - newbs and long termers alike. Naming names of past problems didn't seem like a positive thing, but rather asking for a slight refocussing on issues/tone/approach that at one time was the norm here - friendlyness - seemed like the way to go. Perhaps I did that poorly.

Well, yeah. *g*

Coulda saved a million posts and a lot of hard feelings if you'd worded it that way in the first place, even if the perception of "the norm" is probably slightly shaded by nostalgia. What it ended up feeling like was that people you knew and cared about were feeling slighted and put-upon by a couple of people, and you were there to issue the holy smackdown from on high.

WRT the increase in brittle behaviour, I don't know that there is a solution. The combination of the political reality of right now, the economic reality of right now, and the increased size of the board means that comfortable's not a place we can easily get to.

I really hope the people who think the board as a whole is getting snotty will call people on it, when specific things are said.

(italics mine)

Yes. This. Otherwise, I think people will continue to get defensive, which only breeds rudeness, snippiness, misunderstandings, etc.

It is not always easy for some people (me included) to speak up. If you choose not to speak up, be it on the board or in backchannel, then people won't know your opinion on a matter, and there's a chance that some people will think that silence equals consent.

Do we need to add stuff to the site ettiquette along the lines of "just about everyone feels ignored at one point or another" and "no one person speaks for the board" and "we value our independence, so anything that smacks of preaching will garner a very bad reaction"?

I think that could help. Also love Nutty's Corollary (dear god how do you spell that?) or Law, whichever it was (the thing she just posted; is it FAQed? It's been too long since I've delved there.

Didn't get the Yoko Factor thing either.

Teppy, what are you talking about?

The Buffy episode The Yoko Factor, where Spike split up the Scoobies, but told Adam that he just exacerbated tensions that had already been there.

That's what this entire thing feels like to me.

PS: Steph, I don't even know what you're talking about, but it seems snotty.

Erk. Didn't mean for it to be snotty, really really. It had just occurred to me all of a sudden, and as is my wont, I posted without thinking how it sounded.

I think I'll stop posting here.