hah! I see a new board slogan.

B.org: we may be snarky, and you may fall in the guacamole, but at least we're not AICN.

Well, that's because you're such a shrinking violet.

Snerk. I just didn't want to deal with what read to me as him looking for a fight -- I had better things to do with my time, and I didn't feel particularly like staying part of the community here was one of the things I wanted to do with my limited energy.

I'm just noting that there are all sorts of reasons why people leave, and just because someone left does not make them automatically a "victim" of the board culture.

Eeeyaaagh! Voting discussion! Preferential Ballots! Schmoker! War Thread! Zoe! Ow!

Good times, good times. t /Bill McNeil

Maybe it's just the Bureaucracy OD speaking, but I'm feeling things are not as tense right now as they have been several times in the past.

It's really not. Or (and this applies in many instances) people judge the board by the amount of stress they're dealing with in their life at the time - not always the tension that's in the board. When you're having a shitty time, board friction is highlighted and can add to your stress. When life is carefree and gay, it's all a big party.

Well, most of the things I have to say have been mentioned in the discussion already, by Hec, Nutty, Consuela, and Robin. So I'll just dump the huge meara I was building to put in my 15 cents of kerfuffle worth.

I think the original points were very valid, and I appreciate the effort made to discuss them fully even when personalities got a bit spiky.

Oh I forgot to mention the other thing I noticed. Things seemed to be particularly bad in Bureaucracy last year mid-to-late March through early-to-mid April.

...

Well, there's...

...

But...

Nah, it's all covered.

Though I would like to point out that if you put me in charge, we wouldn't have this problem. You would all be radioactive zombie posters. And we would have wonderful threads like "Brrrrraaaaiiiinnnnnss 14: More bbbrrrraaaiinnnnssss" and "Words of the Master 27: Miracleman's Newest Orders" and perhaps helpful threads like "Zombitechnology 3: This Stitching's All Crooked".

Just throwing that out there.

What Hec's points said to me:

Matt's history of the Bronze

Suggests that some form of policing is necessary.

You realize that we already have this, right?

I should probably clarify that my cautionary tale of the eventual heat death of the Bronze wasn't intended to imply that we're doing anything wrong or call for more stringent policing than the current methods. It was a caution not to abandon the status quo in order to draw in more and more new posters. I tend more toward the dig a moat and raise the drawbridge perspective, but I objectively think that the current state of the board is a good compromise between drawing in new blood and respecting the wishes of those already present.

About a year and a half ago, I had serious and largely unvoiced concerns about the ongoing health of the community once its raison d'etre finished its run. 18 months later, I see that we survived Buffy's end just fine. The Firefly and Minearverse threads became vital touchstones of the community, focuses for a lot of new excitement and discourse. (And hey, it's not like Joss, and Tim, and Jane, and [insert your favorite Mutant Enemy writer or performer here] are going to quit making quality entertainment anytime soon!) The growing attendance at the big annual f2f and the proliferation of smaller regional f2f gatherings continue to forge bonds between groups of posters in meatspace, something that I think is very important and very condusive to long-term stability as the people here become more "real" to one another. The occasional spontaneous eruption of group charity, with Nilly's trip to America being the most recent and striking example, reassures me that for the most part our hearts are in the right place, giving the lie to stated concerns of the board being selfishly or unwelcomingly directed far more effectively than any refutation of debate points could.

In short, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And in my opinion, it ain't broke.

Oh I forgot to mention the other thing I noticed. Things seemed to be particularly bad in Bureaucracy last year mid-to-late March through early-to-mid April.

Hah. On Echo, it's axiomatic that some huge fight will erupt in February. I think it's got to be a change of seasons thing.

Hah. On Echo, it's axiomatic that some huge fight will erupt in February. I think it's got to be a change of seasons thing.

The gods of rancour apparently hibernate over the winter. Alternatively, February-April is the season of my sibling's birthdays, so it surprises me little that conflict, anger and despair has since been woven into the fabric of things at that time of year.

Jon, Matt --

Just saw your posts after getting back from a late lunch. I recognize that we have policing -- starting with the informal, followed by group consensus on going further. I just saw in Matt's original post a cautionary tale that "anything goes" (not that we have it, or that I see us likely to go in that direction) can have consequences.