The reason that Dagny hasn't yet landed in the gulch is that FT isn't reliving Atlas Shrugged; it's reliving Lord of the Flies. But this time the plane with the adults never comes and the stranded children continue to fight without end. My view is gloomier than Heinlein's; in his vision even Coventry had rules and governments of sorts.

FT is only lightly governed and has no rewards to offer, other than electronic friendship and the sharing of knowledge. Likewise it has no official punishments to mete out, other than banishment of a user (at least until the user finds another e-mail address). And as a noncommercial adjunct to Mr. Petersen's main business, it's not going to develop these things.

But let's be real. THe civilized users are not AFAIK defending their lives, their families, their reputations, or their livelihoods when they respond to a flame war, except only as reputation is attached to their FT handle. This is a bulletin board and not a battlefield. IMHO the offensive posts are most effectively dealt with by swamping them with on-topic posts that "talk travel," not by flaming back.

I don't say this because I believe in nicely turning the other cheek, nor because I believe that shunning will reform behavior on a BBS. I say this because the measure of the value of the board is in its signal-to-noise ratio. When other members respond to flames, they produce more noise. When major contributors leave, then reduce signal. In both cases the noise wins.

Swamp the noise with signal.