I just want to applaud and second brilove's observations. I too check in daily. But I have posted a lot less, lately, because there seem to be numerous private quarrels going on. I wish it were otherwise.

I used to be a habitue of Hot Talk, the forum run over at thetrip.com, and I was disappointed, last year, to see the same sort of internecine off-topic squabbling first decorate, then overrun, the board. Before long a good 40% of the posts were strident debates over what was suitable for posting. The tone of the thing deteriorated overnight.

Ironically I think some of the tone shift on that board was due in part to a change in moderator -- from a laid-back, laissez-faire guy to a more heavy-handed successor who made it clear she would "enforce" many "guidelines." Before long a short list of self-appointed content watchdogs were announcing that such-and-such a thread was "scheduled for deletion!" and prancing up to the moderator demanding that all the offensive stuff be plucked out. Well, as soon as you start a debate over what's offensive, you precipitate a tone crisis... and lots of hitherto rational, interesting board participants became bomb-throwers. In short, you introduce a "parent" in the mix, you get other people in need of parenting.

I would just hate for this facility to take a similar turn, because I enjoy so much of what goes on here. But I have enjoyed it a little less lately, and it might behoove us all, when we click on POST REPLY, to paraphrase the old WW2 question: is this post necessary?

Save an impulse. Save a board.