All right--for some time now there have been complaints about a supposed controlling clique here; and now a statement has been voiced that people here are "disrespectful and bullying" to newcomers. I feel that I am too close to the situation to be able to judge accurately, so I thought I would propose an OPEN VOTE , with two conditions*: I invite anyone who cares to, to post here whether their experience has been as described above, or different. In other words, do you agree or disagree?

*The first condition actually has two parts (sorry): 1.) I would ask that you keep in mind that the members here are individuals, so--if you have had negative experiences, please try to note whether they came from one or two people, or a whole bunch (i.e., please don't let one bad apple spoil the whole barrel for you); and 2.) here, as in life in general, you tend to receive what you give; therefore, if you feel that you were respectful and considerate (though perhaps a bit ignorant) but still were treated badly, I would consider that to be much worse than someone who has been disrespectful complaining about receiving disrespect.

The second "condition" I would like to propose is that, if the complaints are shown to be in a clear minority, that future public complaints about past ill treatment cease.


I have no idea what, if anything, will come of this. Perhaps no one will post. That will be all right--at least I will have tried. I won't mind getting PM's, but I would really prefer not to be asked to post someone else's vote for them; I would rather keep the "slate" as credible as possible. My hoped-for outcome is that feelings will become unruffled and that the number of complaints/allusions will drop.

Today is November 4th. I'd like to give this thread either until the end of the month or until I notice that no first-time-in-this-thread people have posted in a week. This should allow enough time for those who don't look in too regularly to see this. Thanks, everybody.