I'd like to comment on a couple of things that two of our... experienced persons* (whom I respect very much) have posted in this thread.
CK: The board has become a community. Communities may have a common interest - language in our case - but they also have other concerns which get aired from time to time, or often all the time.
sometimes the board seems more like a family. some linguaphiles seem not to like each other, just the way a lot of family members don't get along. they like different topics or they have different philosophies about language. and some of us just rub each other the wrong way. you can sometimes feel a certain tension between people, as if they were about to make each other break out in hives. this little microcosm of the world has the intimacy of a family and the squabbles of a family. perhaps the biggest puzzle with a body of individuals such as this is how to maintain the community but remain individuals. without meaning to come across as too parochial, I would also draw a parallel to the US notion (illogical, but optimistic) that you can create a society of individuals in which every man is king.
max: I will continue to try and keep up, hoping for the old spark to be lit once more.
perhaps this is unrealistic. perhaps, as with many things, the bloom inevitably wears off. but rather than relighting the spark, we may, perhaps, be able to bank the warm glow of the yet undying embers.
*I wracked my brain trying to arrive at a neutral-sounding word for this, rejecting veteran, old-timer, pooh-bah (of course), old hand, longtimer, seadog, warhorse, etc.
