People may or may not have noticed that I've been staying out of this up until now. I'm posting at this juncture simply to clear up a few misconceptions - or at least what appear to be misconceptions from my perspective - and to make a plea.
First, the implication that the old-timers, and I guess that has to include me, wish to keep the Board to ourselves and to not "admit" any new members to the "club" is just plain wrong. wwh will be the first to agree, I'm sure, that there aren't enough people posting here about words. We welcome new blood and despite statements to the contrary, we always have.
But, as has been noted above, it is above all a forum about words. Yes, it wanders off the point from time to time, but until recently it has always found its way back to language readily enough. Anything else generally gets taken off the Board and into emails and PMs. Quite a number of irregular posters here are in constant contact with various members via email. The number of regular posters is probably about a third of those who, directly or indirectly, are in touch with it. And others come and go, popping in and posting a few messages before moving on to other things.
Although I don't want to state it as strongly as Of Troy has done, I agree with her that there are online fora for chatting and for virtually any other topic you could think of. Like most of us "old-timers", I'm a member of several of them. Most of those of us who have been around for some time come here for words and wordplay - and some friendship. Without wanting to be at all critical, if you don't want that then as Helen has said look around at other fora. There's probably one tailored to just what you need.
Finally - and this is the plea - doesn't everybody think that it's time this stupid flame war stopped? No one wins but everyone loses. No matter how clever or direct your insult or well-argued your point, you won't convince anyone that you're right and they're wrong, so apart from having vented a little personal spleen and spread some venom around, what's the point?
I've just about got to the point where I can't be bothered with it, and I'm spending more and more of my online time elsewhere. And that's a shame, because this place was fun. If it doesn't stop then I predict that there will be one of two outcomes. Either Anu will pull the plug - I probably would have by now if I were him - or the Board will become moderated.
I don't see either outcome as desirable, do you?
