I agree with tsuwm's basic idea and Jackie's response and thanks to them both. We'd all like to be able to come back to this board to discuss words and associated topics - whatever they may be - without running into constant streams of abuse (both subtle and overt) plus, as Jackie says, individuals who want to remake the board into their own images.

I would also like to see (if Jackie was so inclined) a consistent welcoming process created for new posters. We could class a new poster as someone who has posted more than once. At the moment we're either very good at it or we're not. Some consistency may help to make new posters feel more "at home" and less like to react badly to what appears to be abuse. The process might simply be a standard PM with links to Max's hints page and resource page. Or something.