As the one guilty of introducing the b... t...s, let me get in my view.
Firstly, your points are well taken, for the most part, although I have some reservations. I too would like to see less mere banter on postings. I try to post only when I have something *substantive* to contribute and I think it would be for the best interest of the board if others did the same, although, of course, *substantive* is a very elastic term. Not that I would like to see the give-and-take which we have here disappear -- I enjoy it when there's something to it. But mere banter, I suggest very meekly, might be confined to private messages rather than cluttering up the threads.
I have to remind myself, and maybe some others, that we need, in common decency, to avoid giving offence to our more straitlaced members, so maybe there are subjects and expressions we want to leave out. But at the same time, I do not want to see AWADTALK conducted in the manner of an academic tutorial or a public committee hearing; I've had enough of that, thank you, and don't care for any more. I love AWAD because, above all else, it's interesting. The free give and take, often humorous, makes it what it is. So let's not get too stuffy or take ourselves too seriously.
As to the quality of postings, it would be nice if each of us could have at least one brilliant thought per day and post it and discuss it, but it's not going to happen. We (or at least, I) can't have that many deep, earth-shattering, brilliant ideas all the time, and if we limit ourselves to that, it's going to be a sparse forum. Moreover, the more we discuss, the greater our history becomes. If we limit ourselves to word- and language-related subjects, it is inevitable that, having a limited field, we will, with ever-increasing frequency, be landing on ground already covered. So, for those of you who
want to keep to the main subject only, please bear in mind that you can't insist on that and at the same time be all hot to call a YART alert.
Lastly, I suggest that some of you who have taken members to task may have been just a wee bit heavy-handed. We have lost one interesting correspondent lately whom I enjoyed even if she did have some habits which annoyed even me, but I was willing to put up with them; and I suspect we've lost others. I don't think I have seen anyone on this board regularly who is just a nuisance and whom I would really like to get rid of. Almost everyone who posts is interesting to me and I want to hear more from them. So please bear in mind that if anyone wants to give out with rebukes, you risk losing people. Is it worth it?
P.S. Added later.
Mav's brilliant post appeared, it seems, while I was composing this, as I had not seen it before I started on this. Well said, Mav. I agree completely.
