Well, I don't yet know the identity of this person, but I regret that we would lose any person or wisdom due to what I see as something minor.
Jackie, it's obvious that I'm not as perceptive as you are in discerning attitudes or emotions, but I haven't noticed any major problems. All that's really happened that I can see as a cause for dissent is the rather vocal and opinionated dissagreements on what constitutes an interesting thread. This didn't seem particularly unusual to me, though, because we've had many in depth discussions about how to fix perceived problems, from YARTing to the amount of posts we have. Thomas Jefferson said that "a little rebellion now and then is a good thing" and that can be likened to many or our discussions like this. Someone brings up a problem, we discuss it, we voice our varied opinions and eventually we dismiss it as futile to settle, but we feel a little better in that it was discussed and we're aware that our behavior needs a little tweaking.
Some ambiguous or a little too harsh opinions may have been voiced recently, but I seriously doubt that anyone here has a true animosity toward anyone else such that he/she would want to defame another person. Dare I suggest that some of this might be due to the decision to lighten up on the use of emoticons that previously gave a clearer picture of when a person was merely jesting? Perhaps there has been some misunderstanding, but bitterness and ugliness, I doubt it, or at least I don't see it as that.
I'm sad to see someone leave us because of a problem in communication, but communication is really all we have here, isn't it?
