This post has been in consideration for five months. In my humble but considered opinion:

First, many may not appreciate how very severe the problem is. In the last halfedit: should read "six" months of 2001, precisely three people came on as new posters and stayed long enough even to reach the member level. A mere three people. This board is simply not attracting and keeping new voices.

Thus in practice (though not in theory) we have become a closed club -- a secret society. We profess openness, but we run off new people by requiring that no one may join us unless, as the price of admission, he is thick-skinned enough to run a gauntlet of criticism. We do that knowing full well, from experience, that few will tolerate that price. I cite that as historical data, not expressing judgment.

Second, it is of no use to simply wish that critics would be more kind, or that their targets more thick-skinned. Wishing the world were different will not make it so.

Third, in this thread we are repeating ourselves. We have already discussed this topic extensively, shortly before and after September 11. If we do nothing different from what we did then, we have no right to expect different results. Talk is cheap, but are we merely mouthing platitudes, talking the good talk to cover for being unwilling to act?

Fourth, I appreciate that this board does not feel comfortable with the course of action I stated then. Repeating, for reference only "We can all deplore rudeness, and cruelty, and bullying, and violence, but we cannot stop them with mere deploring words. In the real world they will ever exist, and we are responsible for how we act - or fail to act -- accordingly. Cruelty, bullying and violence are weeds, and will spread ever-wider unless checked. There is but one way to deal effectively with the most vigorous and vile weeds: to deracinate them, thoroughly and promptly. One can hope to be careful and gentle, but never at the risk of losing sight of the job that must be done."

In the months since then, it has become clear that others are not prepared to deal in that way with rudeness on the board. As best I can tell, one can count on one's fingers the number of times that anyone, other than me, has stood up to object that a specific post is hurtful. It also appears that the board disapproves when I stand up in what I have intended to be that manner. Accordingly, I will desist.

Fifth and last, I raise no moral objection to a closed club -- but I do not personally feel comfortable being part of one. And purely as a matter of personal taste, I do not wish to be part of a board where people are willing to tolerate the hurtfulness we have seen in past months. This I can get from chat rooms. Other people are of course perfectly entitled to act as they wish, but I will be departing unless I sense a change in how we act as to rudeness, not merely how we talk about it.