Support for Chris and Sarah and all of the moderators as well.

Dear friends your continued support and kind words are truly fantastic, thank you all!

You guys already know that you have my support.  And with Andy around as an extra hand, hopefully it will ease the load a bit.

I hope the events of the last several days have helped us all around the learning curve a bit.  A few that lessons I'm taking away from it:

1)  Don't muck up threads with meaningless chatter for more than a few postings.  Keep it interesting for everybody, as best you can.

2)  If you have an issue, handle it behnd the scenes.  We can all communicate by email.  Snide and sarcastic remarks on the forums and personal attacks are uncalled for and unacceptable.

3)  Don't get so invested in the site that it makes you so angry you feel you have to leave.  We are all a bit diminished by the departure of some of our friends.  If somebody irritates you, ignore them.  If a thread doesn't interest you, don't waste your time with it - find one that does. And if you feel you have to take a break, by all means do so.  You'll know when or whether you should come back or if it's time to move on.

4)  We're all human, we all make mistakes.  Give one another the benefit of the doubt and be a little forgiving. Talking to one another on a computer is not the natural way of communicating.  But we couldn't have this international community without it.

5) We can all help moderate the forum in our own postings - choose your words carefully, be tactful and kind, we're all adults. We're all friends.

Well said Ruth!

I might add that if everyone adheres to the above points there will be very little, if any, moderating neccesary. That can only add to the enjoyment!

Well said indeed, Ruth!

This is a good place to re-post what I quoted in Andy's thread:

Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any; also to strangers, and sometimes to others. If a person offends you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measure; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick. That will be sufficient. If you shall find that he had not intended any offense, come out frankly and confess yourself in the wrong when you struck him; acknowledge it like a man, and say you didn't mean to.

Mark Twain

Ruth, a brilliant post!

I've been in lots of forums and left them because of stupid behaviour. I come to the net for a chill from a day's work, I don't expect to be 'got at', ridiculed or have to read post with other people at each other's throats.

I've usually left forums because people seem to dislike Liverpudlians so much. (Difficult for non Brits to comprehend that; Liverpool has had bad press reports over the years and people tend to believe all they read.)

Life's too short. We are here but for a short time. We might not like the party but we may as well dance to the music whilst we are here.

Thank you, Barb.  Yes, I've heard lately that a lot of forums end up like that.  This one's gone through some difficult patches, and it probably will again, but we can usually bring it back around.  As for Liverpool, I don't know too much about it.  But I can guarantee that if you ask any American what they think when they hear the word Liverpool they'll say the Beatles of course.