good mornin', ya'll. [yaaaaaaaaawn] sorry to be late, but i forgot to buy coffee yesterday. i just HAD to make a dash to the store.
as we continue the conversation today, let's please remember:
-US, US, US
-let's keep it a discussion and avoid arguing
-please review all the comments since you looked last to catch up
if I interpret correctly Admin's statements so far, here's where i think we are:
he will not add any more special sections. we need to develop a clear, concise, easily understood and easily moderated set of policies about how we'll post and behave within the sections we already have.
pets (which includes such things as mare stares), vacations, happy news (such as births, graduations, anniversaries, etc, etc, etc) will almost certainly be allowed to return to GeneralChitChat when Admin gets back. no need to campaign further for those. :wink:
the subject of jokes seems to have generated a lot of heat. i don't pretend to have the perfect answer. let's keep this in perspective if we can. whether a joke (or any other post, for that matter) stays or goes is not going to make a difference to anything truly important going on in the world around us. (if somebody finds that one joke that can end disease, disaster, famine and pestilence AND bring immediate world peace, please let me know. we'll post in with a sticky. :wink: )
i think it's always going to boil down to a human judgement call on the part of whichever Admin or Moderator is reading it. if a joke you don't like is allowed to stay ... well ... all i can say is don't read it again. you already know you don't like it. if a joke gets deleted ... sorry ... get over it.
it sounds to me as though we are headed toward a policy that limits GCC to good & happy. if you think somebody will need to grab a kleenex or a bucket while they read it, the post is best added to your PDA (diary/journal). not everyone will be happy about that. but please remember ... it does not change WHAT can be posted. it only changes WHERE it goes.
there will be exceptional cases in which the best place for bad news is, in fact, GCC. if you review the first page of GCC, you'll find an example of unhappy news that was allowed to stay because we knew that most of the members would want to know the event had occured and offer their condolences. (you will also see a happy post that, under the current system, would normally get moved to diaries or deleted. i chose to leave it there as a sign of things most likely to come back. please don't take it as a green light for everything. keep in mind that Admin has not yet come to a final decision about anything.)
in the event of unhappy news that is personal but that you believe will be of truly general interest and that needs to be easily and quickly seen by all, just send a pm to Admin or to me. we can make a decision based on the interests of the general membership and you don't risk getting your feelings hurt if your post is deleted.
i want to thank everyone who has contributed constructive suggestions and offered their personal assistance. that's what will keep our board the best quilting board on the internet. i'm so proud i could cry. :P
if there's something we haven't yet talked about, today is a good day to bring it up. just remember, please, to present your thoughts in a way you'd want somebody else to present them to you. they don't call it "The Golden Rule" for nuthin'. ;-)