it's extremely difficult to answer MadQuilter's question about "negativity" without giving more examples that are even more specific than those Admin has already offered. i so definitely don't want to point fingers and hurt somebody who's already in distress.
some of the personal information members have shared has been
so personal and/or
so detailed and graphic they go beyond that impossible-to-quantify-but-obvious-to-most scope of what people are used to experiencing in a public place. and this
is a public place.
it's also about more than content of individual topics. it's about volume ... that is, the ratio of "downer" posts to "uppers". we had lost the delicate balance between fun, information of general import, the bad news we're sad about are glad we didn't miss (such as a death in the family, an upcoming trip to the hospital, my house didn't survive the hurricane - but my family did, etc) and the good news we can't wait to share (my son is a drop-dead gorgeous genius, my new grandbaby is the cutest little guy you'll ever see, my dog learned to speak French today, etc.)
please don't make me go any farther than that in trying to explain that part of the problem we were having with the General ChitChat section. just review Admin's explanation on Page 1.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/posts/list/23096.page