The interest and emotion in this thread has been unusually high and yet we have been pretty civil about it. I'm proud of us, actually. From docjohn on down, we have done pretty darned good.

I will raise one point that is worthy of thought - who "owns" this place? Now I know that docjohn legally owns it but the question is a little trickier. Who "owns" the community? If docjohn pulls the plug it is gone. But if everyone stopped hanging around it is just as gone. Even more tricky is the fact that if the people we each disagree with go, the community will be blander and less robust. I think the answer is that we all "own" it in that we all create it and we are all needed to make it the best we can. But with "ownership" goes responsibility.

It was before my time but is there anyone who was involved with the WELL (Whole Earth ELectronic Link)? I seem to recall them struggling with some of this but it seemed so arcane then.