Campfire talk

I know we liken chatter on roff to 'campfire talk', where anything and
everything is fair game, and we all get together in the morning and
cast a line, despite whatever flares up the night before, and bury
whatever hatchets were raised.

But sometimes, even campfire talk generates a lot of ill will, and the
fun that free speech generates is replaced by bonafide animosity that
does not go away with the hangover. Without the excuse 'it was the
whisky talking' or the healing cameradie and moment of clear-
headedness that a morning hike to a pool of rising trout generates, a
lot of bad feelings can germinate from angry discourse.

Several regulars have been absent lately, and several more are making
their way to the door. We can brush this off with casual dismissals
akin to 'if you can't stand the heat...', but I'm sure that more than
one of us has seen other newsgroups meet their demise for similar in-
fighting and malaise.

We used to have some ground rules (no families, etc), but it seems
that we have found new, insidious ways to step on toes that the rules
don't cover. Maybe we need more ground rules. Even campfire talks
sometimes need ground rules.

If we want ROFF to survive, we have to make a choice to preserve it.

--riverman