I have been a occasional reader of the postings of this forum for the last 4 years or so.
Being that I have time-consuming priorities (husband, father of 4 children under 7, homeschooling dad "gasp", elder in my church (double gasp), and small business owner) I am not able to post as often a I would like to, but typically check the forum once a week or so, enough to get a feel for the content of the site.
What I have noticed, especially today, is the gradual degradation of this site.
Once upon a time this (as a general rule) site boasted the most intelligent, reasoned, and most of all respectful dialogue on the web. Posters such as Markdel and others offered deep insight and perspective.
I have to be honest and say that, while I respect and like MarkDel on a personal level, his tendency to stereotype other forum members based on their age, nationality and/or political views always used to drive me up the wall. But his viewpoints did provice balance, that is true.
In any case, all forums (fora?) have their up-and-down periods, and this place is no exception. Still, I actually find the level of discussion here far more even-tempered than it was, say, 2-3 years ago. It's a good thing Leip invoked the no-personal-insults policy because it more or less put a stop to some of the mindless flame wars we used to have. Either way, I can't think of another political discussion forum that's as placid (comparatively speaking) as this one.
