And no, even when a new Fray Editor is hired, his or her job won't be to babysit the folks on Best of the Fray. The Fray has grown huge, and the Fray Editor's job will remain to tend to the Fray's role supporting the column's masthead. The Fray Editor isn't primarily a moderator. Making the crack addicts happy will always be near the bottom of the priority list.

Now, I know that when folks step up here and try to self-police at keeping things under control, things bump along with relatively little heartache and hassle. There are good guys here (hint: you're not one of them).

It sure does say something that it wasn't Ballot Box that got me called back to do some emergency clean-up. Those of you have been poking the crazies with sticks need to step up to the plate and act responsibly. As so many have so often pointed out - I have no power over what you folks do here. But remarkably enough, all of the boards have demonstrated that they have a core of people who *care* - and despite the griping and the obnoxiousness and the whatever, they can and do work together to keep things from getting out of hand.

The babysitter, such as there ever was, is gone, folks. There's nobody making a case for putting up with the nonsense here. I'm asking you guys to get it together. And if you can't, it's just as disingenuous to fake surprise when the plug gets pulled.