(1) If BotF has fans outside of its regular readers, I have yet to meet them.

(2) There are... maybe... five dozen of you guys in here. That compares to tens of thousands of unique visitors to the Fray on a daily basis.

(3) Most of you write crap that nobody reads.

(4) Your posts add to the strain of Slate's servers just like anyone else's does.

(5) On top of that, you people bitch whine moan and complain to anyone who will bend an ear - wasting staff time that Slate pays for.

Now, I've been called in to deal with persistent problems coming from this board. For historical and sentimental reasons, I like most of you guys and I like the community forums in general. But my first and foremost duty here is to Slate - and they're a corporate business that doesn't like spending money on things that don't make money - i.e. you.

I have both the power and the authority to shut BotF down. If you're worried about the "good of this board" then simmer down and play nice with each other. If you can't handle that, then I can't in good conscience recommend that Slate keep these forums running while there's no designated moderator to keep a handle on things. Believe me, there are many in Slate who would be all too happy to scrap the entire Fray and just have user comments appear directly below the article... "like all the other sites do."

Most of you are good people - and most of you are smart enough to know whether you're a part of the problem or not. Many of you care very deeply about this forum, and I at least admire your passion. It's up to those of you who are relatively sane, or at least capable of brief moments of lucidity, to keep conflict to a minimum here. There's a hole in the org chart where your institutional defender should be. Please keep yourselves on your best behavior.

That's some real scary shit there, Mr Corporate-Nitz.

I say let's scrap it, commit a massive seppeku - with a ceremony that includes bad poetry and lists of our most horrid posts. A fitting end to this place - because really, we've already died here, every last one of us.

But you have to announce it so that we can all assist. Why, I've even come up with a catchy slogan for it:

THE FRAY'S VIRTUAL SUICIDE. BE THERE. OR NOT. (EVER AGAIN)

"tens of thousands of unique visitors to the Fray on a daily basis"

Unique visitors to Slate magazine or the Fray? How many of the unique visitors to the Fray actually register?

This place is like the old folks home for former big league ball players. "I used to be somebody".....what a bunch of misguided brats. This is a business folks, not a goddamm chat room or sitcom. If they want to make rules, you either live by them or get the hell out of here. Why is this so hard to fathom?

Better listen. Good advice, for free, should never rejected out of hand.

...you should probably start with BB...especially the "cock-talkers"...they are crude, worthless and absolutely contribute nothing...just push pages.
Check out the many battles/wars raging over there while you're at it.

Piss off!

I always hated how you posted in fucking italics!

That's not the point though. He has us outnumbered.

LOL!

do you...

We are being asked to grow up....that simple.

jo

"Power comes from the barrel of a [server]."

It's a fact.

(sigh)

be the goat for Azazel if it will bring back the day of atonement.

:)