Hi guys! Sukie liked my poem! Yay! Thanks Sukie! Stephanie Baas wrote: >And I wonder, how are we going to learn from each other if no one dares >give their opinion anymore You're so right, Stephanie, but it seems that people are still okay posting here for the most part. I don't think the danger of flaming is as bad here as it is elsewhere. Unlike a list I joined on Yahoo! recently: the list was ostensibly for sharing information regarding a specific subject. However, the list owner would post long "lectures" and "invite" people to "respond". If your response was anything other than blatant behind-smooching of the list owner, he would fly into a rage and pick apart your post to manipulate your words so that he would best be able to oust you in your "stupidity, cowardice," etc... He had a little peanut gallery who would adopt some of his insults and repeat them along with the equivalent of "yeah" and "that's right". Most of these people had uaually not educated themselves regarding the topics at hand, either. (needless to say, I was quickly "banished" from that Yahoo! group) So the FML is a veritable Hall of Reason comparatively. As an added bonus, BIG takes such good care of us! Maybe a lot of people either don't think they have anything to contribute, or don't want to clutter up the list with repeats of "I agree" or "LOL!" posts. True, if you support an idea, it's good idea to say so, even if you don't have anything to add. But a lot of people are busy, or feel like someone else could say it better, or whatever. I think it's good that you want to encourage more people to post more often. Of course, if everyone rambled on like _I_ do, would we even have time to *read* all of it? :P My 2 cents. Oh yes, and I want to send out deep and lasting ferret hugs to everyone who has lost one or more to the Bridge in the past few weeks. I can only tell you that they *do* know how much you love them. That's because ferrets are very intelligent! love, Christine (And, of course, Mab and Dustbin) ===== christine newkirk [log in to unmask] My Ebay items ICQ# 3937465 Please visit my website: http://www.midnightferret.com [Posted in FML issue 4580]