Take a moment and imagine what it would be like to live in a metropolitan community with no stop signs, no stop lights, no sidewalks, no police, no jails or holding cells, no enforced rules and no consequences for any actions. Justa Picker up above.

Well, the thing is (at this point in history anyway - the technology advances at a frightening rate) there's no physical contact here on the Mudcat, noone gets run over or stabbed or mugged or whatever. If they are sensitive they can get their feelings hurt, and I don't underestimate that.

But, if the only damage from having nine of those things that Justa Picker mentioned in real towns and cities was hurt feelings, I personally would be happy to do without those things. (Apart from consequences for actions maybe.)

As I said earlier, the irritation when miscreants (good word) sneak up and mess things up is the price we pay for the good stuff. Fencing us in with a load of well intentioned protective apparatus would be too high a price to avoid that irritation. A bit like using a blowtorch to get rid of fleas.

And one thing that still puzzles me - the assumption that the intentions of the person who starts a thread are any more significant than those of anyone else. So far as I can see, it doesn't matter if the motive of the person starting a thread is to stir things up, we don't need to get stirred up, even if we decide that the topic raised is one where we feel we have something to say. Though in practice it's probably a better idea to leave it alone, ands start another thread later, because that way there is a better chance that people whose opinions you'd value might be likely to respond.

(And I still find it strange how you get people who make a great song and dance about how they don't like non music threads waste their time posting to non-music threads, such as this one.)