Hello again.

Here's the thread in which the post occurs.

Just a clarification. The stripping of the humor from the rest of the message and re-posting those lines alone here, where they're sure to garner defensive reactions and fanning of flames ("Mudcat sucks and Mudcatters are a bunch of weenies" - see above messages from GUEST and .gargoyle for examples) by our own indigenous trolls is what I'm calling a troll.

As far as "moving forward" goes, the major thing we've got to get past (IMO) is feeding trolls, most of whom start and/or get heavily involved in Mudcat navel-gazing threads or attacks on individuals. It's the very fondness we have for this place and the people who come here that will fill it with trolls and flames, because we can't seem to NOT react.

Eventually, we become the trolls and flamers. We post messages from other places that have inspired our defensiveness. They inspire the same in others who read them. We actively search messages for insults and find them, perhaps where none was intended. We post messages about making Mudcat better - in my opinion, the places that are less contentious are so because they aren't trying to be anything - they just are. If people there felt the same group identity/loyalty they do here, they might fall into the same navel-gazing routine Mudcat has.

Interesting opinion here, on Getting People To Behave The Way You Want.