Jon: in no order. What are these needs you speak of that are not being addressed? And how are they to be addressed? The only two that seem to have come up here that we can deal with, not being professional psychiatrists, are whether or not this should be a purely music site, to make some people more comfortable; and whether or not we should have healing or prayer threads. We have been through these arguments a hundred times. The desire for a wideopen site to discuss anything people with a folk music bent think is interesting has won this argument over and over again. There is tons of music here, and other things. If someone wants an alternative, set one up. This is a cafe. You are free to come and go as you will.

The prayer threads. We have been through this many, many times in the spirit of compromise you keep invoking. As a compromise, based on the desire for openness tempered with the fact that some people get offended by too much religiosity or whatver (I don't) means that alternatives have been generated. Perhaps yours will be the most successful in this. In the meantime, people who are in real trouble seem to get what little help is possible from the carers around here. It is only a web site after all.

Beyond that, what are the needs that can be reasonably met? Some people think that the regulars are a dominating hierarchy that are stifling them. O.K. What can one propose? Propose away. Do you want certain people to only post on Tuesdays and Thursdays? I don't think so. Do you want people to always be nice? Great idea. Sure. That we set up a list of set topics, and only those can be addressed, and only in a certain style and tone? How do you ensure this, without bringing in the police?

Different kinds of people have left the cafe. Some because the place didn't do for them what they wanted it to do for them. Some wanted recognition that they were the supreme poohbah. Some got bored. Some decided there was some conspiracy against them, for no good reason, except that they needed a conspiracy to keep their lives interesting and in some order. Some acted appallingly, and people got spontaneously mad at them. One or two acted so badly, that they had to have their site access restricted. GUEST was invented to deal with serious threats to the trust that holds the place together. Some people are just not good at having their opinions challenged, and arguing back. There are all sorts of reasons why people leave. I have left on occasion because I got sick of reading threads about Northern Ireland. And there are all sorts of reasons why people feel they have to post anonymously, some good, some bad. What do you propose to help the ones in difficulty? Without compromising the openness of the place (which seems to me to be impossible anyway), and which I personally hold to be a foundational principle, what do you propose to meet these unmet needs you speak of? How are they to be addressed?

Finally, the place is dysfunctional, they are all dysfunctional, we are all human beings, except for some of the animals, but there you go.

yours, Peter T.