I was just going to shut up, but Shula's response, as usual so clear and right, set me off again. The phrase from King Lear -- "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport" -- is relevant. Because, as Joe says, the Web is such a strange, neutralizing and yet powerful place, any community group that is set up is going on faith that it is not run by the wanton boys who seem to run everything on the Web. This space is continually being threatened from the outside, not just by authority, but by people who are just drifting by, spraying graffitti, and so on. Just like other places we know. What has been heartening about this site is that -- thanks to Max, Dick, and Susan -- it stumbled on a way to bring the classic storytelling, chatting, and folk banter onto the Web, bringing tradition along. It has been even nicer that people have started to get to know each other off the site, preparing for Mudstock 99, 200, wandering along after Joe and Rick, and so on. There is so little of this on the Web (and not much of it elsewhere). That is why what Max did made me so angry -- this was an internal assault on the whole thing from the sustainer of the whole thing. As if it were one more wanton game, which could be fooled around with, and undermined without anyone being much better off or worse off. I think people who say that we should not be taking this site or its growing community seriously (the get-a-life brigade) are missing the point. This is part of life, and it has its seriousness and its good jokes too (thank goodness). What is raised by what happened is not (contrary to some respondents) "Now I can see how much this site needs protecting," but "Why should I care, why should I put myself on the line to help, since the person who runs it thinks it is all optional." That is what it says, like a lot of wantonness out there. That's why I think it was so damaging -- we will all survive the FBI, but we cannot survive our loss of trust in each other, however fragilely earned. Perhaps it is true, perhaps it is stupid to be sucked into thinking this is just one more Web site in a world of manipulation, but I don't want to believe that, and I don't think Max believes it either. It was just one of those dumb things people do, but it still makes me mad.

Yours, Peter T.