Thank you, sir.
Let me say, I don't want to rip the scab off. I've said my piece and I want to move forward.
For anybody that cares, I'm going to continue attempting to bring back those that left. I miss them. We will be stronger when they return.
If any will come home, please treat them like the returning friends and family they are.
I was reminded by an old friend, yesterday, of a quote I dropped on this forum about a year and a half ago. It goes, "This Is Debian. WE get to draw on the walls and ride tricycles down the hallways when we're not busy fixing bugs, rewriting the kernel, or making sure the toilets continue to flush in Linuxworld..."
It was well recieved at the time and I'm not above graciously nodding, grandstanding, and patting myself vigourously on the back. I didn't make it up, though. It's a paraphrased statement about the antics that went on in the 1970s at a xerox research facility nicknamed, "the dreamworks".
What came out of there? The GUI, amongst other things (No, Mr. Jobs, you didn't invent it. Do the words, "Small Talk" ring a bell?) Do a search for the whole story. It's a good read. But Dreamworks ended in tragedy.
The reason? Management couldn't deal with the idea of paid employees riding tricycles down the hallways on company time. They rode in and made things "shipshape". And innovation went out the back door along with the talent. Am I describing our current debacle? Ponder it. Let's learn from the past.
There's a lot of work to be done by ALL of us, members and moderators alike. Let's put humpty dumpty back together. Who other than us are capable of it? Nobody.
I am now, personally, eating a giant slice of humble pie for ranting like this. I haven't heard from any moderators, but if they slap me for ranting they won't be incorrect. I am ranting. This rant, like many others that have appeared in the forum, serves a productive purpose, though. Please consider the rantings of other giant egos and judge what I say only after a beer and a re-read.
We all screw up. It's part of being human. What separates the wheat from the chaff is how we handle the cleanup. The wheat should be here. ALL of it. Let's go sweep it up and put it back in the silo where it belongs.
...and, could somebody explain why I can't send any PMs from my profile CP? Nobody's more surprised than I at that one