I've been corresponding with LindainOK a little and shes ready to bail out from general chat at HT. Shes a moderate liberal, anti war, passionate and respectful.

She wants to start a password Lusenet forum for like minded folks and I suggested she check us out rather than starting her own. She'd likely want to invite others as well and we could use some fresh voices here.

What say all? One week for replies unless Joy has a better idea.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2003

Answers

Any friend of yours is a friend of mine!!!.....Kirk

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2003

Of course, invite her.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2003

I went to see some of her posts but couldn't find anything on top. Could you tell me one so I can read her? I'm sure there is a way to search only her but I don't know how. I can't even search for a topic on that board.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2003

Dee: If you look on top of the page you'll see a search feature. Click on that and you'll get a bunch of options to chose from. Just type in lindainok and select the other options as you wish. It'll give you about 60 search results. All I did to check this out to reply to you was to fill in the item searching for and left the other options alone.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2003

I can vouch for her. She is a moderate and capable of association with both left and right political factions. she however does avoid extremists of both catagories. My opinion is that she functions well in all debate forums. She would be a good addition to the group here. We have never had any complaints lodged against her for moderator review.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2003

I couldn't really find her either. I used the search feature, which shows you the threads, BUT it doesn't tell you WHICH PAGE the post is on -- and most of those threads are numerous pages! Also, I think she changed her name to Poster Formerly Known As, or something like that. Very confusing.

Gah! Reading those threads . . . nope, don't wanna go back there. Do they ever discuss homesteading?

I don't object to HER joining us. I'm not sure about a whole bunch of others. Once we open the door, our private clubhouse is gone. Please understand, I'm not saying we definitely shouldn't, I'm just not sure what I think -- yet.

This place has been petering out, it's true. It could revive with a bunch of other folks. Is that what people want? Or do they want it to remain a "hideout"?

I belong to a few email groups consisting of not many members -- we signed up, then any "post" comes as an email (you do have the option of going to a website to read). When we had a higher volume of posts here, that probably would have been unwieldy. But nowadays, we don't post so much. What I'm getting to (slowly) is suggesting the POSSIBILITY of this site admitting a whole bunch more people (and, inevitably, changing), and setting up a separate, keep-in-touch email group for our old, die-hard core that we have here. We would still have a private safe way to exchange our information/confidences/etc., while also participating here in a newly revived site. Topica.com is the one that I am thinking of at this time. I really dislike Yahoo, though that is probably just a personal preference.

That is just a thought. Keeping it still passworded would be an option, in fact, IMO, essential. Deciding how to decide on who gets the password would be another matter. As always, this is not MY forum, so there could be other moderators, or others take over entirely.

On the other hand, there is the consideration of "losing" the Beyond the Sidewalks name. I'm not really sure what "LindainOK" has in mind for a new forum. Looking at Homesteading Today, though there are homesteading posts, the majority is under general chat and is the usual infighting and flaming and general nastiness. Ick.

I suppose we could admit Linda here so that she would have an opportunity to post what she had in mind for a "new" forum and then decide whether we want to go that route.

As you know, I didn't start THIS forum, and I confess (with some embarassment) that I can't figure out how to start a new one on Lusenet! I have often wanted to suggest the Lusenet format for folks who seem to want to "chat" on other forums that are supposed to be devoted purely to the forum subject. But I haven't done that, because I couldn't figure out how to start a new forum here! Either it is no longer an option, or it is something simple and glaringly obvious that I cannot see due to a personal brain glitch. :-(

Well, those are my current thoughts. Other's chime in please.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2003

I notice Diane has started a forum on LUSENET.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2003

She hasnt registered at HT . she chooses to log as a guest. I suggest you just try her on for size. Homesteading today is no worse than this site , only larger. I remember when this site actually had more talk about homesteading also and remember when we all followed the iron ore algea seeding cruise. Society overall has changed during the last two years and social gatherings are reflective of it. Give her a chance to try ya'll on for size and see if BTS suits her.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2003

I think she'd fit in here well enuf but she's a prolific poster when shes fired up so this board might eventually prove to be too slow. One person she mentioned for membership here was naurewoman, also fairly moderate liberal and thotful.

As far as finding her posts on HT just click on one of the threads shes posted to and I'm pretty sure she will come up fairly quickly. The pages there contain numerous posts so it won't be a click frenzy if you're concerned about that.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2003

I forgot to mention, Dianes forum is also a password protected site. Its called Homestead Heartbeats. I can't say much about it because I don't know much but I think its more or less geared toward towards Christian Homesteaders.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2003

I actually found naturewoman a lot in looking for lindainOK -- a lot easier than who I was really looking for! ;-)

I don't really have any objection to either of them. I don't know if there is any point however to adding new members if they are going to find this too slow and disappear into the ether.

With the lack of activity here, I can't even tell if anyone cares anymore about keeping this a private passworded forum. Waiting for others to chime in . . .

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2003

I agree with Kirk about LindainOK, but I will check out some of her posts at HT. Haven't been there in a long time, but I think I've saved the site.

Joy...I'm definitely for keeping a "private place" (kinda like a Secret Garden) just for all us old diehards, but it would be nice to have another more open forum. I find myself frequenting Stan's forum often just to read about what other folks are doing and occasionally joining in. HT is waaaay too big for me!! And we don't need the fighting and nastiness that you say goes on there! But taking care of too forums is also more work than you deserve :-)!

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2003

Naturewoman would also be a good addition to your group here.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2003

If ya'll want another site. Let me know and I will remove the password from one of my unused Lusenet forums for you to use.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2003

Joy: I noticed your comment about the relative lack of activity here and thats one of the things I was hoping to address by suggesting new member(s). I'm guessing that with some new members things might liven up a little. If they find it too slow then they'll just not participate, like so many others already.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2003

I would prefer to leave the forum password protected. I doubt that I would continue to post here if it was not a passworded forum. Not that I've been posting much, anyway. I don't know anything about chicken mites, or begonias; and I feel that my tales of what's been going on at home are boring. My view of the war would not be a popular one here, so I don't comment - here or anywhere else. I've quit reading war posts on all forums, which is why I've been spending most of my time at gardenweb - no politics allowed. It has been quite a while since a topic has stirred much interest over here. I really don't know why; and I'm as much to blame as anyone as I cannot think of a topic that might stir interest. I suppose some new folks might be able to stir up a bit of interest and get folks participating again. I guess that if we charter members don't like them, we can leave - seems like a lot of us have been in the process of doing so anyway. I'm still working on printing off hard copies of the stuff that I want to save, so I would appreciate if the forum was left accessible for a while anyway.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2003

Diane and Cindy were among our more prolific posters. Wildman hasn't been heard from in some time and some others who used to post now and then seem to have left the building too. Maybe thats why we've become so "stodgy".

I like having the password protection too. It helps to keep the flamers out. I know I've posted stuff of a more personal nature here that I wouldn't elsewhere. Thats one reason why I like it---cause I'm normally not a warm fuzzy kinda guy and this group is generally a pretty respectful bunch.

Personally I think we oughta consider a membership drive, looking for folks who behave themselves in discussion and debate, regardless of what side of the political fence they fall on.

Maybe the "nominator" would act as sponsor and take care of the introductory stuff, give the new member the password and introduce the "rules" such as they are (we do have some don't we?) Granted we'd be introducing "ferriners" to the community but if we're not careful we're gonna get inbred and you know what happens then.

Like nature, we gotta diversify the gene pool a little bit.

-- Anonymous, April 02, 2003

I like John's last idea. Let's try to find folks who might want to participate, and leave the forum passworded.

-- Anonymous, April 02, 2003

Last call for lindainok! Since there have been no objections thus far is it safe to contact linda?

Since naturewoman was mentioned and more or less vetted by jay and I both, how about her? In the search for lindas poosts I know some here have bumped into naturewoman. What say you?

I really think we need some new blood to get this place rockin again and I'd like that.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2003