I mean it too. Big lovin, wet drippy drooly kisses.

smoochie smoochie!

Yeah baby, that's more like it

I've got your wet drippy drooly kisses right here.

My little jack russell, Frodo does that to Sam and Nami sometimes. Sam's kisses are drooly

Kisses?
If we'd had that attitude to Hitler we'd all be speaking German right now.

/irony

Hush up and and pucker up.

Seriously though, let bygones.

What is it? Is it a culmination of the war, elections, gas..economy.. what? It's like collective tensions have come to a head around here.

People are even saying goodbyes.

No one has burned bridges around here, we all had our heated threads around here from time to time... even me. Let it go and come back for the fun.

The Sift feels like it's on edge lately. A turning point. I've been PMing some super senior members about it, and they're running out of patience with the way the culture is changing around here. In a sense this place isn't the same as it was in the beginning. It's much larger and less intimate. These older members have huge hearts, and their kindness and sensitivity permeated the Sift, but some of them are being stretched too far.

I so agree, and you can call me a pussy or fag or whatever kind of ewetubish epithet you choose, but there is real love in this place. At least there was. Love takes a lot more work than spite and nastiness, you really have to have confidence to put yourself out there in an internet forum like this. It takes effort to try and find common ground, to help those you don't like, to do more good than harm. I have learned a lot about my fellow creatures on this site, the real critters behind the silly avatars. And I have learned even more about myself.

But now I'm heartbroken, because I was just getting started and now it feels like it's falling apart.

Somebody hug me.

Can i get a kiss just cos, without having to be rude to someone first?

heheh, thats they way I roll too.

(back to the serious part)

I think the mood of this site is reflective of the world in general. Is that too hokey a generalization? Yeah, maybe it is... anyhow..
Life catches up with everything and the Sift has now been touched. Once we recognize that we can call it for what it is and get back to business as it were.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

There does seem to be something in the air.

I think a sign that we are a real living breathing community is that the mood around here is a tangible, yet ever-changing thing. You could almost put up a meter with an arrow to show where we're at.

There are no band-aids to fix everybody up - all I can say to add encouragement is that the Sift - while it may go through changes with new people new, issues and new arguments - willl keep working to maintain the friendly culture that's developed over time.

You may think it's fast disappearing, but I disagree - and we've certainly been through some rough patches before. Big hug and smooch to you all.

I'm one of the relative newcomers and I too can feel the winds changing. I tried to cheer up in my sift talk about it some days ago, but lately the mood of the populous has been bad. I hope it's just a hiccup and we'll be back on track again, but you never know. It could just be growing pains, because it seems that the sift has become quite a bit greater than it was.

I've received notice that a couple of real stars are leaving, and I am very sad.

O what the hey... I LOVE DOGS! *give everyone in the room a hug*

Happiness all around!

Last week I was in hospital for a few days having surgery and have spent the last few days recovering. I logged in yesterday and was fairly shocked by what had been going on here.
Perhaps I'm seeing it worse than it is because I took it all in at once.
Hopefully this is all temporary but I don't think people leaving will help matters.
Perhaps there should be some brainstorming on how to reward members for being positive influences in the community, beyond just posting videos.

Glad to hear you're on the mend. Zeph.

"plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"

"the more things change, the more they stay the same"
-- Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (November 24, 1808 – September 29, 1890)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Karr

I'm just curious, swmpgirl. When you said you wanted the admins to stop it, did you mean you think they are part of the negativity, and you are calling them on it, or did you want them to somehow use their admin powers to lighten the mood via incentives for positivity, etc.? This is not rhetorical, I really couldn't tell which you meant, and while I support the spirit of your message, that distinction being fuzzy for me really bugs me.

Ah, sorry.. It wasn't directed at the admins. It was a general 'stop it' to all. The bickering was just getting to everyone.

No, I will never ask the admins to use their powers to regulate folks on this. We should regulate ourselves right?

absolutely.

Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis - All things change, and we change with them.

what did I miss??? Are you talking about the arguments and bull that always happens? Emotion feeds on emotion feeds on emotion feeds on...

It really isn't a big deal. Same thing happened around the time quantummushroom was being siftquisitioned. Sometimes going through these exercises brings out one's need to feel like justice is being served. When somebody thinks that it's not, emotions can get involved. As more and more people join us, more people are likely to mess up and go through siftquisition. As more members are becoming senior members, the tension is increasing.

Eventually a true democracy will fail. Maybe we should think about starting to let siftquisitions be by invitation only or gold star and above. Eventually we'll have too many chiefs and not enough injens.

I know what you mean. Happiness can ebb and flow. And small gestures can make all the difference. Although I didn't put this in the happy channel and I know at least a couple of people aren't fans, listening to this song puts me in a happy mood. Sort of like the Procedure, but without the surgery.

Good times.

[See what I did there? Shamelessly pimping one of my vids, but making it look less shameful by making it part of a larger point, and including someone else's vid in a relevant way at the same time. Awesome.]

If pulling of a shameless plug doesn't make you smile, what does?

Oh, and I should add, people wander in and out but unsanctioned or excessively frequent siftquisitions definitely aren't a Good Idea. We should probably make that clear to people - if you have a problem with someone's actions, better to refer it to an admin first rather than publicly call people out.

When I was spending EVEN MORE time on the site than I'm spending at the moment I would quietly counsel people of the merits of the quiet/patient approach, but I'm not here all the time, and some won't pay attention to that kind of advice anyway so you end up with brou-ha-has, unfortunately.

Perhaps some judicious discarding of sift talk posts that are little more than inflammatory acts of rabble rousing is in order? Possibly...