The problem is, as much as endless arguments can get annoying and counterproductive, I can’t think of any time in human history when anyone learned anything by agreeing with each other.

Giant sparkly sig files, pregnancy counters, local weather, clubs–aaaaaah. ‘Course, some of the sigs, like, say, B. Clay’s Hawaiian Dick, or the nerdbait, would’ve been a hoot with color-cycling sparkles.

That, too.

I don’t think that’s true at all.

I pay VERY close attention.

Women shouldn’t have to show their breasts or be “sexy”.

So many times I’ve heard women lament that they have to “dumb down” their conversations and image in order to be interesting to men. Vanessa showed us that sexy and smart work just fine in combination, thank you very much, especially when you add a healthy dallop of humor.

Maybe the humor was lost on some people.

But she showed her boobies! The horror! And they look good! How dare that brazen hussy! To the stocks with her!

As for all the rules; I think having to put your full, real name behind every statement one makes is the only way to get anything worthwhile out of internet conversation.

Lea getting banned from Warren’s playground was, I suppose, inevitable. There is, after all, much history there and neither of them gladly dances to anyone else’s tune. But Andre Richard getting banned? He’s the sweetest, most benign human being on earth. That was the real end for me.

I never had problem with the mods, although I found Ellis to be unneccesarily rude on occasion. But hosting the site, and the amount of effort he put into a stimulating conversational topics required real effort on his part. Whatever the faults, it was an overall plus for two years.

I mean, even that argument with Dirk, Dirk’s a favorite of many people that posted there, and I think a favorite of Warren’s, too, but when we argued they changed my membership status to ensure me a fairer chance to respond. That’s not always the way it happens.

I didn’t notice the boobies and whatnot, but I assume that stuff was on parts of the site that weren’t really my cup of tea to begin with. All sites tend to have their baffling and sometimes even aggravating peccadilloes.

I did manage to avoid the pic threads, so I don’t know if the above is par for the course, but, yikes. That’s a little crazy for my tastes.

I’m going back outside. Thanks, Warren, for closing it at the right time.

I’m glad that the Beat didn’t get sucked into the topless thing

haha!

I know you’re gonna be missing those Engine photos SO much…

The cult of Ellis would tell us that there are a million places on the internet to find people arguing endlessly, that the Engine was “different”. And that’s just the kind of snobbish nonsense that put me off.