My first thoughts along those lines were after a week or so, after being exposed to the same people's postings for several days. Now I've been here 4 months, have reached Sainthood, and still don't know anybody.

In the "Pub", on the other hand, although I've not been active for a few years and the place isn't quite the community it once was, I know all about pet kittens and divorce and budding romances and what's going on in various people's lives. We've visited each other whenever someone is in the area of someone else. We post trip reports for the group to share. We've hosted COOKSTOCK '94, a Transcontenental Pot Luck Dinner. In short, I've made dear friends, and at the same time came of age as a programmer and writer. Discussions there were likened to grad school seminars anywhere else. We shared both the wisdom of the ages and the wimsey of the moment. Looking back, it's like the neighborhood I grew up in.

It was there, and closely related places, that made me realize that the substrate of "communication" can lead to "community" and "culture".

Perhaps we could have something like that here, since we already have the people and a polite countryclub-like situation going. Shall we lose some of the formality and more importantly, open up about our personal lives? I don't know if that's what everyone wants or could handle.

Maybe we need an "auxilary" after-hours club that invites all the same people from the regular stuffy-old country club, rather than changing the dress code or opening up a new room in the countryclub.

—John

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