with the instatement of the duplicate rules 14 and 15 cancom has become less than it was. one of this sites many endearing qualities was that it was a community. a community consists of folks of differing opinions, different backgrounds, different social and economic standings and varied ages. by cutting adrift those members under the age of 18 we are depriving ourselves of the (occasionally) valuable contributions of youth. despite their immaturity, many of those we have now abandoned were an integral part of this community and their loss will be felt by even the most curmudgeonly among us.

for quite some time now i have been noticing a number of posts complaining about the flippancy of our youngest members. every time i saw one of these rants my first thought was, "are these people so insecure that they can't stand a little childish banter?" such youthful exuberance should be embraced, but that is obviously not the general consensus of opinion here at cancom. instead of those childlike additions to the general conversation, we are now reduced to the childish rantings of old farts like me.

i am sure that some of our youthful brothers and sisters will return. they will rejoin us under different names and falsified ages, but their first act upon returning will be a lie. we are teaching the necessity of deceit, what a wonderful legacy for a community of supposedly free souls.

though there might very well have been some legal reason for this change, it's a pity that some compromise couldn't be reached. rules and regulations, the bane of our existence, are never set in stone and there must be some way to keep us from losing this link to what we all once were.

but then, i'm just a crazy old hippie and it might be just as well that this site age, wither and die. i am, after all, just a wandering foole and i'm sure i'll be able to find another place to crash after this one has burned to the ground. it won't be as nicely furnished as this one and i doubt the neighbors will be quite so friendly. such is life.
:hippy:

by the way:
"burned to the ground" was a metaphor. i'm an incredibly nonviolent soul these days and, as such, i'm nearly incapable of of even uttering a threat except in jest.