Sure, there are a lot of new posters here, myself included.
I haven’t been here long, but I know that a group of 100 is different than a group of 5000. You want a small board of regs only? Start your own. This board lives in the world; change is inevitable.
This board is what we make of it. I do my bit: I respond to the threads I’m interested in. I say what I have to say as well as I can. I take criticism reasonably well, and I’ll accept the feedback or refute the ideas. I’ll give everyone a fair evaluation on their words, not their post count. Everyone was very nice to me in that regard, and I’m grateful.
Personally, I’m kid of ticked that it seems that some people can’t feed the trolls fast enough. No wonder they’re such a bother, some feel the need to respond to every idiot. And sometimes they inadvertently tar the same brush all our new posters who are trying to make a real contribution with.
Do Not Feed The Trolls! Ignore them. Pretend they didn’t post. Do not even say, “<troll>, You suck.” This is not a difficult concept, yet it seems honored more in the breach than in the observance. If the trolls are not getting their jollies, they’ll go back on Usenet where they belong, and the valued new people will have the space to become honored regs.
Each and every one of us was once a newbie; some of us newbies will become, in time, honored regs. Each of us brings something different. In some ways, yes, the content on the board may be diluted, but in other ways it’s grown richer. That’s the nature of a public forum.
We have to find a middle ground. We don’t want an invasion of children and idiots. But I don’t think we want to be sterile and inbred either. The best way, perhaps the only way, is for each of us to bring our best to this board and ignore the worst of others.
I love this board, and I love this community. It’s become a very important part of my life in a short time. I shan’t leave again; I will defend this community to the bitter end. But the best way to defend it is not IMHO to get torqued up about those few people who are acting stupidly, and risk driving away those new people who have taken the time and trouble to bring fresh content and fresh points of view to our community.
