by peartreed » Wed Dec 21, 2016 10:55 pm
I have empathy for Jeff’s exit by imagining he left the exchanges to ease irritation with them. The alleged ambiance of the festive season hasn’t seemed to have uplifted many spooky spirits here either, then or since, still haunting the holidays.
What have impressed me are the unrequited and unrewarded moderation efforts of Wombaticus Rex, still suffering the slings and arrows of self-appointed antagonists. He’s doing a thankless job - apparently from an altruism he covers with often-caustic come-backs. Unlike Jeff and the other invisible referees, he has hung around.
I also admire the participation, perseverance and principled positions of posters like seemslikeadream, iamwhoiam and American Dream who also share, like other good guys, cut and paste published papers to support their perspectives, thus adding in-depth analysis. Agreement is secondary to learning fresh angles from such angels. Disagreent need not be nasty, unless immaturity reigns in the roost.
The best of academia often gets overwhelmed by the loud schoolyard out on the fringes, where attention-seekers are active just to play, bully and blow off steam.
Jeff might return, and so might Santa Claus with a sleigh full of toys. Hang tough!