@JLeslie – “Frazzled” is Gail’s choice of word; I am not sure what prompted her to use it.
It can get rather hectic when there are controversial topics being discussed, and especially when people carry over the controversy into different threads. As noted in other recent Meta threads, it is most helpful if Jellies flag things that seem out of line rather than to respond to them. Feeding the trolls, fanning the flame bait, and being snarky only perpetuate the ugly mess that needs to be modded, and when all is said and done, the thread winds up looking gutted by moderator activity.
Everyone might benefit from reviewing the Guidelines periodically. Fluther was created to be a Question and Answer site, not a social forum. If you look at the Facebook Page it says that Fluther is an Education Website – that page was set up by Ben and Andrew in 2007, so they chose that classification. Clearly, we evolved to have a more social aspect than they originally intended, and the community and site have been through some awkward growth spurts over the past 7 years.
We’re in an awkward phase right now as we make this transition; but again, where we go from here is up to the community. We do have a few new people signing up here and there – do you think that our currently active threads will attract the kind of people we hope to stick around this site? From what I’ve read about the other Q&A sites, we have a unique spot where we aren’t overrun with “how is babby formed” garbage, or with flaming and trolling the way more loosely-managed sites are; yet we’re not as arrogant and pretentious as some at the other extreme.
If you want to live in a neighborhood where everyone tends to their weeds and keeps an eye out for their neighbors and has a block party once in a while, you have to also tend to your weeds, keep an eye out for your neighbors, and let loose and have fun on occasion. It is up to us to cultivate the site to show our strengths that make this our favorite corner along the information superhighway.