Thanks for your post, Doctor 
) I'm a firm believer that humour is a very important part of life. If given the choice between laughing or crying, I'm going to try to go for the laugh every time.
And speaking of Monty Python, they've got me through some really tough times starting in myuniversity dayswhen we use to sing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" when things were going wrong.
Something that should be noted is that it's actually difficult to separate contenton any Ning site. The Ning sites are meant for sharing content and are technically geared to do that.
Right now, the General DiscussionCategory is the catch-all that includes OOC content. There is no practical way that I can restrict this category from appearing on the main page even if I wanted to. So, if I create an OOC Category, it will still appear on the main page mixed in with all the other discussions.
Likewise, I have restricted advertisements from Photos but in order to do so I have to manually check every photo and direct people to place them in a discussion in the Marketplace Category of Discussions. As you can imagine this is atedious and time consuming task so I'm not looking to add more restrictions on Photos.
Other NIng sites that I belong to use Groups to segregate content. The addition of content to a group is not visible on the main page (except briefly in the Latest Activity column). I find it becomes difficult to keep track of what is going on in the various groups and so they tend to die off.
Unless there is a strong community preference to segregate certain content, Iprefer that we leave things as they are. I feel any change would actually hinder communication while adding an additional administrative burden.
LOL Lord Myron!!
You've reminded me that humour is always an important component of any community )
I have never brought up thissubject because I honestly don't believe in having a lot of rules for a site. For one thing,they areimpractical to try to enforceasit's really the spirit of the rule that is important.
I do believe that a community works best when common sense and civility is applied by all concerned. That's the reason for the " Drama Free Zone " approach which, for the most part, that has worked out quite well over the last 20 months that the site has been open.
As far as content goes, I have always been ok with both In Character (IC) and Out of Character (OOC) content including anything from RL that people want to share with us. After all, I'm the one that just posted RL pics of her new puppy ) As long as it's kept in the right section & category it's usually good for me. Frankly, I never thought of this site as a place that was limited onlyto historical discussion.
What I would like to maintain is a sense of balance. I would like to keep this a place where everyone gets a chance to contribute and shine. That's the reasonwhy photos are limited to 12 in the first 100. It's also the reason that I have asked people that have posted 50 videos in a row to remove most of them. Those things are easy (though time consuming) to regulate.
What is harder to balance is the written content and this is where I would really appreciate everyone's help. Onediscussion a week about your .... (new puppy/ latest merchandise /duck / fairy wings / coronation/ you name it) ... will probably be enjoyed by all. Fifteen post a week about that same thing and the site is unbalanced and people start mumbling. Of course, I'm exaggerating to make a point but this isa place where common sense & courtesycanbe applied.
I have considered creating specialgroups for Merchants, Animals, Fantasy etc.which means thatthose topicswouldhave to posted inthat group and not in Discussions, Blogs etc. The idea of having to police this makes my head hurt so I'm hoping that people use their best judgement with the setup that we have now and not make these restrictions necessary.
As for content rating, we're pretty much PG here and always have been. I take a quick look at the pics and have disallowed those that includedfull frontal nudity. I don't consider people "half clothed" to warrant an M rating (and I'm Canadian for gosh sakes 
) Likewise, I have never seen text that is more than mildly suggestive and I'm not expecting that to change.
Finally, I would ask people to assume good faith when dealing with others. This site is suppose to be fun and relaxing for all of us. Let's try to keep it that way!
)
Too funny, Fletch!!
Actually I stood pretty far back from the trunk until I was sure about the release
LOL - I love that story )
Funny thing is that after I heard it I actually checked to see if we had an interior trunk-release lever. I'm glad to report that we do & it glows in the dark!
Thanks everyone! She's settling in nicely, curious about things but not too pushy.
Our poodle (who is 9, grew up with our last German Shepherd and therefore is not impressed at all by them) has already already managed to steal all of Lacy's toys. We're going to have to work on that.
