[SailinAway]

Lakegeezer, I agree wholeheartedly. Any place where people can be sensitized to the climate crisis, like this forum, is important. When it comes to climate, local is global and global is local. We can act individually in our own life, like switching to electric yard machines. We can act locally and beyond by becoming involved in any kind of climate action. It starts with becoming aware of the problem and the urgency of responding to it at any level.

One solution to people posting threads that aren't related to Winnipesaukee would be to have an Off-Topic subforum, which many forums have. Then people who don't enjoy bickering could just not read that subforum. I personally wouldn't read it. Some forums have ultimately gotten rid of off-topic subforums because of the amount of vitriol in them.

Another thing that I would like to see is more creative ideas for creating community across the region. We have subforums here to advertise things for sale, help wanted, etc. I would like to see a service exchange subforum, since there are so many skilled people here. Believe it or not, even I have skills to barter. At the moment I'm bartering legal writing for home maintenance work. I would also like to see a subforum for people who are in need of help, as in "Anybody have a pickup truck to take brush to the dump?" As I said above, getting to know people in person has been shown to help people bridge differences. So these types of subforums could go a long way in overcoming the radical differences among us that emerged in the Covid forum. Some of the amazing help I've received here with my car and home maintenance has come from people who are on the opposite side of the political spectrum, proving my point.

Forums can change over time as people get rid of things that aren't useful or create divisions and they come up with new ideas. Perhaps the webmaster will consider some of these ideas.

Webmaster, I'm officially proposing a new subforum called Service Exchange/Help Needed for volunteer rather than paid services. How about doing this on a trial basis for a few months to see what happens?