I have two items that I'd like to share with you all.

1) The number of posts in this forum ... and the wide gulf between those people who want to bash the contestants and those who like them ... has brought us to the point of splitting this forum. We had planned to hold off doing that until after AI3 was over, but we have had some feedback indicating that the sooner the split takes place, the better.

Our first thought is to put up a "Fanatics" and "Bashers" forum. Those forum titles do NOT mean that only positive items should go in Fanatics and everything negative must go in Bashers. Instead, they symbolize a difference in mindset about the show. Posts that LOVE the show and really care about what happens -- even if the post says, "How can those sucky, talentless so-and-sos still be here when Jennifer is gone?" -- should go in Fanatics. Posts with an "attitude" -- snarky, sarcastic, etc. (like me about Barry Manilow) -- should go in Bashers.

We think this will hold down some of the conflict that has been arising. If you have different (or even better) ideas, please post them in this thread -- but as of today, the split will be Fanatics and Bashers. (By the way, the "Spoiler" posts on show nights should go in Fanatics, in case you were wondering.)

2) Like many of you "old-timers," I dislike the proliferation of duplicate threads. However, that doesn't mean that we need to comment on those threads, except for a mod to note that they are duplicates and to lock them. PLEASE, just make an alert about the post and let the moderators (sleeeve, Webby and me) handle it.

I've been on message boards where there was an intense "new vs. old" mentality, and I've never liked it. I hope we don't fall into that same trap. In that vein, I want to share with you part of an e-mail that I received from a relatively new poster, expressing just a little frustration:

"I have never seen ... people who are ALWAYS butting in to the new people's posts to dictate. THIS should be in an established thread, YOU NEED TO READ THE GUIDELINES, etc, etc.

"Granted, there are a bunch of idiots out there, and there need to be guidelines to keep them in line, but ... I would think that if the duplicate thread thing wasn't such a big deal, many of these self-appointed thread police wouldn't know what to talk about anymore. Your guidelines mean well, and they are simple enough to follow, but maybe a few changes might alleviate some of this constant tension."

I'm afraid that this person may be making good points. Nevertheless, I'm going to continue to lock most threads that I think are duplicates ... but that's a call that I (and the other mods) have to make. Please help us do that by "alerting" duplicate posts WITHOUT otherwise commenting on them. Thanks.