Rich,
Now correct me if I am wrong, from what I have read recently from your posts (obviously something some haven't done or been doing) that it is your intent to shut down the BOI (pending it can carry it's own weight) January 1, 2010 to the general public but it it to remain open to the contributing members for the following year.
You know, I've been thinking of this ever since I read it, thinking of the repercussions and unavoidable hate mail I'm going to get at that time. Probably pretty much what I went through when I originally set up that paid member requirement for the BOI years ago. Might have to read up on those old threads to get in that frame of mind again.
Anyway, the thought has been nibbling at the edges of my mind about why not just do that NOW? After all, what I am looking for now is financial support to keep the BOI alive on this site. So what more direct way would there be than to just go ahead and make the BOI a valuable tool available only to paid members? Yeah, I'm going to catch flak, but that is coming sooner or later anyway. And if like the last time, it chokes off the BOI into oblivion, then so what? Without the financial support needed, that is going to happen anyway. But I really hate to be crass about this and feel like I am demanding something here. I guess it does look like that to some, but in reality this is just a laying of the cards on the table. Those cards are saying that the BOI is going away if the members here aren't willing to support it financially. That is the bottom line.
Of course, there are the complications about giving free access to someone who is accused of being a bad guy on the BOI that was actually a pain in the ass to administer. My attorney tells me that I am not OBLIGATED to allow anyone access to anywhere on this site if I don't want to, so I am legally in my rights to deny that access. But it just doesn't feel ethical to me. I don't feel comfortable demanding payment from someone to defend themselves from any bad guy accusation, whether justified or not. So I have to think about this some more. But if I go with the above mentioned scenario, maybe all I will be doing is delaying that problem instead of resolving it.
Man, I wish I could find SOME problem on this site where there was an easy answer to it....
Oh, and if anyone has in mind to come in here and bash me for my considerations, it's a different ballgame now then it was a while back. I've have hardened myself quite a bit to where I have no qualms whatsoever about banning someone. From past experience, troublemakers never really get better. And at this point in my life, I intend to remove as many headaches from my environment as I possibly can. So keep the discussions civil, please, if you want to stay here. If you don't, well, let's have your parting shot and get it over with. I think this site will be better off without some of the negativity some people live by anyway, so it will all work out in the long run.
In the meantime, I'm going to be thinking about this while slinging critters around. At least that is mostly mindless labor, for the most part.