I don't know about the rest of you, but this kind of thing is becoming
frighteningly commonplace on the FFML. Authors, even longtime, respected
authors, considering dropping out. New, promising authors getting such
negative responses that they feel their work is completely useless.
Arguments shifting from legitimate discussions to personal attacks.

I've been insulated, working on my own litle project with my own little
group, and I haven't been paying close attention, but I HAVE been
skimming the messages, and I still don't understand what's causing this.

What happened?

Ironically enough, the list was at it's most cohesive, the sense of
community strongest when there WAS no list. When White Wolf had to shut
down the ML for his move, everyone banded together, TWO new lists were
created to take the load, and we weathered the entire situation
amazingly well. All this happened around exam time, when our stress
level was the highest.

Now, everything is running smoothly, we're, for the most part, on summer
vacation, with time to relax and reflect. Our stress levels should be
running at a low background buzz at worst.

And we're falling apart.

Why? This is not a rhetorical question. I honestly don't understand
this.

Maybe things will improve once school starts up again and stresses us
out. Maybe that's the problem. Over the summer the ML has become an
obligation, not an escape. Whatever the reason, I don't want to see any
more good authors bail out.

The Prime Sagittarian,
Alpha Centauri

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