I have for about a month been a member of the A Way With Words FB group. I joined because I regularly listen to to podcast that it is connected to. I am just about to leave it. The problem is that while the rules clearly discourage ”pet peeve” posts there are rather a lot of them and mostly ill-informed ones at that. One example will be enough. A poster has objected to phrases such as “up above the clouds” and “over by the cupboard” as ungrammatical. When I (ever so politely) asked which grammatical rule they break he responded that they break “redundancy”. (Just as politely) I said that redundancy might be a valid style choice but it isn’t a grammatical rule. In fact it is very much a feature of the English language. The reply was so hostile that I reported it to the moderators and it was taken down. None of that has anything much to do with wordcraft but it did set me thinking about how much I miss the old days here when there was plenty of perfectly civil (perhaps not always, but usually) discussion of language from people who may disagree but who at the very least have some idea of what grammar actually is. I miss the old days

It's in the genetic makeup of WC to be reasonably civil. WC evolved after a firestorm of incivility on AWAD. To his credit, Anu Garg placed restrictions on "freedom of speech" afterwards, but the damage was done for some.

I wish this site could attract a few dozen people for whom discussions of words, word meanings, etymology and grammar could once again be the focus. Alas, people now prefer to further aggrandize Mark Zuckerberg instead.

I, too, wish we would get back to our old days of lots of interaction here. I get a fair amount of newby applications (arnie used to do that for me), but most of them are spammers. Fortunately before arnie left, he showed me how to tell. I do alert my friends and colleagues about this place, but sometimes I am worried they'll come and say how boring it is because of so few posters.

I, unlike many, get bored with FB. How many cute dogs or great meals can you read about? I liked Twitter before the election because of all the differing viewpoints, but it is getting old now too.

I'm actually on FB more than I used to be - 2 or 3 times weekly now, where it used to be once a month if I could stand it [for same issues you note, Kalleh]. Now, presumably because of covid, I've found a good handful of dear cousins I rarely get to see - plus one of my brothers - are on there regularly. Plus a swell gal I used to be on a forum with when our sons were ill 15 yrs ago. My sons post pictures and links about their musical endeavors. I've struck up a messaging marathon w/one elderly cousin who likes to discuss books we are reading. My brother posts hilarious political cartoons which are right up my alley, & also likes to exchange horrible puns. It all started when I took to FB last spring in started posting "Plague Diary" entries in an attempt to make myself laugh. It caught on!

bethree5 - don't forget to re-send your friend request to me on FB! (I accidentally deleted the first one)