The old Soapbox board has been deleted. For those who were hoping to take part in the forum ... um, where were you? No matter, we've set up a mailing list over at Yahoogroups to take its place. We really had little choice. Bravenet, as a matter of policy, deletes forums which have been inactive for 60 days. Yahoo does not do the same with its lists. So, we took an old list which we had set up, but never got around to promoting, redid it, turned it into an adult list only because that way, we won't have to keep an eye on it. (We ask you to not post adult material to it, but we're realistic enough to know that some inconsiderate individuals will ignore this request, and warn you to not sign up for the list if you would be bothered by such material).

Really, there are no excuses to be made for the 110 or so people who visited the board during its brief existence, of whom exactly one person ever posted (and that was one of us). They were certainly given something to talk about : we started out with the first chapter of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, unquestionably one of the classics of ancient Philosophical literature, along with some commentary placing this work in its proper cultural context. For those who might have had trouble coming up with ideas about topics to explore, a non-exhaustive list of questions to explore was given; even a post explaining the author's nickname was made on the off-chance that some might have found it off-putting.

One can't say that we didn't go out of our way to make this board an easy place to post. For those who were not interested in this topic, the introduction they would have seen coming in gave the broadest invitation imaginable to post on a topic which they'd rather discuss:

A lot of forums have too many rules, and not enough common sense, don't you agree? Here, you're going to find only one real surprise : you're not allowed to name names here on our free speech board. If you do want to do that, please take it over to the Colosseum, which was set up for that purpose.

What is on-topic? Any religion which bears a substantial connection to those of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as anything relating to Classical culture or history. How to report to a problem to the moderator, find the webrings we're on and all other mysteries should be resolved on the exit page. "

How much more wide open could we have made this? It didn't matter, though. A little before our 90th lurker dropped by, "Diogenes" gave them a small pep talk, as if adults (or even adolescents) should need such things. But, mushrooms will be mushrooms, and these people just didn't have anything to contribute. Finally giving up on these people, he announced the closing of the old forum. There was nothing else to be done.

The board has been replaced with a mailing list, and let's not kid ourselves, technologically this is a step down. We aren't serving our visitors as well as we used to. In fact, we aren't really serving them at all, and really, why should we? Maybe part of the whole problem here is the attitude of far too many online that they are supposed to be served, that they are to be catered to with no effort on their part needed. But, that's not how forums work, and we're not going to keep posting to our own board in order to coax people into opening their mouths. Service like that is what one gives to an infant as one tries to get him to eat his strained peas. Adults should have a little more initiative.

Click here to enter the new Soapbox. Or don't. We really don't care. The list is there purely for your convenience, and if the average netizen is too much of a lump to share an occasional thought without us begging and pleading, then to h**l with him. We've got better things to do with our time.