Okay, I'm closin' comments on this bad boy. Thanks, all!

I certainly agree you shouldn't remain where you aren't comfortable or wanted- although perhaps all of you could have been a tad more open-minded. But to err is human, and there is nothing wrong with being yourself. I applaud you for it actually, you've got friends here- and who knows, maybe you did teach BHT something after all.

I love reading Spencer's stuff at iMonk, but frankly, I'm far too ADHD to follow the threads of conversation at BHT. It makes my head hurt.

I will say from the other side of things (not that I've ever been a fellow at BHT) having been an admin/moderator at a closed forum, which is actually much more what BHT is like than a group blog… it's hard to open things up and let "new blood" in. As much as you might feel like being closed is slowly asphyxiating the community, it's still hard.

In a situation like that, it's the fact that you've been in kind of a long-term relationship with these people, and everyone has a level of trust in each other's intentions, that makes it possible for you to be more honest, more straightforward, more revealing of your less-presentable side than you can be anywhere else.

I have a closed community where I contribute, and if a stranger were to bounce in there not knowing us at all… well, I could see where we might seem like a bunch of angry harpies, to be honest. Because that's our place to vent in an unfiltered way.

At any rate, I'm rambling now, possibly because this head cold has me feeling a bit lightheaded.

Godspeed, as always, John.