I joined WBMUTBB? about sixteen years ago, to the best of my recollection. I read the digest every day and try to post from time to time. It's easier to post when there is lots of activity because then there is usually something that I want to respond to. When there is less activity, there's not much to respond to, so I confess that I don't post as much as I did in the past. When there have been periods of low activity, I've tried to help spur interest in posting, but I don't spend time every day trying to come up with things to post. I just have too many other things to do. I don't mind the alumni postings. However, since we don't have TV, I don't often see actors from TAGS on other shows. I usually read the posts, but if I'm not interested that day, I just skip over them. I also did not mind the question about least favorite TAGS episode. I don't think that invited a "hate fest." Rather, it was a discussion opener. I don't recall people making many negative comments. Mo st stuck to the spirit of the question. The one about other shows, true, was a little off base, but I thought it was a fun question and did participate in that one. I do appreciate that Allan strives to keep our digest a positive, friendly place, and I think that's important. On the other hand, we don't want to take it to such an extreme that it stifles interesting discussion. I think if people just try to avoid being unduly critical or going on rants, we are usually okay. At the same time, if we try not to be overly sensitive, it helps, too. In other words, if we all just try to be considerate of one another and if we just skip over posts that we don't like or aren't interested in, we can keep things in the spirit of Mayberry. Does that sound reasonable? I would really like to see more activity on the digest, but I fear that social media is to blame for the decrease in posts. On the one hand, it's nice that we have more opportunities to interact with other TAGS fans and shar e our "compelsion" with others. I myself belong to at least four TAGS groups on Facebook, and I do participate a good bit there. The immediacy of Facebook allows us to get involved in more give and take, and I like that. However, the digest serves an important function, and I would hate to see it go the way of the horse and buggy. Though the digest lacks the immediacy of social media, it allows us to make longer, more involved posts, at least sometimes. In the past, I've gotten into discussions on the digest about, for example, how Barney's character changed after he left Mayberry to become a detective in the big city of Raleigh. The digest allows for more in-depth discussions than a Facebook group, I think, because you have the time to reflect and compose your post. You don't feel you have to make just a brief, snappy comeback. The question is whether enough members want to take the time to send an e-mail, rather than just make a quick comment on social media. So I want to make a challenge to our members. I just took a look over at www.imayberry.com, and I see that we have 1,204 members. That's a lot! And yet only a handful of people actually post to the digest. I know there are many members who read the digest daily but never post. If you've never posted to the digest, why not give it a try? You might tell us who your favorite character is or your favorite episode or the reason you love TAGS--or whatever comes to your mind. If more people posted instead of just reading, we'd have a lot more activity on the digest and we would have a lot more variety in the kinds of posts. That would prompt more people to respond, and maybe we could keep it up. Allan does a lot of work to run the digest and the web site, and we really ought to make better use of the wonderful resources we have available to us as fans. Sorry for such a long post!! Thelma Lou(Janet) _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/