From feedback I get from readers and from my own experience, the discussions here are getting a bit out of hand:

• You struggle to have a serious conversation without being hijacked by someone trying to be funny
• You can't find the serious stuff in amongst the chit-chat
• We still get abuse and inappropriate posts. While this is better than before, moderators have to sift through the whole lot to find it.

So my proposal is as follows:

• Establish a moderated forum for 'serious' stuff - members only to post, readable by anyone.
• Have a non-moderated forum for the 'fun' chatty stuff - members only to post and read. Implement a 'report this post' feature.

I am hoping that will restore some order to the forums without taking away from the fun that many people are having. Anonymity can still be trained by using an alias on the web site.

At this stage email addresses are not validated when you register but at a later stage I may make registration a 2-step process in which email address will be validated. I have noticed that some are fakes.

Thoughts please. Preferably non-anonymous. You can click on the 'Site Admin' link in the header of this post to send a private response if you prefer (need to be logged in).

yes this a good idea.

Great idea, all the serious people with a bad case of seriousness won't get upset...