When I first read the top of this thread, I almost started to panic, Fozzie Bear is leaving? I was really stumped, so I came in and had a look. I'm glad that Fozzie Bear is not leaving and that the merging of threads has happened here. There's no point in oodles of threads of the same kind throughout the forum.
I never really could understand the thing about announcing that one is leaving. Generally if I get put out with a forum, I just leave and people don't hear from me for eons. Then I get a message on facebook from one of my friends still on the forum who said that 'so and so asked about me.' and 'where in the world have you been?'
I end up blushing, and saying 'oh I left', without going into any extensive elaboration.
I know that there are people who really need the attention, they feel the necessity of being validated. So, I can't totally keep in with Fozzie Bear's assertion, because I don't know their circumstances. They could be easily hurt, or have gone through something rather traumatic. There could be hundreds of things going on that we don't always understand or grasp. But, if members are not happy or feel ignored, and there are more than one of them feeling that way, then perhaps we ought to evaluate why these folks want to head to the exit. I mean; feeling ignored is not a crime, it's just a fact of life. Sometimes people do feel that way.
The negativity issue is a valid one to bring up, but let's face it, the best way to combat the negativity is to keep all the comments about what's been going on in the feedback thread and not let it filter out and contaminate the rest of the forum. We can overcome all the things going on, but one of the things we probably should do is try to keep things in the proper place.
Just my two cents, now I really do have a busy weekend ahead of me, so you will probably not see much of me in the coming days. But, I'll be back, I don't like to stay away for too terribly long.