1) Mods are folks with issues just like us so I try to understand when I see one have an off day. But the fact is that posters look to the mods for how to act. If a mod is critical of a poster or a post in public....imo, that's just makes the whole situation here unstable. Just remembering how important their actions are during stressful times here is important. People look to them as role models for interactions with others....even when one might not wanna always BE a role model. So, perhaps some work on phrasing things more positively would help?

2) Regarding chat - I like it when other posters try to help answer questions. What I don't like is all the chatter in the background which is not related to the topics posed to DocJohn. And perhaps keep the "hi xyz" in PM rather than in chat. It's REALLY distracting to me.

3) I know that there are people here who feel that there is a clique here who get special treatment. Acknowledging that this feeling exists is an important part of resolving this issue. There are people here who feel that the "in crowd" gets special treatment. (Apparently I'm part of the in-crowd! That was a surprise to me honestly. I've never in my life been anything but an outsider). Anyhow, I don't know what to do to fix this, except to bring it out on the table for discussion.

Emmy