Francis, Mike
Thanks for this - and apols for the delay in response - your points are well made - In addition, you bring out a number of wider important issues that are worthy of discussion (Though as you rightly point out - the value might be limited by the number of people who frequent this valuable resource!).
Re the young people section - you may be right - and given the fact that a small proportion of the community use this BBS and that a smaller proportion still are under the age of 21.... the target audience, at this stage, will be very limited. My suggestion was also a marker to see if anyone of fresher years would respond - - and whilst we three all clearly feel like adolescent gazelles - I suspect we might not exactly count
There are a number of initiatives running to try to engage the younger tribe - and If a need for a discrete area appears - we can look at it then.
I will leave this thread out here as a hook so that should anyone want to pick this up - we can open the debate again.
On the other issues: principally, the use of the BBS - I agree, its a useful resource, though interesting that those actively using it all seem to have a specific interest/need.
It does strike me, however, that this is a different discussion and I will start another thread accordingly. In the mean time - thanks for your thoughts on this - very useful.
T