> flourish. One key thing that will help this happen is indeed to cut out (as
> much as possible) discussion and/or members that will alienate people.
> Cripes, perhaps I'm one of those, and if so then so be it. I'd hope that's
> not the case, though

And let's not let our biases dictate what alienates people.  A couple
of the responses to the event in question were pretty harsh (including
jabs against religion) -- To anyone who may be religious on the list,
seeing crap like that is just as likely to drive them away as someone
who's non-religious being preached to.

Just my two cents. :-)

-Andrew