Well, we lost another blogger. WrecklessEric has deleted all his articles and dropped out.

        In the old days, miners would carry canaries into the mines with them as a gas meter. The poor little feather balls were more sensitive and more quickly subject to the effects of poison gas than their much larger human companions. If the canary died it meant there was poison in the air and time to beat a hasty retreat.

        We've recently seen a flux of articles about how nasty things are getting around here, how certain individuals pollute the experience and make others feel worthless. While there is a certain ebb and flow to this sort of thing, I think this may be far more serious than the norm. Bloggers are dropping like canaries. And not the toxic bloggers either.

        Others have criticized the criticizers. It's the old blame the messenger routine. "As long as I keep my head buried in the sand, as long as you don't rock my delusional little boat then nothing is wrong. You are the problem! You are the problem!" Well, you know the old saying -- "If you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem" -- and you my ostrich feathered friends are part of the problem. If only you were a little smaller you wouldn't find it so easy to dismiss and dis. You'd already be laying legs up on the bottom of your cage.

        There's something wrong here. The canaries are trying to tell us that. This is more than just the normal comings and goings. This is death whispering in our ears. These aren't people leaving because they lose interest or find other things more pressing. These are people leaving because of the nastiness. If the good people continue to leave while the "evil doers" flourish things will only get nastier and nastier till only the hateful survive.