User:Qmhdk/Rockbridge Forum

The Rockbridge Forum is an open electronic forum operated in the public interest, hosting discussion across a broad range of topics It emphasizes the interests of Rockbridge County (Virginia) folks and so it attracts current and former residents, persons with family or other connections to the area, and those with an interest in visiting or moving to the Rockbridge County area.

Participants
The Rockbridge Forum is free and open to anybody who registers with a working e-mail address. Participants are free to identify themselves by name, or to remain anonymous. Individuals spanning a range of interests, levels of accomplishment, education and age make postings.

Content of the Rockbridge Forum
Participants post lively opinion on current events (local to global), politics, philosophy, science, and religion. One will find discussion of the highest quality, some less so and, yes, the occasional dingbat. Although it is affiliated with no print publication, it can be thought of as an electronic "Letters to the Editor" service, often providing commentary on news items appearing in those local print publications.

Rules of Operation
There aren't any, really, apart from an admonition to be polite and respectful of fellow participants. All opinions are welcome, and debate is encouraged. The Administrator very rarely edits out a posting that appears to violate basic principles of civil discourse. He lightly edits content to improve organization, cosmetics and readability. There is a policy of never altering or deleting a posting's essential content.

Who runs the Rockbridge Forum?
The administrator operates the board as a public service, under the pseudonym of Stonewall, after a Lexington, Virginia resident of historical note. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, the famous Civil War general, lived there before the war in which he died. The Forum administrator was born in Stonewall Jackson's home, at a time when that building was the area's only hospital - it has since been converted to a museum.

Examples of Subjects Discussed
A prominent example during 2007 followed agony in the Rockbridge community over the death of teenager Charles Oliver Volpe while swimming near a low-head dam in Lexington VA. The cause was entrapment in the hydraulic vortex immediately below the dam. Debate raged over fault and responsibility, whether the dam should be removed or made safer.

Other issues prompting passionate expression of opinion have been the war in Iraq, local government and elected officials, environmental issues, and moral/ethical/religious subjects.