The Oil Drum is a team that works to bring you a good product every day, to raise the bar on the discourse on the myriad topics that we cover here; and we will not lie, it is a difficult enterprise. These people might make it look easy, but it is a difficult and time-consuming endeavor doing what we do, but we do it because we all passionately know that it is important: we all must strive to promote more informed discourse about, and understanding of, the future of our energy supply.

It is a difficult enterprise that recently was made even more difficult by a notable deterioration in the level of discourse at this site. This was something we had to confront--and confronting it was not something we enjoyed, but we determined our actions to be necessary for the integrity and future of the site. (We can assure you that it will be dealt with in the future as well--we also have some tools coming to help with that, most of the delay in the implementation of which having to do with technical aspects/other arcana of the site that SuperG has had to deal with.)

The Oil Drum is a wonderful place, filled with passion, ideas and tensions (and theories and data); those ideas and tensions all get sorted out, and they always will--but sometimes it takes a while, sometimes it requires taking a breath and saying to yourself, "am I actually contributing by typing this response?"

That being said, I think we all have witnessed the change in the level of discourse that has occurred since steps were taken. It is important to remember, however, that in a community like this, it is truly up to ALL of us in this community to maintain that level of discourse, to be civil to each other, and to otherwise enjoy the experience of learning from each other, even when we disagree fundamentally.

As we continue to grow there will be more challenges and even more rewarding conversations.

The people who work and write here deserve much more laud than they receive, and I have to say it is a beautiful thing watching these people accomplish what they accomplish--all with no payment other than the currency of doing what they believe is important.

We all learn from, and give to, this site every day, and it is my hope that we continue to improve while maintaining the high standards of discourse and evidence that TOD is known for.

So, thank you dear readers for being here, and thank you for being a part of what we do here: improving on the silence.