Cambo, I find your first post in this thread confusing and a little bit funny. I think you are breaking up some drama that doesn't exist. I think the key confusion is the term "non-dream related things". When I was arguing with Mooni, I was talking about discussions like the one we're having right now as a non-dream related thing. The reason why your post is confusing is you were telling me to stop doing what I was doing, and then continued doing what I was doing yourself.
"Let's face facts", every single post of mine in this thread directly addressed the topic. None of it was "nonsense". As for arguing opinions, "sorry to be blunt", but welcome to discussion. Its kind of impossible not to argue opinions in a discussion; without arguing opinions, then a discussion is nothing more than a Q&A session. Things that aren't opinions aren't worth arguing anyway - if you can prove your point as a fact, not an opinion, then no discussion is necessary. Challenging opinions is an important part of discussion, and if you aren't prepared to stand by your opinion when someone does this, then in my opinion your opinion isn't worth stating.
I could go on but doing so would further derail the thread. I guess what I'm getting at is you have a misunderstanding with what was being discussed. In fact, when you disrupted the conversation by pointing out our disruption, I had just finished qualifying Mooni's last two points; in other words, our discussion converged and we even began to agree with each other.
Back on topic, Maria brings up a really good point - there could be a direct correlation between how many members we retain and how many members sign up. Furthermore the difference in our numbers for these two things and the numbers of other sites could explain why they seem to be so much more active than we are. If this is true (and I think it would be worth it to investigate this further) then can we really fix that and retain our cozy, tightly knit atmosphere? Do we want to field that many destined to be inactive players here at MM?
Indigo, I'll admit that I haven't read your idea about dream badges, but how are they any different from the monthly completed tasks? If the key difference is icons, that idea was brought up years ago, I believe it failed simply because we didn't have anyone who wanted to design the badges. Again, apologies if I'm off base here I am speaking with relative ignorance.
And finally, I don't think MM will ever be something other than a lucid dreaming site. Mooni's consistent efforts to keep us on track have earned her a favorable reputation and the appreciation of many members. But I don't see us diverging into a pointless atmosphere, the slope is not quite that slippery.
