The Brainformation Community Forum was created for the purpose of providing an on line gathering place in which its members may interact with people around the world. We aspire to promote a greater understanding of people, and the world around us, through the exchange of ideas and by interacting with a diverse population of fellow Internet travelers. To that end we encourage the exchange of knowledge, opinions, and insights in an atmosphere of family and community spirit.
We hope you enjoy your stay here, and that you will come back often. In return we promise the opportunity to form friendships and gain knowledge that could not be possible without this electronic medium.
The end of November marks the second year for Brainformation's presence on the Internet. In recognition of that milestone I want to take a few moments to reflect on our brief history.
Brainformation is the result of my own and our co-founder (MarkHimself's) past experiences with on line web communities. While our backgrounds are significantly different, our vision for the ideal social network came from the similar sources. Mark and I were members of question/answer sites that did not meet up to our expectations. A lot of things were wrong with what we saw, and were involved with, but we had no control over any of it. After a lot of discussion, and after much encouragement from the present co-administrator (Rusty), Brainformation was born. We gave birth to what we hoped could be the ideal community.
Our mission statement sums up our ideals for the perfect web community. In reality the ideal would take the form of a discussion forum that was free from the flaws encountered in so many other such projects. After being subjected to rule based, highly structured, web sites run by virtual dictators, we came to realize that only one basic guideline was needed to accomplish the mission. That guide being codified in our Code of Conduct wherein we ask our members to respect one another as individuals when participating in the public discussion forums.
For the greater part of our existence Brainformation remained a well kept secret. More than half our life was lived with just a handful of members, and only a few of them being active in the forums. This small population allowed a high degree of community feeling to emerge, and the Code of Conduct was taken for granted. No Moderators From Hell were needed to force the spirit of Brainformation upon our membership. A space for discussing topics of general interest was provided, and flexibility to drift about as our personalities would want became our hallmark. The intent of the mission was fully realized back then, and is still a strong part of our experience today.
As sometimes happens, best kept secrets cannot remain hidden. Eventually we were discovered by refugees from all parts of the Internet. We took a great deal of pride in the fact that we could be a safe haven from all those other places. The newest among us praised us for the atmosphere we created, and we enjoy strong support and interest from our active members today. For this we are grateful, and we wish to continue on in the same direction well into the future. In order to assure that we don't fall into the errors of those places from which we have all migrated, this two year anniversary seems to be an appropriate time to renew our mission and reaffirm that for which we stand.
Brainformation is a community discussion forum. It is not a personal chat room. The forums, and the topics therein, are designed to provide a means for all our members to discuss topics of general interest. We also have personal journals for individuals who wish to reveal their personal lives, and we have a message board for communicating in public with specific individuals or groups. The Random Thoughts and Chit Chat forum is intended for those among us who like the random question/answer feel, while the rest of our site is for narrower discussions in specific areas of interest. And for those of us who need to rant, Flame Throwers is a means by which we can let off steam and have slightly less concern for that Code of Conduct which marks our uniqueness.
In order to maintain the appeal that brought us together we need to remind ourselves of what we are all about. Technically, the public forums are for general discussion, not personal chat between individuals. We encourage some topic drift as a gesture of promoting the communal spirit for which we are noted, but of late certain topics have become personal and of limited appeal. That kind of posting lessens the interest of the general membership in our forums, and in the end it defeats the purpose for which we were established. We do not practice censorship here, but we do have rules and guidelines that must be maintained in order to preserve our identity and appeal to a large diverse audience. The role of our administrators is to assure that the guidelines are followed in spirit as well as to the letter. We expect all our members to conduct themselves as mature adults, and to self-regulate their behavior in the public forums. Our success as a community discussion forum is based on the trust given to our members to regulate their own behavior. As long as that trust is honored, we will prosper.
The bottom line is that we are doing well. We are growing and still trying to establish an identity. It is our membership ranks that make this site what it is, and I encourage all of you to continue sharing your unique character with us in our virtual community. If we are a success, it is because 0ur members have made us that way. I have the highest degree of confidence that the ideal community can continue on for many years to come, and I am staking my hopes on the trust I have in human nature. I anxiously anticipate seeing the results of this experiment in human interaction. So far, our mission has been accomplished. I look forward to all of our current and future members to continue making this trip down the Information Highway pleasant and rewarding.
Thank you all for exceeding my wildest expectations.
Dennis (aka Yogi)
Hope Brainformation remains open forever! We love coming here because your rules are not over bearing, you treat us like adults and you give us leeway 
Thank you Yogi and all others responsible for making Brainformation the beautiful place it is. Best Wishes to all!
The Professor Penguin of Brainformation 
