Stacy: Sorry about that. I didn't want to kick anyone. I just don't have it in me to hurt people's feelings, and I guess I was afraid that I would have done that.

No one's really in charge, but I was a moderator on the server at the time so it would have been up to me if it had needed to be done. There's a fine line between moderating and being the "fun police" and I really didn't want to be the latter. Most of us who were on the show know (or at least know of) one another, so that makes it even harder to be harsh. 

There are a couple of us who have had one or two too many on an open mic recently (myself included), and you're right that it isn't any fun to listen to (especially when it's yourself, trust me...) even if it seems fun at the time. I don't personally mind if someone wants to drink on a podcast, but I've decided not to do anymore, because I was rude, annoying and repetitive when I did it. Maybe that should be the cutoff for future community shows: If you sound as bad as pokey did that one time, you're out.

I appreciate your feedback, and I do take it to heart. We'll try to do better next year.

If you want to suggest a more formal guideline, feel free to run it past the mailing list hpr@hackerpublicradio.org and we will certainly discuss it. Even better would be if you subscribed to the mailing list and discussed it with us also.