>I think this is a poor solution. Some thoughts should remain thoughts and shouldn't be publicly expressed. Personal attacks don't belong anywhere in a place like the UT, and an "off ramp" section just gives people license to be rude.

I appreciate your opinion, but do disagree. It is, to me, similar to the cultural idea of contraries, carnival, reversal days. These are culturally sanctioned, blowing-off-steam periods where rudeness, crudity, and role-reversals are the norm.

It seems a sane approach to not denying our more human and base emotions...giving them a relatively safe arena.

That, to me, is the OR's cultural significance.