There's a few things I would like to point out since this discussion has taken off...

First of all, I'm not entirely sure that ETS should maintain an LTS forum. It would contrary to the original purpose of the site, and would be difficult in the extremem to maintain a semblance of order. What I was originally wondering was if there are any existing communities that I could check out that weren't entirely over the top, or off the deep end.

That said, I would certainly be willing to put my money where my mouth is and pony up to support ETS financially if Doug and the other Powers That Be decide to create such a forum.

I also want to say that I've just finished reading James Howard Kunstler's "The Long Emergency", and I was struck by Kunstler's evaluation of good places to live in a post-"cheap oil" society, as opposed to the "traditional" wisdom of homesteading in rural areas. I live six miles from Center City Philadelphia in that great peninsula, New Jersey, and I have long been troubled by my location (for a number of reasons). Following Kunstler, I may acutally be in a fantastic place, with close access to strategic water transportation, relatively nearby fertile farm land (they don't call it The Garden State for nothing, you know), and in a community that still has a functional downtown a couple of blocks from my house. Many of NJ's towns are Revolutionary War era municipalities, despite the prevalence of suburban development. There are no Mc Mansions here (well, at least in my town), only 100+ year old houses built for an era sans air-conditioning and other so-called "modern" amenities.

Anyway, you can count on me for support if ETS goes that way, and I'll certainly try very hard to be without political recriminations--though it's a bit hard not to criticize the handling of the Katrina fiasco.

I've got a library that could practically revive civilization, and the tools to do it. Everything from the Greeks to Adam Smith to current technologies, including authors like Horace Kephart and Nessmuk, Thomas Paine and Richard Feynman, Robert Heinlein and Miyamoto Musashi. Yes, I can be called a "survivalist", and I'm proud of it. But, I also think that ETS' focus on short-term survival is equally important.