Besides discussing the course readings, students occasionally got "off-task" (surprise, surprise, surprise!) and began discussing items of a more personal nature--sometimes this occured naturally as someone would relate one of the readings to his or her own personal experience; sometimes, it was triggered by events "outside" our virtual classroom's walls, such as the birth of a baby. Analyzing all of this extra-curricular conversation would probably take a whole book (or a munch of space on the server), so I will simply present them here, with only the briefest of commentary:
Personal Greetings and Advice on My Social Life