Public discussion (was thanks for the fish) - comp.sys.acorn.misc

Message from discussion Public discussion (was thanks for the fish)

David Holden

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More options 20 Mar 2007, 07:47

Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.misc

From: David Holden <black_h...@apdl.co.uk>

Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 07:47:20 GMT

Local: Tues 20 Mar 2007 07:47

Subject: Re: Public discussion (was thanks for the fish)

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On 19-Mar-2007, jl <j...@spamnet.co.uk> wrote:

> If the Acorn scene had always been populated by rule-obeying robots that
> trudge through life faithfully doing whatever someone else whom they don't
> know tells them to do, I for one would have left a long time ago.

In general I agree that people /should/ stick to the charter and not indulge
in wildly OT discussions, especially as these often seem to turn into public
brawls, which *are* offensive to almost everyone.

However.....

The number of people contributing to such threads and the number of postings
on such topics often exceeds the number of people contributing to the more
normal subjects. This would seem to indicate to me that they're not as
unpopular as some people would have us believe (until, of course, they
descend into personal abuse, when *no-one* approves). You could almost say
it's a sort of 'democracy in action'. I've never heard anyone say "I've
stopped reading the c.s.a groups because there's too much off topic stuff"
but I've heard a lot of people say "I've stopped reading the c.s.a groups
because there's too much bickering and petty argument".

A few years ago reigning in OT discussions would have been important. Then
most subscribers would have had dial-up access and the numbers of posts were
*much* larger. These days the additional bandwidth (even for those using
dial up) is probably not really important since the total number of postings
has dropped to a fraction of what it used to be. I suspect that if anyone
cared to do a comparison they'd find that OffT posting have dropped
significantly, it's just that with the huge reduction in OnT postings they
seem more significant.

I've also noticed that those who rant loudest about them don't seem to have
any problems with threads that drift OT when they drift into areas that
they're interested in ;-)

In general, I think that the OT stuff, while not a good thing and should be
discouraged is *in itself* not really detrimental to the groups. The silly
arguments that such threads often lead to certainly is, as is the equally
silly bickering which arises when the self-appointed 'net police' turn up
and admonish the participants.

I think most of the regulars around here (note use of 'most') are quite
grown up enough to police ourselves. If a thread does start to drift
seriously OT, with the current low level of traffic on these groups,
although it can be annoying, at least it lets us know that there are still
more than half a dozen people still alive out there.

--
David Holden - APDL - <http://www.apdl.co.uk>

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