Pop-quiz time! Ready? Let's begin!

1. Can you describe why you read this off-topic post?

2. Can you describe why you participated in, and contributed to this
off-topic thread?

3. Should a committee be nominated to come up with a guide-line
listing of acceptable topics?

4(a). If you were to host an "R.R.S." gathering in your town, would
you restrict conversation only to logs, impedance, who has the biggest
"antenna", etc.?

4(b). Wheat-Thins or Triskets?

5. Would it be acceptable for a group of people who share a common
hobby to gather and discuss whatever interests them, whether the
topic of conversation centers on their shared hobby, or if the
conversation wanders in and out of that shared hobby?

6. Do you regard R.R.S. *only* as a reference source that should
never be used as a venue for social interaction among those who have
a common hobby?


Don't blow a gasket - I'm just sayin'...

I realize that you would prefer the balance of on-topicff-topic
posts to be heavily weighted to on-topic. There's nothing wrong with
that. However, if you peruse usenet much, then you should already
know the nature of public forums. As the concept has matured over
time, private forums have become about the only place you can
realistically expect to find the balance you seek. You probably
already know that as well. So I would say that your expectations for
a public, un-moderated usenet forum (though admirably optimistic) are
fairly unrealistic.

Do we want this group to be nothing more than 150+ posts per day
consisting only of "Here's My Logs!" type posts? Part and parcel of
the hobby is the variety of content you can hear. If some in this
group had their way, I would only be able to post a freq, time and
sinpo, but would be banished to the hinterlands for discussing
anything to do with the actual content of what I heard. If it ever
turns into that, then I'd rather go dig stumps.

-=jd=

Like it or not, many talented members of this hobby have left this NG for
good and for one reason: The namecalling, political BS that now passes for
conversation on this NG. If that's your favorite sport, there must be
hundreds of newsgroups where people rant all day long about everything. Why
hijack this group for that purpose?

Look I'm not important, and I can go elsewhere.......but there used to be
lots of international goodwill and dialogue here and tremedous help for
newbies. Now it's anti-canada, anti-this, anti-everything. The
conversation now is about as immature as I have ever seen here. KIllfiling
cross-posters and those who never post shortwave is a great way to at least
make the conversations seem more civil. (Unfortunately the Lauterbachs of
this world keep changing their IP and showing up again 5 minutes later).

--
Brian Denley
http://home.comcast.net/~b.denley/index.html