Gene Kearns wrote:

Many (if not most) of these OT posts are made by non-boaters. They
may *own* a boat, but their boating is never discussed here. One of
the more arrogant of these idiots admitted he came here only as a
vandal and not to discuss boating. He freely admitted that when he
wished to discuss boating he went elsewhere. When he wanted to engage
in mischief, this is where he came.

That got me to thinking. I wonder if there is not a movement afoot
among some (consciously, or not) to attempt to disable rec.boats. I
have no real answer for that, but it strengthens my resolve to ignore
these posts and forge on with what we should be discussing here. In
Agent, I just hit the round circle with a diagonal bar through it...
thread is ignored. Whatever you use for a newsreader, I encourage you
to learn about and use its capabilities to ignore inappropriate
threads. In some instances, killfilling a poster may be appropriate,
if they have never made a boating related post... and there are some
of those out there posting, now.

At any rate, again, the signal to noise ratio has reached the point
where we are losing posters. I'm betting that if we forced the noise
back down to a whisper, the vandals would slink back to their
respective rocks, crawl under, and be quiet.

Think about it, the decision is yours.


Gene,

Yours and Joe's threads have made me think a bit about this one. While
the defense has always been that this was a "bar-like-setting" and
boaters talk about varied topics when "in port", the level of civility
has diminished to the point of barely tolerable.

I can't think of a single case where any of the partisan sides has
conceded even a single point made by the opposition. The point of debate
is to provoke thought, not just to chest pound your deep rooted
convictions. If no one is willing to change their minds or even consider
other options, then what's the point of further banter?

There area few guys who I respect as being civil and level headed in
their discourse, and enjoy the chance to exchange ideas. But others have
degenerated into posting little more than ad-hominem diatribe.

With this in mind, I think it's time to be man enough to take
responsibility to the slow destruction of this newsgroup as a forum for
boat related topics. With this in mind, I will pledge to ignore
political bantering from now on. I would hope that others do the same,
although I seriously doubt that some personalities can survive without
the attention that their psychological conditions crave. But I'll give
it my best...


Dave