1. Why is it that the "freedom of speech" claimed by the OT posters is
rarely
extended to those opposed to OT? I have seen thousands of OT posts that
never
raised an eyebrow, yet *one* post in opposition to OT is invariably attacked,
and usually denigrated.

Good question. The answer is most likely related to two factors. First, the
majority of people who log on just to gripe about OT posting *never* post on
topic. They don't participate, but would presume to dictate how the people who
do participate should go about it. Second, some of the folks who complain about
OT posts have a Joan of Arc complex and see it as their mission to
"save" rec.boats from OT posts, specific individual posters, or etc.

Yeah, freedom of speech extends to everybody. Even those with nothing
intelligent to say. You're free to express your opinion, and others are free to
say you're a such-and-such, no-good, blankety blank SOB for daring to think
that way. That's how it works. (Just imagine being a liberal in the current rw
political environment, you'll see what I mean) :-)





2. You posted above "Sadly, however, if you want almost zero
response in rec.boats just post something boating related." That is sad.

Perhaps it's an indication of the number of boaters who no longer frequent
here.
A number of posters, including myself, try to respond if we have something to
offer.

A number of OT posters never post about boats. Is that OK with you?

I would prefer that the NG have more boating content. It doesn't matter if its
"OK" with me......it isn't up to me, to you,
to Butch Ammon, or anybody else to dictate the tone of the NG. We can
"influence" it through participation, but we have no right to demand that the
very few people who see cut and pasting political newspaper articles as the
primary reason to visit rec.boats take their act somewhere else.

3, and last. The acceptance of OT posting just encourages more OT posters,
and
creates a larger "bog". If everyone on Usenet followed this "anything goes"
precept, we would be up to our necks in "dog grooming", "kinky pet lovers",
and
"philatilist phobias". Most people recognise that the group name indicates
the
content. You stated above that "the group determines the content.", yet I
have
never detected any concern from the OT posters for Usenet protocol or group
opinion. A handful of posters produce about 70-80% of the posts, all
Off-topic.
As in #1 above, dissenters are normally attacked, and many don't come back.
They didn't come here for an argument, they came here to read and post about
boats, were disappointed, and left.. Are you saying that "whosoever posts
legitimizes his post by posting"? I don't get it. I understand that my
opinion
is not popular here, but it is not intended to be popular. I do try to make
it
logical, respectful, and to engage others in discussion.

Regards,
noah

To email me, remove the "OT-" from OT-wrecked.boats.noah.
...as you were. )


I don't get around to hardly any other NG's beyond rec.boats. But, I am
beginning to suspect the problem is universal throughout the medium and not
just islolated in the rec.boats NG.

Example: I'm beginning the process of learning to play the bagpipe. What better
instrument for a guy who's a natural windbag, "drones" on incessantly, and
toots his own horn? (Actually, I have come to appeciate the oboe-like tone and
the heritage of the instrument).

I thought I'd check out the bagpipe newsgroup to see what I should be trying to
learn.......

That lasted about five minutes. The topics listed were about half left wing or
right wing political, a couple of general laments along the theme "Why has our
newsgroup gone to hell so?", Some Specific Person is a pedophile, We Should be
Ashamed of our role in Iraq, We Should be Proud of our role in Iraq, a half
dozen assorted flaming and name calling sessions, several posts attacking a
specific, prolific, poster who seems to have annoyed almost everybody, etc. If
you picked through all the crap, there were acutally two or three posts related
to playing the bagpipe. Not much different than here, and I'll bet there's
little or no crossover.

My bagpipe newsgroup experience must have been very similar to that of a boater
just passing through rec.boats. If I were just stumbling across rec.boats
today, I wouldn't stick around either.

There is no doubt the NG has gone downhill over the last few years. In my
opinion, it's the bitchy and childish nature of the OT posts, more than the
subject matter, that contribute to the deterioration.
Do you realize there are several posters in the NG who post an insult almost
every time they participate?

We disagree because we see the NG from our two unique perspectives. You, for
example, are a classroom teacher. It makes all the sense in the world to you to
post a sign outside the classroom door that says "Advanced Physics" and expect
everybody in class to restrict discussion to physics, or topics immediately
related to same.

Myself, I operate in a mad scramble where the fewer the rules the better I like
it. I promote a society where individuals accept responsibilty for their own
actions and in exchange are not highly regulated by others. (As Dylan said, "To
live outside the law, you must be honest").

Live and let live------even if we might not personally see value in the choices
made by others. It's not always important that we do.