"Reggie Smithers" wrote in message
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The 5-day program is and or was important. Changing behavior (which is
what is involved here- changing the behavior of a group we all belong
to) is tough enough, and when one adds "change behavior forever....."
to the equation the task seems so daunting that it is relegated to the
status of "impossible dream". The 5-day task provides a little bite.

It is the reason why AA says "Just take it one day at a time".
Rec.boats
was out of control, and I was as guilty as anyone.

Of course, if we can keep the peace for one day we can keep it for two.
If for two, we can keep it for four, and if for four why not a week? If
for a week, then for a fortnight. If for a fortnight, perhaps a month,
a season, a year....................

I want to turn it into a "Movement" (from Arlo Guther's song)



Certainly the worst traditional offenders *have* taken the lead in
reducing the amount of political garbage and flame throwing here. As a
group, the worst traditional offenders (self included) can be slightly
gratified by the improvement. An unforseen result is that a group of
previously consistent but (relatively) low-level rabble rousers are now
as obvious as $20 hookers at a high school prom. This too may pass if
we can continue avoiding the temptation to respond to threads with
titles along the lines of, "George Bush is Adolph Hitler", "Liberals
are Satan", and try to stay on topic.

There are thousands of places to discuss the evils of the Republican
party, Democratic debauchery, the shame of American Imperialism, and
our glorious struggle to defend America in Iraq. Rec.boats doesn't have
to be one of them.

Skipper suggested we need a moderator. Nah, all we really need is some
self control- and a group effort to exercise some during the last
several days has made a startling improvement in the tone and content
of this group.

The trick will be to keep it up going forward.

Statistically, the tough benchmarks are the 21st and 28th days. If
we're still relatively civil, respectful, and on-topic the 3rd week of
January there's a good chance the fix will stick.
We should all continue to do our parts. It only takes a few adults to
break the cycle- and it only takes a few to put us back in the toilet.

We still need more boating content, but I have noticed a few new names
with some boating related questions the last few days. Maybe we're not
scaring away potential
participants as badly as we were.

In my opinion, this is the reason why OT Political Threads are so
detrimental to rec.boats. It chases away any and all new participants
from
rec.boats. Then we are left with 10 old farts, who are posting very few
boating related threads.

Unfortunately, it seems to be a trend in a several other NGs to go
political as well