On Sat, 26 Jan 2008 06:08:14 -0800 (PST), Chuck Gould
wrote:


It's truly amazing when some of the worst perpetrators of OT crap and
launchers of patisan political chaos suddenly want to have discussions
regarding boats. I wonder how many of those folks think that the
people interested in boating are willing to sift through 20 or 30
goofball, hostile, threads filled with name calling and political
extremism
to find the random thread actually relating to boats? How truly
biazarre is that? Do they think their behavior has no consequence?


Little dose of reality needed here, Chuck.

Rec.boats has always had a very low signal to noise ratio with respect to On
Topic/Off Topic posts as do most unmoderated newsgroups. It's been that way
for at least the 15 years or so that I've been following it.

Reality is that many boaters are sitting out the winter right now. Not all,
but many, if not most. That usually ups the off topic percentage. Then,
in addition, those of us in the USA are approaching a critically important
election, the results of which may have far-reaching implications for the
future of the country politically and economically which are pretty damned
important. Might even affect how we enjoy boating in the future.

So, it doesn't surprise or particularly bother me that politics is taking a
larger percentage of bandwidth at the moment. As for TV sets, if someone
asks for an opinion in a friendly discussion, even if "off-topic" or wants
to express support for a favorite sports team, what's the big deal?

Eisboch