While the efforts and sugggestions are laudable, I
don't believe any of them will have much effect.

REC.BOATS.LOUNGE would only work if
the offenders abided by posting only there...but
they WANT the audience, so that's unlikly.

A FAQ is nice but there is no policing to enforce it.
The only way to enforce is by reporting people to
their ISP. The ISPs don't act unless it's an obvious
and continuous problem. But even then, the person
can so easily get a different email or news-service
and be right back here.

AGREED TO CODE OF CONDUCT is a nice
idea too, but this could easily degenerate into even
MORE useless bickering about "Hey, that's a
personal attck." Answered by, "Well if that is than
what you said yesterday is too." Bla...bla..bla.


But mostly, who cares? It it SO easy to skip the
posts that aren't about boating. Even without
blocking anyone, you can just not read OT posts
or posts that have topic titles that aren't about
boats. It really is easy to skim them and not
read. It's also very easy to notice when the
posters step off the road of debate and into
the battlefield. Then stop reading that thread.

This group is great. It's a wonderful source of
boating knowledge, it's entertaining, and in
politics it can even be informing. It's very
interesting to see how both sides think of
issues - whether that be depth finders or
deficits.