Gould,
Do you find the majority of the OT posters interests are in flaming and
enjoying the insults instead of actually discussing any subject matter
seriously? While there are a few who enjoy the discussion, most are
interested in calling the people "trash" republican Nazis, liberal
bedwetters, doctor killers, baby killers or my personal favorites "stupid
technician" and liar.
IMO, this group is not interested in discussing anything except how ignorant
their opposition is.
Then you have a few who enjoy trolling for subjects just to see how easy it
is to start a long running off topic thread.

And lastly, their a few people who are actually interested in seriously
discussing the subject. Those normally are not regulars, because the topic
soon degrades into a flame war, and they bow out of the topic.

This group is what the regulars want it to be, a forum to make their
opposition look stupid. In reality, it makes all who participate in the
discussion look bad.



"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
Chuck, do you enjoy the level of OT posting found here?

I don't mind it. If I go to a marine trade event or a yacht club meeting,
everybody is discussing a wide variety of subjects that certainly include
boats. It has been my practice to avoid being among the leaders in
initiating
OT posts, but I'm not shy about contributing an opinion to the pot once
it's
boiling.

Do you enjoy the personal attacks that outnumber the boating-related
posts?

No, of course not. That's a separate issue from the OT posts. In most
cases,
the people who resort to personal attack are either not particularly adept
in
social discourse, or (more often) become frustrated with a lack of mental
or
verbal ability to discuss a subject on an issues basis. That frustration
is
often manifest by name-calling and flaming. Such behavior is more commonly
encountered in emotionally charged topics like politics and religion- but
it is
also a regular element in on-topic posts.
(Bayliner, anyone?)

It's the tone of so many of the posts that is disturbing, more so than the
subject matter. Too many times the group forgets how to disagree without
becoming disagreeable. I'm sure we have all been guilty at times.