"C. Anou" writes:

I haven't seen a single reason why I'd want to visit your site.

Paul Tomblin

Couldn't agree more. Take the UK as a cautionary tale:

There is this urban myth that one or two individuals 'killed' the NG
uk.rec.boats.paddle by continually using it as a political platform,
challenging British Canoe Union etc. Then some sensitive little souls
started posting messages such as 'I can't stand all the pettiness any more,
come to the forum for right thinking canoeists'.

It is hardly an urban myth, I watched it happen, and I don't entirely
blame most of the old ukrbp posters for moving somewhere else, it was
very unpleasant in there at the time, somewhat like the times here when
timmy still had access to usenet.

And people did, so now UK canoeists got what they deserve. People mainly
flock to a couple of strongly moderated forums where they get blasted with
adverts. On the plus side, forums do tend to eliminate crude spamming, or
do they, because moderators tend to write 'Dear subscriber, you'll find the
full answer to your question in my latest book xyz, available in all good
book shops' a lot of the time.

What is the UK rivers guidebook site selling?

Forum = Funded by commercial interest, hence variable quality. Blinkered,
insular, pressure to confom. "Different day, same old sxxx". Tends to make
you feel smug and that you 'belong' if you toe the party line.

Or set up by someone who does it for fun or as a part of a larger site,
like Mark's Uk rivers site, which has a forum, or James's Thamesweir site.

Personal opinion - support your Usenet NGs and do not use a forum that
suppresses criticism of their advertisers or that discourages lively debate.

Hi allan, ****ed off that no-one is around to play with you in ukrbp?

--
James jamesk[at]homeric[dot]co[dot]uk

"Capital punishment turns the state into a murderer. But imprisonment turns
the state into a gay dungeon-master." -Rev. Jesse Jackson