John wrote:
I don't mean to be rude, but there are considerable more polictical posts on
this group then there are boats. Shouldn't we stay on target and post the
polictical BS on another site?

Good luck with that. :-)

One whole big chunk of the frequent posters here post almost
exclusively about politics.
A few will mention something about a boat, rarely, but quite a few in
"the heart of the lineup" don't even make a pretense about an interest
in boats or boating.

We all seem to dabble in OT posts from time to time. Certainly I have
done so. What is unique to the internet, however, seems to be this form
of communication where people post the meanest, most vile and hateful
things they can imagine to virtual strangers in a public forum. If you
take a step back from the fray and look at what's going on, it's really
bizarre.

Are you the same guy that asked about Crownline yesterday? It remains
true that if you pose a boating question or comment you will get *some*
response, but if you want to be sure that you start a thread that will
go on for several days and extend to hundreds of posts between 8-12
participants, just mention: conservatives, liberals, George Bush, Bill
Clinton, war in Iraq, peace in Iraq, gun control, homosexuality,
abortion, Islam,... or call somebody a name.

Weird that it works that way in this group, but it does.

It's a social phenomenon that goes well beyond rec.boats. I am learning
to play the bagpipe, (or attempting to learn), and I checked out the
bagpipe NG one day. Lo and behold, one or two (unemployed ?) guys
dominate the board and spend all day posting OT insults and crap.

If I wanted to ask a question about bagpiping, I'd be afraid to do so
on that site for fear of the smart-assed and insulting response I'd
likely get.

There are some good boating NG's. hulltruth, iboat, and some others.
Sorry to say, this isn't one of them- hasn't been for the last several
years and it's unlikely that it will ever be again.