Lighten up folks: A Revisit of the *Challenge*
 

Harry Krause wrote:

Skipper wrote:

If our unmoderated group is going to be a group, it is useful every so
often to hash out some understandings (no, not rules) about how the
majority of the group prefers to interact...

Is that not what a NG charter is for? This NG was formed for the
discussion (primarily) of recreational boats and boating. What
percentage of current NG posts have anything at all to do with charter
compliant topics? That says a lot about the current health of the NG.
Should this problem not be corrected, the NG will retain its reputation
as a bad joke and continue to drive serious contributors away, IMO. Half
the current contributors are capable of lucid on-topic contributions.
The real problem is that fully another half is not, again IMO.

It will be interesting to see who prevails in this NG tug-o-war.

Whoever it is, it ain't gonna be you.

What you are doing:

http://tinyurl.com/bvnds

Yes, that could well be true. It also says a lot about the current crop
of contributors if true.

--
Skipper

Lighten up folks: A Revisit of the *Challenge*
 

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:05:45 -0600, Skipper wrote:

wrote:

If our unmoderated group is going to be a group, it is useful every so
often to hash out some understandings (no, not rules) about how the
majority of the group prefers to interact...

Is that not what a NG charter is for? This NG was formed for the
discussion (primarily) of recreational boats and boating. What
percentage of current NG posts have anything at all to do with charter
compliant topics? That says a lot about the current health of the NG.
Should this problem not be corrected, the NG will retain its reputation
as a bad joke and continue to drive serious contributors away, IMO. Half
the current contributors are capable of lucid on-topic contributions.
The real problem is that fully another half is not, again IMO.

It will be interesting to see who prevails in this NG tug-o-war.

Skipper, my boat is in storage. I can't even look at it. It will be that
way until early April, unless I can get them to take it out in late March.
I'm not doing any fishing, but when I do, I'll talk about it. Honest.

The boating questions are being answered, in a pretty complete fashion from
what I can tell. I haven't been to Mexico, Alaska, Puget Sound, or any
other exotic place in my boat, so I can't talk about any of that. I don't
plan to buy anything boating related, so I can't talk about that.

Neutral topics of interest should not be excluded from discussion. We
*know* what starts the name-calling.

Rule # 1. Be nice.
--
John H

******************************************
***** Have a Spectacular Day! *****
******************************************

Lighten up folks: A Revisit of the *Challenge*
 

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:05:45 -0600, Skipper wrote:

Half
the current contributors are capable of lucid on-topic contributions.
The real problem is that fully another half is not, again IMO.

I'm sure we'd all get a chuckle out of seeing who you've got in column
A, and who's in column B. Don't hold back, tell us how you really
feel.

Lighten up folks: A Revisit of the *Challenge*
 

JohnH wrote:

Skipper, my boat is in storage. I can't even look at it. It will be that
way until early April, unless I can get them to take it out in late March.
I'm not doing any fishing, but when I do, I'll talk about it. Honest.

There is still a vast menu of on-topic items to be discussed in the off
season. Do you really think 99% off-topic is healthy for the NG?

Neutral topics of interest should not be excluded from discussion.

I completely agree, but not when off-topic consumes the NG. Best course
for the NG is keeping the *primary* focus on boating, IMO. Look at
today's NG content. Do you really believe that's the kind of content to
draw in and retain boaters?

On another note, check out the charter and voting summary for
rec.boats.cruising. I do find it interesting that only two of the
original voters still participate in that group:

ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/news.an...newgroups/rec/



--
Skipper

Lighten up folks: A Revisit of the *Challenge*
 

"Wayne.B" wrote:

Skipper wrote:

Half the current contributors are capable of lucid on-topic
contributions. The real problem is that fully another half is not,
again IMO.

I'm sure we'd all get a chuckle out of seeing who you've got in column
A, and who's in column B. Don't hold back, tell us how you really
feel.

Yes, I bet we would. But then I'd also bet you know the primary
candidates for column A. The NG would benefit if they'd stand up by the
content of their posts to reidentify themselves.

--
Skipper

Lighten up folks: A Revisit of the *Challenge*
 

Harry Krause wrote:

I promise not to insult you about your choice of boat.

I've got to get this framed!

--
Skipper

Lighten up folks: A Revisit of the *Challenge*
 

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:55:22 -0600, Skipper wrote:

JohnH wrote:

Skipper, my boat is in storage. I can't even look at it. It will be that
way until early April, unless I can get them to take it out in late March.
I'm not doing any fishing, but when I do, I'll talk about it. Honest.

There is still a vast menu of on-topic items to be discussed in the off
season. Do you really think 99% off-topic is healthy for the NG?

Neutral topics of interest should not be excluded from discussion.

I completely agree, but not when off-topic consumes the NG. Best course
for the NG is keeping the *primary* focus on boating, IMO. Look at
today's NG content. Do you really believe that's the kind of content to
draw in and retain boaters?

On another note, check out the charter and voting summary for
rec.boats.cruising. I do find it interesting that only two of the
original voters still participate in that group:

ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/news.an...newgroups/rec/

If a new person subscribes to this group and gets all the headers available
(almost 12,000 on my server), they'll find lots of boating stuff and lots
of acrimonious name-calling stuff. No newbie is going to see just 'today's'
posts.

I have no problem with the percentages, as long as the off-topic posts are
not those which cause bad behavior, and we all know what that is.

Start a boating thread! Pick a subject and let fly!
--
John H

******************************************
***** Have a Spectacular Day! *****
******************************************

Lighten up folks: A Revisit of the *Challenge*
 

Skipper wrote:
Half
the current contributors are capable of lucid on-topic contributions.
The real problem is that fully another half is not, again IMO.


Gee, really?

Wayne.B wrote:
I'm sure we'd all get a chuckle out of seeing who you've got in column
A, and who's in column B. Don't hold back, tell us how you really
feel.


I got one from your comment... thanks for one good laugh so
far today.

DSK

Lighten up folks: A Revisit of the *Challenge*
 

Skipper wrote:
JohnH wrote:

Skipper, my boat is in storage. I can't even look at it. It will be that
way until early April, unless I can get them to take it out in late March.
I'm not doing any fishing, but when I do, I'll talk about it. Honest.

There is still a vast menu of on-topic items to be discussed in the off
season. Do you really think 99% off-topic is healthy for the NG?

Neutral topics of interest should not be excluded from discussion.

I completely agree, but not when off-topic consumes the NG. Best course
for the NG is keeping the *primary* focus on boating, IMO. Look at
today's NG content. Do you really believe that's the kind of content to
draw in and retain boaters?

On another note, check out the charter and voting summary for
rec.boats.cruising. I do find it interesting that only two of the
original voters still participate in that group:

ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/news.an...newgroups/rec/



--
Skipper
Skipper,
Why don't you start another thread with a boating topic you think we be
of interest?

--
Reggie
************************************************** *************
That's my story and I am sticking to it.

************************************************** *************

Lighten up folks: A Revisit of the *Challenge*
 

JohnH wrote:

ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/news.an...newgroups/rec/

Start a boating thread! Pick a subject and let fly!

I found reviewing the boating group petitions interesting. You can see
which ones succeeded and the voting history of those that failed. Also
interesting is the voting list for the failed NG rec.boats.engines.

--
Skipper