Chuck,
Whomever said they come here to "start trouble" is just being honest. The
majority of the regulars come here to argue their favorite cause and try to
make their opponents looks foolish, ignorant of just to get his goat.

The regulars who come here to discuss boating are few and far in-between,
they have been chased away ages ago.



Without going waaaay back, we're still runing a 3:1 ratio of on topic *threads*
vs.
off topic threads. Of the last 59 threads initiated in rec.boats, 45 had some
direct relevance to boating and 14 did not.

Problem is in the number of posts.

Example:

I.M. Uhground posts: "Where is the secondary fuel filter on my Spitz and Putz
inboard?"

Hal P Fulwrench replies: "Look under the second framus past the diogenator."

End of thread, two posts.

Example two:

Left wing Louie posts: "Bush is a war criminal!"

Right wing Rickie replies:"No, he's a hero and you liberals are all
traitors........"

And 450 posts follow. 225 from the right, 225 from the left, with insults and
bad manners split equally between the pair. End of thread nowhere in
sight.......


"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
Rec.boats isn't purely a spectator sport.

There is a disturbing lack of civility in many of the discussions, both OT
and
ON.
That's a greater problem than the fact that the conversation drifts off
topic.

We have at least one poster who takes pride in the fact that he only comes
here
to
cause trouble, and then immediately blames that on individuals holding
opposite
philosophical viewpoints.

It is a bit puzzling how, so often, the people who post the loudest
protests
about the signal to noise ratio and the lack of significant boating
content in
the NG never contribute any boating content *to* the group.

The content of the group is configured by what we all put in- what we take
out
or choose to filter has no effect on the overall character of the group.

Aren't enough boating discussions? Start one.