There is nothing that wrecks a good swimming related thread faster than getting into a discussion about message board etiquette. So here is a thread that people can use discuss topics related to what should and should not be posted on the message boards while allowing the other threads to stay on topic.
It seems to me that there is a spectrum of opinion on off-topic posting. On one end of the spectrum people think that threads are a mechanism specifically designed to allow people to carry on discussions on different topics and that we would all be well served if changes in topic were just done in new threads. On the other end of the spectrum people think that people should be able to post anything they want anywhere they want and that any suggestion to the contrary is censorship, a personal attack, or simply control freakish.
Pretty much everyone falls somewhere between these two extremes. Very few people object to a humorous quip inserted here and there in an otherwise serious discussion. Very few people would actually advocate that people be able to liberally sprinkle potentially offensive posts randomly through all the threads.
Have you ever been at a party where someone has decided that this is the right time and place to have a big argument or screaming match with someone? Has it ever contributed to the general enjoyment of the rest of the people there?
I would argue that posts that are essentially expressions of anger and/or are essentially personal attacks have no place on the board. They don't contribute anything positive and generally turn off 99% of the people reading the boards. Even if it seems that someone else has attacked you, does it really help anything to post an angry response?
I personally don't see the problem with starting a new thread when one wants to make an off-topic comment, a little cut and paste and/or a link makes it easy enough to carry the context into the new thread. Why is it essential to be able to carry on an unrelated discussion in a thread where some people are trying to carry on a discussion on a particular topic?
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Former Member
My present conclusion from recent history and this discussion is that there is really no way to say "uh, we're getting off topic here", no matter how polite and unoffensive you try to be, without causing offense. This is understandable, no matter how polite one tries to be there is an underlying criticism of the off topic post, and by extension of the off topic poster. I had thought it might be possible to say "I have no problem whatsoever with you or what you are saying, I would just find it easier to follow this thread of conversation if you were to conduct your thread of conversation in another thread." Even if I add that there is every possibility I will go read that other thread and enjoy it, "please go away" is likely to be read into it. In many contexts the message "we're getting off topic" falls within accepted etiquette and can therefore be said without causing offense, but I don't think that is the case here, and I don't sense general consensus that it should be accepted etiquette here. Either way you look at it there is some inconvenience, either for the poster in starting a new thread, or for the reader in skipping over off-topic posts.
So, until message board software gets more sophisticated, we are stuck with our differing views on inconvenience trade-offs, and we might as well just enjoy ourselves and get along as best we can.
I do want to reiterate that I haven't had any problem with being offended by the content of any of the posts, I'm not very sensitive about risque content. For me it's strictly a matter of making it convenient to access the swimming related content.
In any case, I have a better understanding of the dynamics now, so thanks for that.
My present conclusion from recent history and this discussion is that there is really no way to say "uh, we're getting off topic here", no matter how polite and unoffensive you try to be, without causing offense. This is understandable, no matter how polite one tries to be there is an underlying criticism of the off topic post, and by extension of the off topic poster. I had thought it might be possible to say "I have no problem whatsoever with you or what you are saying, I would just find it easier to follow this thread of conversation if you were to conduct your thread of conversation in another thread." Even if I add that there is every possibility I will go read that other thread and enjoy it, "please go away" is likely to be read into it. In many contexts the message "we're getting off topic" falls within accepted etiquette and can therefore be said without causing offense, but I don't think that is the case here, and I don't sense general consensus that it should be accepted etiquette here. Either way you look at it there is some inconvenience, either for the poster in starting a new thread, or for the reader in skipping over off-topic posts.
So, until message board software gets more sophisticated, we are stuck with our differing views on inconvenience trade-offs, and we might as well just enjoy ourselves and get along as best we can.
I do want to reiterate that I haven't had any problem with being offended by the content of any of the posts, I'm not very sensitive about risque content. For me it's strictly a matter of making it convenient to access the swimming related content.
In any case, I have a better understanding of the dynamics now, so thanks for that.
