"Bryan Ball" <
[email protected]> wrote in message news:<
[email protected]>...
> > But you just posted something that has nothing to do with bikes.
>
> Oh come on... People are obviously tired of all of the off-topic political **** on ARBR and
> telling everyone "if you don't like it, ignore it" is the biggest cop-out I've ever seen. Just
> because a newsreader is capable of filtering out certain people it doesn't mean that we all want
> to bother doing it. If people would have some common courtesy and at least TRY to stick on-topic
> no one would have to become intimately familiar with the darker functions of their newsreader.
> Bottom line is that people have made it clear that they don't want to OT discussions anymore and
> the arrogant twits that propagate it don't care.
The bottom line is that there are SOME people that do want OT discussions. Mr. Ball was always very
satisfied with the former status quo when all the OT here on ARBR was nothing but one liberal rant
after another and then there was the Greek hew haw chorus chiming in at regular intervals too. No,
he did not mind that at all.
> BTW - I feel that a thread that talks about the health of this newsgroup could be MORE on-topic.
That is why we have editors like yourself, to keep things on track. But you are confusing your
magazine with Usenet. This newsgroup is made up of diverse individuals and they all, like me, feel
free to talk about whatever they want to talk about. All you controllers should stay in your ivory
towers where you can have everything your own way.
The OT stuff is ruining this group. It's
> undeniable. Look at the stats from 2002 to 2003 and see how much it's dying off.
The stats rise and the stats fall - and most likely have nothing to do with who is posting what.
>Also look at who posts the most and look at the longest threads.
A long post is to be infinitely preferred over a lot of small and trivial posts. Lots of little
greetings and such. What a pant load that is, as Freewheeling would say. If you can't say something
that is of interest to more than one person, then you should not be saying it at all, at least not
on the newsgroup. But nobody complains about trivial posts because they do not rile the stomach
juices and force you to think about anything.
> Nothing to do with recumbents. If this doesn't stop this newsgroup will die off completely in a
> couple of years.
This newsgroup will never die as long as people are still buying and riding recumbents. There may be
a changing of the guard from time to time but that is not a bad thing.
But anyway, I do not see what Mr. Ball is complaining about in the first place. Does he not publish
a recumbent specific online magazine and have a website forum that is just chock full of news and
information. If this group would die off, it should be good for his business.
If others of you do not think you are getting enough recumbent news and information here, I suggest
you take out a subscription to Robert Bryant's Recumbent Cyclist News. There you will get some solid
information that you can take to the bank with you.
Ed Dolan - Minnesota