"Kyle" wrote in message news:2e079bb0-10ed-4d52-9610-

[snip]

And if a person posts enough OT crap in this group, I'm going to
filter/killfile/ignore you and then there's the possibility I'll miss
out on you making an actual contribution to the group and wouldn't
that be a shame?

Isn't that cutting off your 'noise' to spite your face? If I had kill-filed
a certain person that annoyed the hell out of me I would have missed his
answer to my question that turned out to be the best of many suggestions. I
was shocked when it happened, as I has never seen much of any value from
said poster, but damn if he wasn't spot on with his answer. And his was the
only one like it. That's why I rarely kill-file people unless it's clear
they are absolutely trolls determined to do harm. Even Gollum had a purpose
in the end.

As radical as some opinions are here, I do believe that most posters believe
their opinion is well-founded. Sometimes, with the those who have been
misguided by extremists on both sides, merely walking through the assertions
step by step can actually change someone's opinion. I know that mine have
been changed by persuasive writings. I also know that for every poster
there are at least ten readers who never post but read every word.

I engage in the OT discussions because I think there's a lot polarization in
the world and that only by talking to each other can we reach some sort of
common ground. I can understand the annoyance of those who color inside the
lines and stay on topic, but after 20 years of this, I realize that it's
human nature and there's little anyone can do to change it. I suspect this
thread, for example, will have zero effect on the number of OT posts to the
group.

I've been in newsgroups moderated by total fascists and I think in many
cases, that's worse than tolerating OT excursions that occur. In AHR, there
are clearly people who "live" here 24x7 and who see the group as the town
tavern. That's not a bad thing, but it does lead to a lot of OT discussion
because it is a social meeting place for them. Besides, ten minutes in the
average political newsgroup makes you appreciate how calmly and sanely most
OT'ers are here.

My two cents? Just make sure that OT posts are marked OT so that those who
want to skip them can do so with ease.

--
Bobby G.