In article , J Burns wrote:
David Nebenzahl wrote:
[META = meta-discussion. Similar to OT in that no on-topic material to
a.h.r in message]

...

Especially in a group as active as this one. Look at it this way: let's
say for the sake of discussion that somehow, by some miracle, all the
spam, all the off-topic messages, etc., just disappeared from here
overnight. All that's left are postings that are on-topic to a.h.r.

So what now? Even in this new utopian situation, you're *still* gonna
have to decide which messages to read and which to skip (well, unless
you're some kind of total home repair omnivore or something). To me,
most of the threads here are of little interest to me, so I don't bother
reading them. Obviously, they're of interest to someone else, so I have
no problem with their being here; I just choose to skip over them. Simple.

I do the same with spam, which is very easy to recognize, and a lot of
the off-topic threads. And some of our resident trolls, like Harry, even
make this very easy by thoughtfully labeling such threads "OT".

So what's the big problemo?

AHR is so broad that it's as if everything here is crossposted. Each
thread will be seen by many who may not be knowledgeable or even
interested but still want to be heard, and there will be plenty to
follow suit. (Congressman Felix Walker was like that, demanding to be
heard when he had nothing to say. That's where the term "bunkum" came
from.)

What if AHR split into several groups?
AHR structure
AHR appliances
AHR small engines/auto
AHR wiring/plumbing/hvac
AHR misc

Wishing to be entertained but not informed, I'd subscribe to AHR misc.
If I went to one of the other forums to be informed, I'd probably find
fewer uninformative posts.

How about adding alt.home.repair.off-topic-politics? That appears to
me to be easy enough to do for an alt.* newsgroup. AHR posters wanting
to talk about politics would then merely post pointers into AHR for
political discussions by AHR-posting people.

Heck, I seem to think that sci.electronics.design needs to have a
related political discussion group. However, sci.* is one of the "Big 8"
and that means more and taller hurdles for creating a "recognized"
newsgroup.

--
- Don Klipstein )