It's a case of which category, to my way of thinking. I love the by-play that goes on, even when I'm simply observing it. The current thread on what members from various parts of the US are prepared to do to raise their cholesterol levels is keeping me smiling, for instance.
I'd agree with Jackie that Q&A about Words should pretty much be just that. Info and Announcements tends to be used for just that. But the other two main sections are pretty much open slather as far as I can tell.
The wandering aimlessness of some of the threads is one of the charms of the Board - that and the fact that most of us are pretty civilised towards each other and disagreements are kept polite.
I wish I could remember the URL for a political board I stumbled across the other day - it looked interesting (to a confirmed political junkie like myself anyway), but the third post I read, which was nominally about Dubya's stated policies, contained pretty explicit personal abuse of the previous poster's ancestry, sexual practices and ability to think. There was nothing in the previous post to warrant even so much as a raised eyebrow - it was being mildly critical of GWB's stance on education.
Not for me thank you. That kind of thing on this Board would send me fleeing for other pastures. There's a hint in there somewhere, I guess!
One thing that does puzzle me, however, is the number of people who join the board but who never participate.
I agree that some of what is said could well be expressed in private messages, but the messaging system has one major flaw - it doesn't accumulate the messages, so you either have to copy the message to another file and keep it before you send it, or hope that the other party cuts and pastes it. This is frustrating.
