Shopsmith Forums

Hi,

Over the course of my membership time at this site, there has been a number of posts regarding what I am going to term as "thread purity", i.e., keeping each thread to a single subject.

I am very interested in what other members think about this. Personally, I am knot bothered with any thread that I start going in a different direction, and I know that I, along with most of the membership, participate in this sport. Let's just see, as best as we can, how the general membership feels about it.

The problem with "wandering threads" is that they can become cumbersomely lengthy, with the "new" subject matter getting buried with far less visibility than if a new posting is started.

Then there is the question of courtesy to the original member who started the thread. Maybe some do not care - others do.

Tim I am with you on this. If a thread is started and one of us wander off in another direction, I do not see the harm in this. I guess it does make for a lot more reading if you are looking for a particular thread. But I for one find it really quick to skim over posts when I am looking for something.
Okay now you know I am not bothered by wayward thread posts...........

I was going to post to this thread but I could not decide which way to go.

Good topic Tim. Sometimes we read posts for information, sometimes for entertainment. If we're after information, it's easy to skip over the irrelevant stuff. The thread always gets back to topic eventually. If we're here for entertainment, friendly banter, and the occasional opportunity to share our experience with others I see the wandering of threads as a positive. I frequently drop in on threads ostensibly about things I'm not very interested in because I know they may be off topic. I'm with you. Doesn't bother me at all.

In the course of a thread development, the 'deviation' needs to be 'natural'.

The abrupt insertion of non-relevant(i.e. new subject) at the start of a 'post' needs to be 'discouraged'(go start a new thread on the 'new' subject).

However if the 'new subject' has been mentioned in an earlier post, further comments are appropriate/acceptable(regardless of who first brought the subject up).

Yes this contributes to longer threads and 'buried' subject discussion, but is the result of unfettered interchange between 'members'(and that ain't bad).

It has been my 'observation' that an unfound subject has been rediscovered by requesting help from other members.

We being a community of helpful folks ain't bad either!

I am new here and I have only been on one other forum about my car. I have enjoyed the threads on this forum. It seems that even if a thread gets off subject they still are informative about what ever issue is taken up. And as Shipwright said threads seem to get back to subject. I am enjoying what I guess I would call the conversational structures of this forum. But I can see that it is an issue that could get out of hand if we are not some what self policing as we post. I am glad Tim brought it up. I had not thought about it and I will make a point to stay in the spirit of a threads subjects.
CV

My attitude on this subject is well known so I shall not press the point any further and I shall attempt to refrain completely from making disparaging remarks about or to those who do wonder completely off subject.

Just remember that when you are searching for some ones comment, you don't remember who and you don't remember which forum, it was probably made in a thread that carries a completely different (and possibly unrelated) title and a search most likely gets you nowhere - I told you so.

Oops. Gotta go. Tim just smashed my soap box. Adios amigos.

I am so confused???????????
If I vote one way I will be self incriminating myself.
If I vote another way people will accuse me of being wishy washy.
If I vote still another way I help throw open the door for chaos.

I am so confussed why was this question ever asked in the first place?

dusty wrote:My attitude on this subject is well known so I shall not press the point any further and I shall attempt to refrain completely from making disparaging remarks about or to those who do wonder completely off subject.

Just remember that when you are searching for some ones comment, you don't remember who and you don't remember which forum, it was probably made in a thread that carries a completely different (and possibly unrelated) title and a search most likely gets you nowhere - I told you so.

Oops. Gotta go. Tim just smashed my soap box. Adios amigos.

You are right about the membership being able to tell how you stand on this subject, dusty, but I am knot, nor will I bash your views on it. I just want to see how opinion balances out on this. I will refrain from arguing my point of view, too, but I wood point out that even though you wood like to keep each thread pure, you have knot been immune from deviation on threads...

In response to your comment about searches; I have been satisfied with my search results.