congrats, pete c. !!!!

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Posted By: Joann

I think it's an oversimplification to say that we can all just ignore posts we don't like. It's technically true, but only meaningful up to a certain point.

If it were true without bound, then any person could post anything at all here and it should theoretically be okay. But that's just obviously ridiculous. If this board were wide open to any post on any topic, no one would bother to wade through the crap to get to the stuff they wanted to read. At some point the balance starts tipping and people that want to stick more to core issues will stop coming here because it won't be worth it.

You can put up with a few songs you don't like on your favorite station every now and then. Turn it down, flip eslewhere for a few minutes, whatever. But there comes a point where there's more you want to skip (or wish you had) than what you want to hear. At that point you don't really listen to that station anymore, or it's not your favorite, or it's something you switch to once in a blue moon - or you just start watching TV instead.

Whatever. But it's pretty clear that in order to retain any sense of focus or relevance to this board we simply can't just say "don't read if you don't like" to every issue that comes up. That works fine for the occasional war thread, or OT thread, or whatever. But it can't work when there are too many to "just don't read". Too many people will decide it's not worth it and leave, or dramatically reduce participation.

It seems that some people - not all but definitely enough to take notice - are asking Peter for a little self-control. People here are generally quite tolerant, and it's rare that a poster is singled out to try to dial it down or something. If it were me, I'd be all ears.

Joann