I'm a lurker -- a Canadian somewhat interested in woodworking. Been following the wreck for a year or so --- started out getting some useful information ... but I'm getting tired watching all the political ideologues take over the wreck for the past few months.
Out of curiousity this morning, I hit "get unread messages" ... in the past half dozen hours, there were 77 posts, 9 of which were even remotely related to woodworking.
That's an eleven percent signal to noise ratio.
I don't have a big problem with off topic posts --- humour, home repair questions, auto stuff, things like that. But I do have a problem with the overhwhelming number of posts with U.S. political and religious orientation.
This is an international forum. I don't see Canadians posting about Canadian politics, Aussies posting about Aussie politics or Brits posting about British poliltics. Many of us may have strong feelings about our native political scenes .. but we do not think they should be aired in a group dedicated to woodworking.
Perhaps you Americans could give the rest of us a break. If you want to argue politics, do it somewhere more appropriate.
I'm interested in what Tom Watson, for example, thin ks about woodworking; he has demonstratable expertise. I really don't care what he thinks about politics or the state of the universe -- as far as I can see, he has no credentials that would suggest any particular insight..
And the same goes for all the others.
Go start an American political debate newsgroup.
Ken