Suggestion related to the webmaster rant.

This has been suggested before; I was one of the latest to suggest it.  Apparently the idea of keeping people glued to the site and it's paying sponsors for discussions other than trains is frowned upon.  There are moderation issues to contend with for sure, but I for one still think it would be a blast to shoot the p**p with a bunch of like minded individuals that I enjoy.   For now, I take it to my shooting forums or my car/motorcycle forums - that's time I could be spending here, but for now I go elsewhere.   

There is certainly merit to keeping this place on track - I respect that, but other forums manage to pull it off successfully without compromising their principles, so it's frustrating sometimes.  

Personally, I couldn't care less about the weather and what the poster is doing today or what he thinks about "yankees".  There is another "toy train" forum for that nonsense. 

Rich has stated on more than one occasion that he has no interest in a "hangout" forum.  There are plenty of other sites that already serve that purpose. 

There is a "klassic" forum which has for the most part degraded to a "coffee talk" format based on the number of posts in that one discussion, which outnumbers the sum total of all other posts in the forum combined.

I am against anything like that here at the OGR forum.

Ah, I suppose that all follows. Being pretty new to posting here, suppose I don't really have a knowledge of the politics about here.  Was just suggesting a way to get all the random posts about new ideas, or pictures of layouts, or the other 50% of posts in the 3 rail board somewhere else.  As someone above confirmed, some people don't like chit-chating and I can defiantly understand that.  It greatly cleaned up the random posts in the Tech board of an Auto repair forum I used to be a part of when the "garage" was added for the non tech conversations.  

"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them."  --  Mark Twain

George, I appreciate your input and suggestion.

We made a conscious decision many years ago that we would keep this forum focused on the trains. We had seen several other on-line forums where this policy was not followed and inevitably they deteriorated into a handful of people posting about everything else but the supposed subject of the forum.

We also made a conscious decision that we would not allow discussion of politics, religion and other hot-button topics here. We've been criticized for this stance on more than one occasion for supposed "heavy-handed moderation," but we firmly believe that keeping this forum ON TOPIC is one of the reasons it has become such a success in the hobby.

We have attracted a truly great group of people here. And I'm pleased to see that as one of our newer members, you have chosen to take an active role in posting here. That's what it's all about...contributing where you can and sharing ideas about model trains with like-minded individuals.

Yup, what Rich said.