Jim,
I understand what you are getting at but you can't simply ask the members which way they want to see it go because everyone has a differing opinion about the subject.
Once someone, who will go unmentioned, wanted to control every post and put forth the idea that idle off topic stuff be banned, maybe with the member at that. I pointed out that is a great way to kill the forum, it will become stupid and useless except for the few who have that large of an ego to only permit things they deem useful. I fought the idea because EO may be made up of a cross section of people, but it is one of the really better sites that actually have a participation by regulars and newbies that don't just make this a controlled hangout for old farts who want to talk about stupid crap.
Forums either are strictly controlled and reflect the controllers (like that other site) or they evolve with the people who participate in them - it is that simple.
The great thing about EO is that it is really open. I mean that the members welcome new members and try to help out, even if a thread or two or 100 grow out of the original topic, most of the threads have something someone can use. Believe it or not that Load-1 thread was about a community, not just about a number of guys who work for load-1 but all of us, and there was a lot of information there that helped a lot of people.
Did it sort of get out of hand?
You bet, especially with them d*mn shorts.
The no banter debate was about the banter going on in the location thread, I brought it to a new level when Leo 'deleted' my posts instead of allowing me to edit them.
