Raving wrote:
"Rhonda Lea Kirk" wrote:
Jayne Kulikauskas wrote:

That seems to me to be pretty broad. There is room within this for
discussion on a variety of topics.

I should have been more clear, but I wasn't focused on that aspect in
particular, so I tossed it off and kept going.

I am the original post hijacker. Well, okay, maybe not the original, but
I'm up there. If there is a way to hijack a post, I will do it. I want
to talk about what catches my fancy of the moment, regardless of what
group I'm in, and what the topic is, so if I'm given an opening, I will
run with it. I'm not saying I'm totally off the wall; there will at
least be a grain of relatedness, but probably not enough for a moderated
group.

Most people pick a "home newsgroup," and it is there that they do most
of their posting. In an unmoderated group, if something non-topical
comes up, it either gets attention or it doesn't. In a moderated group,
it's not even worth writing the post because the post will bounce for
being off-topic. Nonetheless, it is through the discussion of
non-topical issues that people get to know each other, learn to trust
one another (whether they like each other or not) and build community.

To me, that is what makes a group interesting and lively.

You have a finite number of topics, and there are only going to be a
limited number of *different* examples for each topic. I think someone
mentioned elsewhere something about "...the toilet seat argument,
again." How many times can you discuss it before everyone just kills the
newest instance of the thread and goes on to something else? (And just
for the record, IMO, he who wants the seat up should put it up and she
who wants the seat down should put it down, except at bedtime when both
the seat and the lid go down because if I ever fall in again in the
middle of the night, heads are going to roll.)

This whole discussion we're having right now really isn't appropriate
for the group because it's not a discussion of the topic but a
meta-discussion of the discussion. I love meta-discussions, and if I can
hijack a thread into one, I will do it every time, but they really
shouldn't be permitted within a moderated group.

--
Rhonda Lea Kirk

Happiness limits the amount of suffering one is
willing to inflict on others. Phèdre nó Delaunay
Trying a real newsreader for a change
Pass the message along to other NGs, eh.

Cordially,

Raving goes a roving.