Thanks for posting this. I think that thread hijackers should be chastised and off-topic responses should be deleted (well sometimes, not all the time) I know; there is no way that this would be practical, but I like to dream.
I guess I am a bit too anal retentive for SB, but it irritates the heck out of me when people reply to serious questions with all manner of crapola only tangentially related to the subject or question at hand. There have been a number of times where I have wanted to reply to someone stating that their reply had nothing to do with the question asked, but then I would be guilty of doing the same myself.
I am not against some joking and kidding or even healthy discussion, but too many responses are either something unrelated, or someone's bragging about their own skills / experiences or whatever.
Often I want to simply post in gigantic font "!! ATDQ !!" (which of course stands for "Answer The Damn Question!"
But that's just me.
When someone asks about what thickness wetsuit is appropriate for a particular dive location, I would like to think that the freaks of nature that regularly dive the icebergs in a thong would recognize that this is not the best forum for boasting of their prowess, and that the questioner would like to get reasonable answers that would apply to the average human being. (yes, I know that everyone has a different tolerance for cold, but you freaks know who you are.) If you want to brag about your exploits, start a thread. If you can't help the person that has asked a question, then maybe you should smile and move on to another thread without disrupting the flow of useful info; useful to the person asking the question.
But that's just me.
I would just like to suggest that people stop and think for one second before they post to a legitimate question "am I adding value to this discussion?". If the answer is no, then perhaps they would be better off passing up this one opportunity to toot their own horn or to pad their post stats. Just a thought.
I am also tired of lots of other things, but I will stop before I aggravate too many people out there.
--*climbing down off soapboax*--
Wristshot
PS: the entire world is not just Black and White; there are many shades of gray.
