A while back, someone mentioned that there were too many OT posts here
on RCTY. I doubt it. In this group we come together with an interest in crafting/yarn/knitting/crocheting/etc. It is part of our lives. Yet, over time, as we post, we make friends and become interested in the person behind the posting. Right now, we are all concerned for the safety of our dear friend Mirjam, her family and others in Haifa. Is that truly OT - Off Topic? I think not, I think it is OT - On Topic. Joan
Snipped identifiers because of the no-archive thingy.
You know, a similar concern was expressed many years ago on what I considered my "home" group, alt.books.stephen-king. In that group, there's only so much one can say about a book before one has said their piece, and there was a lot of off-topic discussion, including some great virtual food fights . The thing is that the people there at the time had been there for a number of years and had become good friends in cyberspace, and many had met IRL as well. We even changed the group's charter to include the wording "to get to know other Stephen King fans" to cover most of the off-topic discussion.
In any group where people have been for any length of time, it's only natural that we care about everyone and are concerned when something happens. That's part of human nature. That's technically off-topic, but most don't consider it so. Let's face it; Usenet groups would get to be pretty boring if everyone had to stay strictly on-topic the entire time. I mean, there's only so much to be said about one's favorite yarns/needles/whatever.
Usenet is more of a social club with different rooms. You drift into a room based on the main topic, then the conversations flow. Even real-life conversations drift and take tangents, but it's amazing how many actually end up back on the original topic.
So anyone who complains about the level of off-topic in this group...heh, you ain't seen nothing. This group is pretty good at sticking to the group's topic. If you don't want to hear about someone's vacation or health problems, ignore the thread; the thread titles are pretty good indicators of what's being discussed. Or better yet, instead of complaining, start a new thread. Become part of the "solution" as you see it. We'll go along for the ride wherever it takes us.
Thanks Kim for the support. I appreciate it, and I will often start a new thread so as not to continue what often becomes a contentious, continuous rehashing of a 'dead horse'.
I also salute you for being brave enough to read Stephen King. His fiction scares me to death, but since I am a writer I absolutely ate up his little paperback "On Writing - A Memoir of the Craft" which is mostly autobiographical going back to his childhood, marriage, "Carrie" and beyond. I've got bookmarks all over it, and have learned a lot from his words and his approach to any kind of writing as well as dealing with editors.
I'm involved in a couple of other newsgroups as well and find your description of Usenet as a social club with different rooms very apt. Even the 'boys' in some of the sports groups can behave and write surprisingly well about their teams/players! Joan
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