Political and/or Bailouts....CDOs CDS, XYZs

[Pete Serotta]

These are very trying and stressful time for many and maybe most of us.

Many times the above type threads are more prevalent than other type threads - including cycling related. In these times, while it is important to have as much information as possible, the SEROTTA forum is not necessarily the best place to have a discussion on it.


I truly do not know how to handle the increase in political/financial threads, except to ask you all to thing 2 or 3 times before posting it. (ie why do you want to share it with the forum?). I truly hate outright bans on anything for it is always a judgement call to some extent.

And yes, I have closed some threads to stop the proliferation of comments. (Sorry)


I would suggest you do go to the web site that is listed by the poster if you have more interest in the topic. (I usually go to the thread but do not post comments - at least lately...) THANKS Pert


THANKS PETE

[Richard]

I like these off topic discussions, although they do tend to get overly long as the usual suspects post variations of their various "isms" in response to each topic. Maybe you should institute a rule that (provided the discourse is civil), you will close these all OT threads after 25, 50, XX posts. As to whether this is a good place for those discussions, there do seem to be a number of people fairly well versed in these subjects to go along with the true believers. That's why I tend to find them fun reading.

[Pete Serotta]

Richard, the posters are VERY WELL versed on the financial aspects of what is going on...THEY are experts and that is why I go to the site they post and that I open and read their post. I agree that the additional posts really takes away from it. :argue: We learn from everyone ;)

[keno]

this, too, shall pass. Presently, it is the elephant in the room. It is foremost in peoples' minds and realities. I think that the activity in the current issues represents what people are caring about these days.

Other than occasional trips to websites offering some assistance in puzzling out the wonders of my wife's Cranberry and why it won't sync to her PC, this is my website of choice. I back you, as I hope you know, in whatever you decide to do from time to time with the forum. For me, I think that the flow is healthy so long as civil.

Best,

keno

[Dekonick]

I am with keno.

[cadence90]

I'm with keno too.

Maybe limit them to 3 pages.
After that, on almost any topic, it's slippery slope time anyway.

[Blue Jays]

Or a subfolder for holy-super-duper-off-topic posts would be perfect.

[1centaur]

Pete said:"Many times the above type threads are more prevalent than other type threads - including cycling related."

I don't understand that. I think there has never been a time when finance/bailout or even political threads were not outnumbered by cycling threads - by a lot [by my informal look at the first three pages it seems that about 80% of posts are cycling related and 20% OT of all sorts]. If by prevalent he means that the bailout threads get a lot of views and a lot of replies, then that just shows they are more popular than a lot of other threads. Why would one limit a popular topic if it's not getting abusive?

I've said before that the reason these threads make sense on the Serotta board is that this is like a cafe chat among people who share a common interest but have lived enough life to want to talk about other stuff too. Specialized boards on that other stuff are like talking to those wildly political guys in college (man) who could just not shut up about their pet themes. We have more going on in our lives and this venue is a nice place to talk about all the stuff that interests us. Luckily, not being hard core politicos, we get bored with political/financial topics and happily discuss racing and Interbike, etc. Essentially keeping the Serotta board down to cycling makes it like all the other forums. Vive la difference.

[BumbleBeeDave]

I'm with keno too.

Maybe limit them to 3 pages.
After that, on almost any topic, it's slippery slope time anyway.

. . . and Keno, of course!

You could perhaps limit them to 3 pages, but I think given the general "Serotta demographic" it's not surprising they are prevalent right now.

As long as they are clearly labeled "OT" and everyone remains civil, I see no real problem with letting them go on. After all, if they are OT I can simply avoid them and the people who are participating in them are clearly getting something out of them. Isn't that what the forum is for? For people to get something out of it that is useful to them?

BBD

[Lifelover]

I don't watch or read ANY news, so sometimes the OT threads keep me informed with world events.

I thought your locking of the older ones was a good idea.

Keep it up.

[avalonracing]

I don't watch or read ANY news,

Dubya? Is that you?

[14max]

Or a subfolder for holy-super-duper-off-topic posts would be perfect.

Agreed. I posted about doing this very same thing earlier in another thread...