ER Forum Losing Focus?

[retire@40]

Last night I cleared all topics. This morning when I looked at all the new postings, they were in 25 various threads. In the 25 threads, only 7 had to do with early retirement. The rest were political topics and other unrelated topics.

An ignore button would sure be helpful at this point.

[REWahoo]

Unfortunately Dory tells us the forum software doesn't offer an ignore button option.

As to losing focus, if you look back at the run-up to the 2004 election, the same thing happened. I'll be happy when the festering sore we call campaigning mid-term elections are behind us and we can all go back to a more sane level of name-calling, sniping and back-stabbing discourse.

[HFWR]

Oh, yeah!! Well, &^%# and (*)(%$ and ^$@@^%... :P

[ladelfina]

Quote:

we can all go back to a more sane level of name-calling, sniping and back-stabbing discourse

Yeh.. everyone who's now all hopped up on politics will go back to discussing surfing, large-breasted Asian ladies, and engine mods.

[brewer12345]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ladelfina Yeh.. everyone who's now all hopped up on politics will go back to discussing surfing, large-breasted Asian ladies, and engine mods.

Don't forget Asian porn spam, b33ver-ch33s3, and SWRs.

[justin]

Subjects such as "Clinton Lied!!!!!1" and "Bush is an idiot!!!!!!1" will never go out of style.

[unclemick]

Hmmm

Wait till we hit playoff's and Superbowl season and my sister starts calling me about those Pat's.

Don't forget - I now have been blessed with a Curmudgeon Certificate - which I downloaded a copy - suitible for framing.

heh heh heh heh - yeah you rite!

[donheff]

I would like to weigh in on the value of the "other" topics board. I joined because of my interest in the financial and lifestyle questions related to ER. But I was surprised to discover that I enjoy and benefit greatly from the "other" topics as well, particularly the political rants. Most of the people I hang around are liberals (but not a limo among them) so our political discussions rarely challenge our preconceived notions. We end up preaching to our own choir. Here we have a much broader spectrum and we all see and hear opinions we might rarely run into otherwise. I often talk (or post) without stopping to analyze things in detail -- my thinking on a topic emerges as I talk things out. On several occasions posters challenging me (or challenging someone else I would have applauded) have caused me to rethink or at least reformulate some of my ideas.

Besides, it is pretty easy to ignore topics you are not interested in. I use Bloglines to skim by the first few lines in all postings. I frequently choose to ignore threads that don't seem interesting. Of course a provocative phrase will often catch my eye and draw me in despite my better judgment anyway. :P

[sgeeeee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by unclemick2 Hmmm Wait till we hit playoff's and Superbowl season and my sister starts calling me about those Pat's. Don't forget - I now have been blessed with a Curmudgeon Certificate - which I downloaded a copy - suitible for framing. heh heh heh heh - yeah you rite!

You'll be getting letters requesting that you contribute to the alumni association any day now.