enormouschicken

There once was a slothy with cheek Some argued that he was unique His posts were amusing And often abusing A shame 'bout his aging physique :(

Ah, I think this is a difference in browsing styles then. You see, I usually browse the topics from the list with all posts open rather than simply viewing new posts, (I tend to remember more about the direction of the topic that way) but I see what you're getting at. However, I still don't believe that there are many people who would post 'right on' just to increase their post count. Besides which, for some new members (in other forums certainly), posting such things is the only way they feel able to break in to the forum environment. As for the rules, I have no doubt that they do not allow insults etc. I just meant that every forum I've been on seems to have these rules, but there are always a few idiots that disregard them completely. 'Trolls', they are usually called. Maybe it's more a mixture of luck, good judgement and the average age of your average Bridge player (being more mature than the puerile teenagers I've seen wreck many a topic elsewhere.)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that anyone I've seen post on here is averse to a little banter or is in any way anti-social. I just meant that there are some people that like their chat a little more straight bridge and a little less tomfoolery.

Well, I can assure you that slothy isn't bothered about his post count either. It seems to me that it's just a few people. 'Nitpickers', I call them, who are annoyed by everything that doesn't suit them. They try to make trouble by asking for harmless posts/threads to be deleted, which is unfair as it creates unnecessary work for you and undermines other forum members who are just trying to get a point across in a slightly humorous or otherwise engaging manner. It seems to me that most of the people who actually DO care about post counts in any way (bar the odd rogue element,) are the very people who are complaining about them. I know that on every forum under the sun you get spammers, who just post incongruous rubbish to raise their post count. However, every spammer that I've ever seen JUST posts spam. They never post anything intelligible or useful. The best thing to do with spammers is just to ignore them and they go away, if you ban them, they only sign up again from a different email / IP address. Besides, as long as none of them are insulting anyone, is it really too much for JRG and others like him to ignore posts that say 'right on!' etc. and only read the interesting stuff? I could understand if people were insulting others, swearing profusely or talking about graphic sx, but as far as I can tell, none of that goes on here. You're very lucky in that sense. Sure, there's the odd disagreement, but by and large everyone gets on and although argument's can get heated, they are never rude and abrasive.

What is wrong with using other venues for this purpose? I'm sure there are all kinds of bulletin boards, forums, lists, etc., on the Internet. I wouldn't be surprised to learn there is a Dr. Who Web Site. If there is another forum (as you mentioned) that has this facility, why not tell your friends and congregate there for non-bridge discussion? The BB Forums are provided free of charge and are specifically for Bridge Base Online, Bridge Base Inc.'s product support, and general Bridge-related discussion. I'm not sure I understand the motivation of trying to subvert this objective (given that there is at least one other, known, forum for non-bridge discussion). Because half the people on this site wouldn't think about joining the Doctor Who forum and you know it. If I said to everyone: "come on, why don't you all join the Doctor Who forum with me?", do you honestly think anyone except slothy and maybe aisha would join? (And even they'd be under duress.) In addition, the Doctor Who forum is not free, it costs its owner around $2000 a year, for which many of the members pay a $5 donation. The rest comes from the creator of the site. Despite this, and despite the forum being strongly centred around Doctor Who in all its forms, he still provides sections for everyone to talk about real-world events and random rubbish. The reason being that it's fun. Most of us on the Doctor Who forum are rabid Who fans, but we still don't want to talk about it 100% of the time. I'm not trying to 'subvert' the objective of talking about bridge, I'm just saying it would provide a little less hardcore bridge talk and a little more fun/sense of community for those members who aren't complete die-hard bridge fanatics and who enjoy the social side of the forum just as much as the bridge chat.

For the most part, your reply was fair and accurate (thanks for the links.) However, I must pick a couple of discrepancies out: 1. Yes, I am among the most 'prolific' posters here. Since neither I, you nor anyone else cares about this, why should it matter? 2. For the record, the bridge terms/nicks I used in the story thread were (in order of appearance) - pen, suit, partners, yellow, Omar Sharif and corn. Yes, I 'broke the rules' of the thread, but there isn't a single person who posted on it that didn't. It all started getting confused on around the 5th/6th page when a few people, who didn't understand the rules, started posting without nicks/bridge terms and/or posting nonsensical/overlong messages. After this, I wasn't sure whose turn it was to put a 'red word' in and neither did slothy, so we just put them in when we felt we could.

I second the motion for an off-topic forum. It helps build a community. Another forum I visit has this facility, and everyone on it still talks about the subject the forum was created specifically for (Doctor Who). Even subjects in the off-topic forum still have references to Doctor Who and I don't see any reason why an off-topic folder in this forum would escape references to bridge. Bridge and general life aren't mutually exclusive. You can talk about both without endangering the foundations of the forum. If you have an off-topic folder, the people who want a little light escapism now and then can talk about the world and life etc. with the friends they have made by coming onto this forum. The people who only want to talk about bridge are well serviced by the many other folders. They don't even have to go into the off-topic folder.

[sarcasm]Only another 2453 to go for me then...[/sarcasm]

I suspect that I am 'that' poster. As it happens, I am a friend and colleague of slothy who, on joining the forum knew nothing about bridge whatsoever. (Apart from it being a card game.) Having participated in the story thread and asked questions of slothy about bridge, I have learned a few things about bridge and the people on this forum. Can any of you say that this is not a good thing? I would have thought that encouraging new players/forum members to join in in any way they feel they can is an important function of this forum. If slothy had said to me before my posting here "do you fancy learning to play bridge?" I would have told him that it wasn't for me. Bridge seemed a little impenetrable as a hobby, but maybe as I participate more and more in this forum I will feel more able to contribute to discussions that ARE about bridge. As for 'upping my post count', I couldn't care less about a number/rank next to my name. Many of the other forums I am a member of don't have this facility and I still post there just as much. As slothy and a few others have mentioned, one of the points of the thread was for people to have fun. I was, and I do agree with other people that it has run its course and was getting boring. It would probably have burned itself out anyway if slothy hadn't closed it. Finally, it seems to me that some of you on here want to keep the discussions on this forum solely about bridge. Surely a vital part of any online community is that there is a facility for talking about other things. Unless you WANT to keep bridge impenetrable and alienate newbies. You don't, do you?

in a black hole. The

statue of the giant orang-utan.

from the serengeti raindancers' temple

from her aunt Gertrude, who

found in his girlfriends drawers

while walking on the ceiling

platter. Pinocchio couldn't believe that

Pinocchio was 'all shook up'

him for an Elvis lookalike

next to a remarkably familiar

,when they will sprout wings

who were trying to reach

and defying all common sense

it keeps ensnaring passers-by with

worshipped the giant orang-utan statue

though it wasn't his own