(Actually the word is fora. Nice to have a dividend after all these years, of my suffering in Latin class.)

What I am suggesting is a non-ideological forum, and also a separate forum where the ideological folks could verbally beat up on each other.

Now I certainly don't want to shut anybody up. I may want to make an ideological point myself from time to time. I may want to call someone a bloody fool.

But most of the time I find it annoying, when searching for interesting facts, to wade through what we have on this forum now.

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), June 10, 1999

Answers

uhhhh, you want fries with that?

-- (y2kpro@BK.com), June 10, 1999.

lighten up bro peter,thers enough bad news to go around.

-- al-d. (catt@zianet.com), June 10, 1999.

Then we'd need a third forum so we could discuss what qualifies as been classified as ideological and what is not ideological but rather merely pseudo-ideological or even non-idealogical with issues.

As far as interesting facts go, studies show that 53% of all interesting facts are in fact not really very interesting at all. That was an interesting fact and was in fact 44% more interesting than the fact that Caracas is the capital city of Venezuela.

More recent studies also show that 72% of people didn't find that last statement interesting and of those, a full 80% are considering legal action against me for making such an uninteresting statement.

Studies also reveal that 48% of people will not have even read this far in this thread because they have found it uninteresting. The other 52%, obviously very clever and insightful people, will have learned much however 17% of those people are annoyed because they can see through the rather subtleless attempt at flattery.

To the remaining 14% of people that have read this far without smashing their monitors on the ground in disgust or phoned rent-a- sniper with my details, I have an incredible offer for you:

Please send only $29.95 (US currency only please) to Box 5541, Fort McMurray, AB., Canada. I will ship out to you a container of Y2K compliant air as well as a print out containing thousands of random ASCII characters. Cash, checks and money orders o.k.

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), June 10, 1999.

I think the ultimate insult would be to have your post only responded to by y2k pro and al-d, so I'm putting in my ideoplogical answer to your question:

Maybe.

-- a (a@a.a), June 10, 1999.

except you know that wasn't pro, "a"...don't you?

real imaginative handle you have there to; been meaning to compliment you on it. took all of, what, 3-4 hrs to think up?

-- Super Polly (Fu_Q_y2kfreaks@hotmail.com), June 10, 1999.

The way I see, I got $59.90 coming in already from 'a' and 'Super Polly'.......woohoo.......

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), June 10, 1999.

When you are dealing with a controversial subject, the only way to keep it on topic is to have a closely moderated list. There are quite people who like to argue and debate, and if permitted to do so, the will disrupt the forum to a certain extent. You can state the purpose of the forum a often as you want to, but that will not prevent problems.

-- Danny (dcox@ix.netcom.com), June 10, 1999.

You can start your own forum at any time on Greenspun. Click on the "other discussions" link at the bottom of the top level page. Then click "Add New Topic" and fill in the blanks. You have the option of making it private, meaning users need a password to log in. <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), June 10, 1999.

Peter,

I've tried pointing out that many of the political threads started in this forum would be on-topic in another Greenspun forum, The Government of the United States, but it hasn't done any good.

-- No Spam Please (nos_pam_please@hotmail.com), June 10, 1999.

To Danny:

I think one advantage of my suggestion would be that it would let the moderators do some moderating. They are understandably very timid now (as I would be in their place) sensitive to any charge of censorship. Under my plan, they could make judgement calls with a lot more confidence, since people would not be silenced but rather told to take their contribution to the other forum.

To Craig:

The point I understand you to be making in your first paragraph (that many posts are a mix of factual and ideological) is well taken. Here is where the judgement of the moderators would be needed. Tone would be important here.

Let us suppose I have a posting that has mainly facts but also contains a remark that in light of all this, someone who accepts the assurances of a Clinton administration spokesperson is being really naive. This shouldn't, I don't think, warrent rejecting the posting from the non-ideological forum. If I change the word "naive" to the phrase "dumb as dogshit", I think I will have stepped over the line.

Most of the time I want to be in techie mode. My technical area is computers, but if someone wants to discuss some topic like the durability of lanterns, for example, fine, he's another techie. I don't know how many others there are, who would like to spend most of their time in a different forum tailored to this kind of inclination.

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), June 10, 1999.

For food storage and supplies, try this one:

"NO Foul Language, NO Personal Attacks Or Flames, NO Advertisements, NO NWO Trolls"

http://www.paradise-web.com/plus/plus.mirage?who=pollarda2

Sponsored by Art Pollard, who's been in the food storage and supply business for years. Art has a click-on bar at the top of the page for info re his business but doesn't hawk in the forum itself.

For all manner of very useful information, see the well-organized and stunningly comprehensive hot-linked index of the Rocky Mountain Survival Group (not affiliated with any kind of paramilitary group). http://www.artrans.com/rmsg/toc.htm

This is just their Medical & Psychological Survival section:

Basic First Aid, Advanced First Aid, Alternative Medicine, Herbal Medicine, Wilderness Medicine, Medical Supplies & Kits, Choosing Doctors, Insurance & HMO's, Attornies & Claims, Psychological Survival, Veterinary Medicine, Medical Database (On-Line),

And this is their Clothing & Textiles section:

Spinning, Knitting, Weaving, Sewing/Tailoring, Leatherworking, Shoe/Bootmaking, Candlemaking, Pottery & Ceramics, Misc. Other, Soapmaking.

And thre are more technical areas, such as Communications.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), June 10, 1999.

Craig, this place is getting prety rarified. Do you ship raified, y2k compliant air?

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), June 11, 1999.