Once again we seem to have a surplus of posts discussing variations on pretty much the same subject. Most are related to the election. They seem to reproduce at the rate of about three a day, and then go on for =/- a week. Two things about this concern me: 1) I can't find the posts that I was following without reading 2 or 3 with practically the same title; and 2) Any newcomer to the forum is going to think all we discuss is politics. Maybe we do! ;)

I would like to suggest that we somehow try to post to whatever ones we already have started, and not keep adding a bunch of new ones. I know we all have ideas to share about the election and related issues, but can't we have a slight variation to topic and keep the existing threads going? To me, it's a lot easier to follow thoughts of individual posters when they are more cohesive. To those of you trying to make a point, your position will be clearer if the reader can find your premise, rather than having to jump all over the place.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), November 19, 2000

Answers

Sheepish:

Suggestion: One morning a week open a new post with a title similar to All Political Posting Here - 11/20-27. Or maybe "Political Chat Thread - 11/20-27.

Ken Scharabok

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), November 19, 2000.

Sounds like a good idea to me too, Sheepish, it's hard to remember (age doesn't help either!) where everything was we were all talking about. Annie in SE OH.

-- Annie Miller (annie@1st.net), November 19, 2000.

I Hate Goats ! I have never liked them and never will, however, I have many friends on here that do ! Sheepish, I admire you and you are a dear old friend on here but it seems to me that whenever you get bored with something you asked to ban it. Really ! This is not Martha Start.com and this land is not really a safe place to live ! (remember, I am better armed than your peace keepers )

Now, we are a country in turmoil. Politicians are evil, tryannical, and obvious. Nothing, not one thing is right in this country , and you ask us for headings ? My friend you are wiser than most. So, what is the problem ? If I had to read of only goats,rabbits and chickens while my farm burned __I would call myself Nero@Rome.com Just sort it out like the rest of us peons.

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681 @webtv.net), November 19, 2000.

I'm with you Sheepish!! Enough is enough, especially when they just keep repeating themselves.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), November 19, 2000.

Joel, I adore you, but I am NOT bored with this topic. I have hardly slept for the last however many days, for listening to foreign radio broadcasts all night, etc. NOT BORED with any part of this topic.

I just thought it would be nice to have a few threads that we could all post to and follow them through. For instance, there are at least two threads with the topic of Florida election irregularities, or similar. Everytime I want to follow through to see what the replies are, I have to go through both of them to see which one. Maybe I'm old and senile, too, but I also have a hard time remembering where I posted about something to do with the elections. In one place I have written about the need to vote. In another I have posted about how people won't be motivated enough to organize to protest, etc. Maybe I am posting too much and will just lay off for a while...

Anyway, it's a public forum, and my vote isn't any more equal or important than anyone else's here. It was just a suggestion. If you all want to post millions of threads about the same topic, more or less, so be it!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), November 19, 2000.

P.S. Ken, as usual, has a sound idea. I like it.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), November 19, 2000.

It must be our age, Sheepish, that makes it hard to follow all the threads, some type of continuity would help us! Annie in SE OH.

-- Annie Miller (annie@1st.net), November 19, 2000.

Ken made a good suggestion. Something else that may be of interest to some are the online messengers like yahoo has where you can set up your own chat network. I am in one with the people I work with so that I can be reached instantly when online.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), November 19, 2000.

Sheepish and Ken, like the idea of consolidating the political posts, but maybe a suggestion???? When the thread starts getting alot of responses, maybe then we can get another one going? Awhile back we had a thread on religion and there were so many posts, it took forever for me to load it.

-- Annie (mistletoe@earthlink.net), November 19, 2000.

Don't know if this will help any of you, but this is what I do. First I read any of the new threads that sound interesting. Then I go to the top of the screen, and click on "New Answers". This takes me to a screen that shows which threads have had new answers posted since the last time I checked. It doesn't totally eliminate confusion, but it helps!

-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), November 20, 2000.

I apologize, sheepish. I live for the political conversations of homesteaders, it's just my thing. The way I see it is the board has a given number of threads no matter what the thread is. So, there is going to be something up there, be it knitting, candlemaking, goats or the so often dreaded politics of human nature. I would always wait to post something political until the average topics were at least 4 to 1 ratio with political. Therefore I always felt secure in the fact I left room for others.

I've said this before but homesteading is a form of seperation from the """ normal""""", although I always considered myself a meter others could measure themselves as """normal"""by. I so often think that we did not run to homesteading but rather we ran from something else that we perceived to be wrong. I myself saw so many things wrong there that I was forced to build walls, invisible, but yet they are a firm walls and from behind them I work to correct the problems.

Forgive my post it does look rude on paper although I did not intend it that way. I need a rule around here about typing while sipping dandelion wine, and another rule about calling a gallon a sip.

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), November 20, 2000.

Joel, I completely understand! And no need to apologize. One thing I like about you is that you care so much. I took no umbrage at your post. We may differ in our approaches to solutions to problems, but I think we both feel comfortable discussing issues with each other, and with others on here.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), November 20, 2000.

I'm another one who wants to follow the political threads, but has trouble keeping track of all of them. And yet, it is also true that when they get too long, it takes forever to load them. The chat might be a solution, except that we still haven't really figured out how to use that function of computer/internet yet!! (We have three different instant messengers loaded, and use none of them!)

-- Kathleen Sanderson in NH (stonycft@worldpath.net), November 20, 2000.

I started a new thread as per Ken's suggestion, so let's see if it works. Maybe if it does work, someone on the right coast could start the next new one (next week?). Maybe not important, but I'm on the left coast and in a different time zone. By the time I log on in the a.m., there's already a lot of posts! thx for the feedback, btw.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), November 20, 2000.