[at-l] Staying on Topic - LONG

[DaRedhead@aol.com (DaRedhead@aol.com)]

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In a message dated 9/22/02 11:51:11 AM US Eastern Standard Time,
yumitori@montana.com writes:


> You make very good points about the value of learning about one
> another, and I agree with them. I guess my concern, though, is that
> recently it hasn't been 70% on-topic stuff, and 30% off-topic, but more
> like 80% off-topic and 20% relevant to the AT.
>

Take into consideration the timing, though.  In January, post Ruck, lots of
people will be getting ready for their thru's.  In the months that follow, a
lot of people are going hiking, and hence much more hiking related posts.  In
the months between an onslaught of hikers seeking advice, it's just us
listers, the ones that have gone through many years of these cycles on the
list.  As the hiking chatter slows, more OT stuff comes up.  That is because
we want to stay connected to our hiking friends, and often the way to do that
is thru non-hiking-related posts.  Come January, the talk goes right back to
hiking mostly, gear, advice, Trip Reports . . . . but thru this slow time, we
fill in with other stuff, and it happens to be football season.  If any other
sport season were as big at this time, you'd probably hear about those teams
too.

You can balance these few months and their ratios to hiking topics by adding
up the ratio's thru other months.  Put them all together, and what you have
is a well balanced Trail list that is all about hiking and some about the
people who hike.  If you want more hiking related and less OT posts - you can
go no mail til January.  Of course, come January we that stay will know each
other much better, and then we'll get accused of being a clique because of
our closeness.  Seems lose - lose to those who want to stick around all year.

Red