[at-l] The Snowmobile Thing

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

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In the beginning . . . :)

I liked this thread.  It started with the posting of a news article that
informed us about something that impacts a National Park - seemingly very on
topic, since the AT runs thru so many of those.  Lots of information and
links to articles generated.  But - seems like many people had strong views
about snowmobilers, and in particular, snowmobilers in national parks, and
even more specifically, one national park.  Still okay, right?  I mean, it's
still on topic, kind of.

So how did we get from a more or less related topic to political beliefs, the
relative merits of the current political structure, the lobbyists, the
current administration, the money, etc, and the rapidly degenerating manners?
 I say rapidly because, well, gee, it didn't take long to go from "this is
how I see it" to "you are an idiot for not seeing it my way" . . . and no,
I'm not quoting, just boiling it down.

Apparently a lot of folks missed Ryan's post today - it was a simple one, of
few words . . . it was just a copy of the "stay on topic" reminder at the end
of each post.  Most of you probably just ignored it because you figured that
the subject of laws surrounding use of National Parks *was* on topic.  Which
it is.

I'm just wonderin' - when are people going to see that "off" topic posts that
generate polite fun, helpful information on varied subjects, etc. and "on"
topic posts that generate a high degree of personal slams and pronouncements
of "I am right and you are stupid" determine whether our mostly silent admin
decides to just say "stay on topic".  It isn't the topic he's objecting to,
is my guess.  I'll let you figure out the rest.

It's a simple leap from there . . . without Ryan, we're on yahoo groups . . .


Red