[at-l] WAAAAY OFF TOPIC-Football

[atredhead at hotmail.com (AT r3dhead)]

Oh hell - maybe I should read the rest of the 100 messages on this before I 
respond. :/ On second thought, not.

:)

The thing that kept me around here for years and years - and I'm sure other 
people too - wasn't that it was all strictly hiking related. It was getting 
to know each other as a family, hiking with people in person whom you never 
met before except outside this list, all the great hiking advice you can 
get, (because ANY question here gets lots of responses from people who have 
been there), wonderful people keeping us informed of the many things going 
on where we could help shape policy or even laws sometimes regarding the 
Trail, or other trails, and the environment in general, and most important - 
LOTS of people who have hiked the AT and many other long distance trails, 
eager to help anyone out and share their knowledge.

Basically it came kinda down to a "topic" versus "off topic" question - I 
think the general consensus was, OT stuff was okay long as it was tagged 
"OT" so people not interested in getting to know the rest of us as people 
instead of just hikers could delete it. And on occassion the opinions 
dissolved into huge arguments and Ryan had a problem with that - as did many 
of us. I'm pretty sure we can keep football to lighthearted stabbing and if 
we want to get violent, we can take it off list. :) Long as it says OFF 
TOPIC or OT - read it at your own risk.

No family keeps discussion strictly to any one topic - and if you want to BE 
a family, you want to get to know everyone a little better than what pack 
they carry or if they are an ultra light hiker or what the latest stove is.  
If you JUST want hiking discussions though - its easy - delete the posts 
with OT or OFF TOPIC clearly stated in the subject line.

Damn - I thought this issue was solved long before I left for awhile - hard 
to believe its still an issue.

Red

Red

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