Nope, gnif is right.
There have been a spate of reports recently and we had to step in. As I said, every time I do randomly look at this thread it seems on-topic, actually obsessively so, which is why I don't have the time to frequent it.
I'll be up-front here, you see it the way you do because that's the way you want the thread/forum to be. IIRC all the reports recently have been about your threads, and I have received several PM's thanking us for stepping in, and how that you are the instigator here when it comes to the thread drifting OT and it's starting to ruin their enjoyment of it.
So please stop posting OT posts.
This forum has been successful for 13 years because we see seem to have the balance just about right.
Is it too much to ask to keep the biggest thread on the forum on-topic?
I know it's a "catch-all" for test gear stuff, and seems to have it's own community, but all it takes is one or a few people to ruin it if they post off-topic stuff every day.
I actually advertise and link to this thread in videos as a place where the test equipment obsessed. I don't want people to come here expecting test equipment talk and get guns, videos, and other random chat.
Thank you Dave, for taking the time to talk about it.
The way I "see it" is based on having been here since it started, and I just spent most of the last couple afternoons rereading the first 50 or so pages. There is a
lot of OT stuff in there. And as I mentioned, there was a time when the heavy technical stuff was considered OT, and that it should be taken to one of the repair threads.
I don't know if you or any of the complainers have bothered to read those posts... it doesn't matter now, I guess. This is now, 5 years later, and as we all know, change is the only constant. Obviously what you want from this thread has changed, so we must adapt or leave.
So I guess what I'm wanting to know is where is the line? How far away from the "TE and TE only" line are we allowed to go without incurring the wrath?
Some of the earliest posts in here relate purely to how you deal with your addiction in an abstract sense; the things you do to keep yourself and family happy with your addiction, or even to protect your addiction from them. Easily half the definitions in the TEA glossary are related to these issues, and discussion over those relationships is where that all came from.
A recent example from earlier: Sure, the relevance of med's woodworking is directly obvious. So are Saskia's similar posts regarding fixing the cabinetry on her pinballs. Even Vince's bedroom flooring project...? Okay, he presented that as "getting my bed out of my lab" so sure...
![Huh? ???](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/huh.gif)
But my woodworking project which posts were recently deleted is directly related to maintaining the
"happy wife, happy life" status quo we refer to in this thread over and over again as a critical factor, and when I first started posting about it I got thanks because it started interesting conversation.
![Confused :-//](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/confused0024.gif)
Another core conversation point in here has been tools... and that subject meanders, sometimes for days, around Robin's barn and all over Hell's half-acre and back, and definitely into the realm of non-EE tools. But the fundamental addiction to collecting tools of
all sorts seemed to be one of the core things that always pulled us together.
That's just a couple examples. My point here is not to be contrary... it is to have some basic "line" and know where it is. Before, the line was "Politics". Now it's "OT". Fine. Things change.
The post where Saskia had to ask if her stuff on pinball and HiFi was acceptable... that made me cringe; it felt like she was walking on eggshells. If we all start having to do that whenever something is tangentially related, this is going to start feeling a bit like a gulag.
So please... give us some concrete guidelines.
"I know OT when I see it" isn't a fair rubrik.
What also isn't fair is when things that were acceptable, even garnered thanks, suddenly garner lots of complaints because some especially screechy wheel and cohorts just plain have a personal axe to grind against the person who posted them.
If we can post stuff related to our TE addiction, and make a plausible connection to our TE addiction, that would be a great start. I can live with asking first when I know that connection is tenuous.
Please consider this request as earnestly as it is presented. It is genuine.
Thanks again for your time, and for providing this space for us to come play. I'll try not to be so rowdy in the future.
mnem
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