Hex wrote....
in fact...you indeed did say to me that off topic
posts are indeed
acceptable ....snip....
You're right, I did. Let me explain further below. This
isn't your fault,
it's mine.
I had written privately....
Probably not approved because...snip...
It's
bad form to quote private email in public. That, is not my fault ;)
Hex - most of us (including me) have been here for many years and have
fallen into an automatic gut reaction that most of us agree on as to what is
on topic and what is not - and how far something off-topic can be taken.
Many people who join this list hang around for a bit and watch before
posting much - perhaps to get a flavor for the bounds of conversation (it's
hard to put in black and white actually).
In any case, it's my job to nudge conversations back on-topic when they have
either gone on too long or gotten too far off the beaten path of interest
here. Don't take it personal (and I hope no one else does) when I ask to end
a thread or move things back more on-topic. After a while you'll develop
that same sense of when things are going too far off-topic. To sum up - I
should have clarified with you from the beginning and anyone would have
taken what I said the way you did - but it would be more precise to say that
while this view of the list allows both on-topic and off-topic discussion,
there is bounds on the off-topic discussion. It's not 'anything goes', and
if people get too far off I'll nudge them back on :)
Jay