Bravo finstone! Bravo Jim Richards! Funny, I mostly stay out of OT for the reasons you just gave. g'head, search "Windows" here and see the childish, inflammatory knee-jerk posts of the petulant OT-camper Apple fanboys.

It's odd, but the majority of posters in PAR OT don't get all wound up like the (few) fragile OT-campers here. Sure, PAR-capers glibly throw about digs and counter points, but I rarely get the feeling that they are coming completely unhinged like some here do.

meh, as the PAR OT disclaimer reads - have thin-skin? it's not for you.

I think it was a good idea and still is. What was the event which lead to its creation? When did it start up?

Well, you know the old saying... people get bent out of shape when they're not getting enough sex. I think that's what *really* started it... not enough sex, and then someone said "neener neener neener" and then things got out of hand so to speak... but there's no way to actually prove that, of course. ;)

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I think you started it.

Well, I had a little role under the table, but it was a union job and that's all they had left. You know those senior union guys get all the good roles...

Oops, gettin' parfy.

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Yeah, but what if diving in poo isn't your thing?

Yes we need PARF

I can tell you how OT was formed.

Back in 2002 this place was called Off Topic Rants

That's right - Rants! --the garbage bin for tech posts gone awry.

Then this guy called island911 lobbied Wayne to change it to something less nasty. see:http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/83839-hey-wayne-how-bout-change.html

From there, a few of us - a bit bored with the repeating tech stuff- started discussions about everything else. Even tabs -as provocative as ever- was a big help in keeping the OT ball rolling.

Years go by, and another split happened. One place for nuanced discussions on political gamesmanship, and regular OT for theme and variation of butt-shots and computer financing schemes. --just don't say it's a WINdows computer. -that's the http://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...leys/devil.gif around here.;)

I feel the same way about the Boxster forum.

When I started here there was no PARF.

I was posting to the 944 BBS to get ideas about my new to me Porsche.

Someone mentioned long spoons and it got kicked to OT... and that was my demise.

Originally there was very little political or religious posted here.

But in recent years the human race has decided everything needs to have a political spin on it.

I posted on OT asking if anyone could recommend a Christian BBS a while back... absolutely no religious content, but actually looking for direction to some place to share my religious beliefs online (and not bother the haters here).

I got several helpful posts, a few jokes, and a few hatefully.

That is just crazy talk!!!

It must be rough dealing with all those hair dressers and interior designers. :D

No doubt I remember it happened, I just forget when. Who was president when it first appeared? What year?

If you're looking for a reason to keep PARF, now is not a good time to visit and look for it's good points.

It's like Wayne through a get together at his place, many interesting and likeable people came and enjoyed the visit. Then the party crashers came and started hurling insults and obscenities at Wayne's guests so they went home, and the crashers stayed.

Bush's fault.

Jim, I agree and there have been some great comments on why PARF should remain. I believe it should. Contrary to the generalized view of PARF, I have had some good exchanges there and have actually appreciated some differing opinions and learned a thing or two.

There seems to be a cadre of individuals who just infect many threads once they get started. Like some here have stated in not going to PARF, I do a similar thing when things go south in a thread. Also the PM to clarify points helps in a number of ways: as getting to know someone on a more detailed basis.

Baz is actually a good PARFer as his persona (and others like him) can calm things down and actually kill an infected thread.

The new banning is still very tolerant of behavior that is a detriment to Pelican as a whole but given time it is going to have the same impact of culling out the most serious disrupters.

My observation is that there seems to exist some folks who, IMHO, are hell bent to get PARF killed. I mean who can blame Wayne (the owner of this business) and the Mods for just getting sick of it all. But even with that understandable position I cannot lose the feeling that some folks who are not allowed free reign to just piss people off with their behavior; have the motive to kill the site for their own selfish and perverse reasons. They just want to see what they can achieve.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1383847215.jpg

this thread is useless without pics LOL

I would add Dottore and Cloggie to that group. I appreciate the posts by those not only from other sections of the USA but those from other Countries, now that may not seem like much but to me it is one of the pearls in the pile.

You can blame me (at least partially) for PARF. I was a strong instigator/supporter of separating the two. I was very tired of the whole front page of OT being about politics and religion. I don't know what PARF is like now, because I don't go there, but these types of threads were very heated and nasty back in the day, so I personally had no interest in them. Regardless of the way you feel about PARF, it serves its purpose quite well and those that want to read that type of content have a great forum to participate. Off topic is a much better place now without PARF type threads monopolizing the front page.

I don't really understand this issue here. Nobody is being disenfranchised in any way. Anybody that wants to view a PARF thread can do so easily by clicking on the link. It is not difficult to do. By having separate pages, we have more diverse subjects on the front page on any given day. The more forums available, the more efficient it is for the reader to view the topics they want to read. We have two great forums for their specific purpose...we should not only embrace this, but celebrate the fact that Pelican provides this great service.

PARF sometimes requires the skill to remain calm in bloody water!;)

I think all that technical stuff is off topic.