John: I just made note of the fact you came here nine months ago. I have been around here for close to 5 years now, about 3.5 of them active in discussions. This site has improved continually in that time. The management have, through tools like disclosure been able to weed out a lot of undesirable content. I think Kim has done an excellent job of moderating these forums. You will never eliminate off topic discussion. The guys on these forums have for the most part become friends. And when people have problems, they quite often discuss it with their friends. I have met some very close friends on here, some that have driven quite few miles to visit with me personally and I have done a bit of the same. Now, because of time I usually don't wander too far from Implement Alley or the Farmall pages. If someone wishes to catch up with me on an off topic or personal matter, easiest thing is go to one of those pages. I always post my e mail address, I think everyone should. That excuse that you get spam, etc. is a crock. I don't get enough unwanted e mail per week to take more than 5 min of my time. I'm willing to bet no one posts anymore than I do, on any of the boards. If everyone were required to post their e mail, I suggest a lot of this off topic material would never see the forums. Having said this, I will also tell you I deal with more personal e mails everyday relating to problems with farm equipment, than I do on forums. Most of it comes from names we never see on these forums. The audience on here is quite large. I have also never deleted and e mail from anyone who discloses the farm tractor or equipment titled subject he or she wishes to ask about. It doesn't matter who they are, they will get a responce. Number one I always encourage them to become active at YT, and many of them have. Many are much too shy, afraid someone may laugh at their non knowledge on the subject or worse still someone may argue with them. So if anyone sends me and e mail without subject included in a title, down comes the finger on the delete button. If I have not answered someone that precisely is the reason why.
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