YOur view of the forum can still be set to 3 days or 7 days, or 3 freaking years for that matter.

A discussion of this type came up in another forum I read. After MUCH discussion,back-biting, name-calling and flaming in general; the general consensus was that the majority PREFERRED getting their imfo from people they "knew" more then getting it from an anonymous source. And that meant there HAD to be off topic conversation. As was stated repeatedly -- no one was FORCING anyone to read the threads, and some of the biggest objectors had DETAILED knowledge of what was going on in the off topic threads - which meant they had to have SOME interest in reading them. And - it was pointed out, if the format of the forum was SO disturbing, they were free not to use it at all, or to go elsewhere. oddly enough, the alternative sites (there were several) are STILL almost inactive, and postings to them are primarily SPAM, neither conversation or "data".