Joe Offer say-

I suppose if the Forum Menu is to be an effective index, it has to have some sort of balance.

Despite any imposition upon thread titles - it will remain an index and have a natural balance. Whether this balance agrees with your idea of what it should be - is debatable but perhaps it would be better for you Joe to finally accept that you have no control over the postings of others and give-up the attempt?   

I rarely start threads myself - I'd be surprised if I start two a month. Usually, I try to add what I have to say to existing threads, to participate in ongoing discussions.

That is your choice - no one is judging your choice. Perhaps if you spent less time judging the choices of others - you may have more time to start more threads?

Other people start one or more threads per day, every day - whether they have something new to talk about, or not. A very few people consistently start threads on topics that are already currently on the Forum Menu. I don't know why, but they seem to have a compulsion to start threads.

Why do you feel that you alone are qualified to judge the choices of others and feel you have the right to do this?

Sometimes, we humor those compulsions and let those threads continue, and sometimes we combine them with existing discussions - it all depends on what seems to be the sensible thing to do at the time.

Why can't you just leave them alone - would this not always be the MOST sensible thing to do?

The other day, it seemed sensible to me to consolidate the dozen Shatner threads that were to be seen on the Forum Menu. See, that's the problem - if we allow Shambles to use the Forum Menu as a platform, we have to give the same privilege to Shatner. So, no, I think we'd better let the Forum Menu be an index, and let Shambles and Shatner say more-or-less whatever they want to say within their own messages (in case some of you didn't know, William Shatner has been an Honorary Mudcatter for quite some time. It happened shortly after Little Hawk joined us - about the time Cletus left us...).

I have a problem with what 'WE' will now allow and all the personal judgement involved in this. What others choose to post is their business and it is none of yours. What qualifications do you have to decide what to impose upon the contributions of your fellow posters who Max has invited to the part of his site - set aside for public discussion. If you wish to change something like a thread title - why not simply ask first?

When creating a thread - the choice of using a prefix is optional. This should ALWAYS be honoured. If I choose not to use the optional Song Challenge prefix (as the thread is NOT this) I strongly feel that it is quite dishonest for anonymous volunteer posters to later impose this incorrect prefix upon this thread. The use of these prefixes is either optional for the originator - or it is not.