I think the BS tag is a separate issue to the volume of posts mentioned by others but there are problems with it:

1. It's meaning is unfortunate and is therfore deemed inappropriate (by some) for certain types of threads.

2. There is no requirement for the use of any tags. Although many users are co-operative, there are some who for what ever reason (including bieng new) do not use them.

3. There is no easy automatic way for those not wanting to read non-music threads to skip them. There is of coure an alternative form somewhere in the system that will exclude any threads with a chosen pattern of letters such as BS in but the user has to enter that each time.

Refering to 3, When I started the Annexe, it displayed as a typical multi-forum system but users seemed to want it to list in "all lumped together" format. I changed it that way but I also built in a feature that allows a member to choose which of the forums they want to see posts from in that listing.

The situation at Mudcat seems to be far simpler than mine as it is much less structured and there is only Music and Non Music to consider.

It should be easy to allow a user to indicate a preference to read or omit BS in the Membership and list the threads based on that, and I wouldn't have thought it would be too much hassle for a person creating a thread to indicate whether it was on topic or not.

I guess it gets to close to splitting the forum or whatever to be considered here though.

Jon