As the originator of the "pub" analogy may I just say that it was not meant to be a perfect likeness. Frankly to poke holes in the analogy is to have missed my point altogether. The point was that you are not forced into or out of any conversation. You don't have to go at all on any given day.....

The one thing that hasn't changed here is the constant discussions about what "belongs" here and what doesn't. That is the most difficult for me to take. It borderlines on telling people what to think. It amazes me that people go on and on about the lack of music threads and few of them will start a music thread themselves. I would never sit down with a group of friends and tell them that I don't like their choice of conversation topics, and that they should change it.

Don't get me wrong. I agree that it would be nice to have more music topics. It's the music that brought me here. But if I don't like a non-music topic, why do I care that others are participating in it......I don't. The answer to more music topics is to start them, not to complain about the ones that aren't.

Frank