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Technology Stocks : InfoSpace (INSP): Where GNET went! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Susan G who wrote (11613)	8/28/1999 12:57:00 AM
From: PatrickMark	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28311

Against my better judgement (which is screaming at me to stay out of the middle of this altogether), I'm going to weigh in on the have fun vs. stay-on-topic debate. I use SI primarily for gathering/discussing information relevant to investing, and prefer to do my socializing offline. I guess this puts me in the stay-on-topic camp, but this is just my preference, it doesn't make me right or wrong. I also understand and respect those who want to have a little (or a lot) of fun, because let's face it, we spend a lot of time together and get to know one another pretty well. For me, it's really not a big deal; most of the "fun posts" are pretty easily skimmed (some are very funny) and if it gets to be too much, I take a break for a while and do research or visit other threads, whatever. That said, there is one issue that's worth bringing up and that is regarding continuity. Sometimes when serious, productive discussions take place, they develop a rhythm and momentum. One (or a series of) fun posts can quickly knock the wind out of the sails just when it seems like it's really getting rolling. Likewise, I imagine a serious post can be frustrating when a number of posters are involved in an off-top blitz regarding a fun topic. The Netrillionaires thread was originally started in order to take the distraction of the 100 Long List off of this thread, but quickly evolved into the "GNET fun thread". It seemed like a win-win to me. Everybody got what they wanted and if you posted on one thread, you were still posting the whole GNET community because (I assume) most people read both threads. Just wondering if we might want to re-visit the idea of keeping the fun posts predominately (nothing has to be 100%) on the Netrillionaires thread and the serious posts predominately on this thread? Then we could get all get back to arguing about something else for a change <g> instead of :) vs. : \| A little bickering amongst "family" is normal, but in the immortal words of Rodney King, "CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?" ( . . . see, I have a sense of humor, too . . . ) PM