back at school ?

[anneasquith]

i feel im back at school and ED and staff are reprimanding abers for spontaneous discussions using the threat of suspension/banning ! i am certainly not visiting the site as often as i did...............

[sandyRoe]

spontaneous conversations are an added bonus with AB. I'd miss them. Sometimes they get a bit surreal.

[dotty.]

yes you are you're always here .

[anneasquith]

have you lost your T dotty ? lol

[naomi24]

I agree with you Anne. Not only is the censorship thing becoming ridiculous, it's inconsistent. It seems to me judgement doesn't necessarily depend upon what you say, but upon who you are. AB is now a shadow of its former self and it's losing some good contributors because of it - and that's a great pity.

[ummmm]

Pink....did you off topic to the question? Ed is trying to limit responses that are off topic in all Category's beside CB.

I can understand this because threads can get hijacked and scare a new user off.

[ummmm]

The Goldfish company..!

[naomi24]

But people go off topic in any conversation - that's how conversations flow. How can we have or enjoy spontaneous discussion when we have to think about every word we write and don't know if what we're saying will escape a hidden hand that suddenly swoops to delete what its owner doesn't like?

[ummmm]

I think when someone asks a specific question that requires a specific answer and someone comes in and ask them how their dog is...that kind of off topic.

If a thread in news goes off topic as a discussion between all of the contributors, I think that is considered debate.

[ummmm]

I must admit that I find it irritating when I'm reading a thread and someone says 'sorry to go off topic but did you the answer you were looking for in B&S'

[naomi24]

Yes, I can see that, but this confusing censorship doesn't seem to stop there.

[ummmm]

Not lately, no.

[naomi24]

I know what you mean.

[ummmm]

The Dog shop...

[cazzz1975]

also if you are a new user who has stumbled on the site and asked a question, it can seem a bit rude to see a whole different conversation unfold on a question you have asked, even if the question has been answered

[vulcan]

As naomi said, conversations do go off topic and surely isn't this that makes the site unique. do we really want " who won the world cup in 1966 ?" "England", site ? surely we're intelligent enough to bring a subject back on line, it's as easy as going off line.
if the site becomes too draconian then a lot of people could leave followed by the advertisers.