Posted by andyb on November 05, 2007 at 13:39:56 from 194.80.183.1 user beardbiter.
In Reply to: Glad to be wrong (was: Is all science on-topic?) posted by Robert Hill on November 05, 2007 at 00:50:46:
Personally, I like the way Tarboard veers between The Virtual Institute of Arthur Ransome Studies (VIARS) on the one hand and The Tarboard Arms, a chat-room for people with an interest in Arthur Ransome (some of whom may have actually read some of his books!) on the other. Despite this, I fully support the right of Tarboardistas to heckle each other for going off topic, although it is useful to develop a thick skin if you take up this option. As my skin is pretty thick, I’ll add for good measure that I find discussion of Beckfoot plumbing pretty tedious…
On the whole, I think it is more fun to start more or less on topic before scampering off into the long grass with the thread like a wayward kitten. But sometimes it is just too tempting to direct questions at the off topic interests of other Tarboardistas. For example, I notice that many of them/you enjoy Jack O’Brian’s Aubrey /Maturin novels. I used to enjoy the Hornblower novels and can’t help thinking that Aubrey is as derivative of Hornblower as a series about four children sailing a boat called Mallard on Coniston in the 1920s would be. So how does it work?