Well, as with all things, there's a happy middle ground. Looking at how forums are, it's not realy reasonable to expect that any thread will still be on-topic after, say, 200 posts - probably not even 100.

And there's thread-drift - like this post - and threadjacking, or threadcrapping, which is what McMurray did to himself and RPGPundit was trying to do to him. Those are different things, I think. If a thread drifts from one topic to a related one, well that's not so bad. But if someone jumps in to deliberately crap on things or tear it around to their pet topic or just abuse the OP, well that's not so good.

Basically, if you click on a thread which is supposed to be about X, if it turns out to be about Y or W, well at least it's close and might still be interesting to you. But if it's all about A or B, that's way out, and fuck, someone just wasted my time. And if it turns out to be someone yelling "shitcock!", that's pretty dull.

Also as well as threaddrift and threadjacking, there's threaddeath. When the OP's point's been dealt with, the thread dies off into irrelevant babble. Like this

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!8:00 PM - EVERYBODY LOVES ROTWANG! (TV PG)
Rotwang! (Dr Rotwang!) tries to bake a cake in time for Louise's (Fran Drescher) birthday, while Unce Jesse (Michael Palin) builds a robot in the basement. Guests: Robert Louis Stevenson, Anne Hathaway, Topo Gigio.

:hatsoff:

Quote from: JimBobOzWhy anyone would want to be connected to Dominus Nox (as he presents himself online) is beyond me, but really it's not my problem.

It's a matter of divorcing the message from the messenger. He has good ideas for gaming, and that's what I'm trying to reach. What he thinks about everything else is about as important as your desire to close the off topic forum: amusing, but not relevant to a role-playing thread. Just as I happily trade RPG thoughts with you, I'll happily trade them with him, despite our differences of opinion elsewhere.

Quote from: JimBobOzWhy anyone would want to be connected to Dominus Nox (as he presents himself online) is beyond me, but really it's not my problem.

He didn't want to be connected to Dominus Nox. The only reason this thread exists is as a direct disruption of this forum intended to act as James' "defiance" of my "authority".

The proof of this is over in "the first bagel thread", where right after I change the name, James posts:

QuoteHow... interesting.

And then, about the name change:

QuoteAll it changes that I can see is that it lets Pundit concede to the wishes of his members but still maintain that last little authoritative tweak.

So Jame saw this as his big moment to take down my "last little authoritative tweak".  The whole story about wanting to find Nox by posting a thread directly addressed to him in the one place Nox isn't supposed to be, is such utter bullshit, and so bold-facedly infantile of a lie, that no one could possibly take it seriously.

This is just James, once more, trying to hold out his little dicklet and claim its bigger than mine. Fine.  I've given him countless chances before now to grow up and stop doing stuff that disrupted the site just to "prove he's a man" or whatever the fuck he's doing by going after me. As of right now, discussions are going on in the backroom regarding exactly what sanctions will be applied.

RPGPundit

Sorry, old bean, but this still isn't about you. That it managed to include you is amusing, but you're really not as important as you seem to think you are. Keep 'em coming though, it's a real hoot!


Back on topic:

JimBob, of those usernames, one didn't exist and the other two didn't have PMs turned on. Something tells me that "no PMs" is probably typical Nox policy, but if you happen to think of any others I wouldn't mind giving it one more try.

I seem to recall from somewhere that Nox lived in Austin, Texas (i might be wrong). For a brief time, i had someone from there list me as a friend on my live journal. I think he went under the name Skaldgrimnir. I have no idea whether that is Nox or not, but i remember wondering at the time...

Perhaps a search under that will give you some joy. :confused:

Thanks, I'll check it out!