Poll: Should OT posts be banned from cpaptalk.com?

[CPAP Lady]

I might add, that some of the people I hold most dear, I cannot agree with.

I agree I have loved ones across the political spectrum.

[jabman]

I vote to ban OT posts. While members of this forum are undoubtably more mature than the Yahoos posting over at CNN.com--does that count as a pun?--some of the same rancor is apparent.

YES PLEASE CENSER FREE SPEECH PLEEEEEAAAASSSSEEEEE.

Also, OT posting, especially when it's political, encourages multiple-personality-disorder on the part of some people, a medical problem that a medical-self-help board like this should not promote.

Where is the link that goes with this medical statement?

I totally agree with you.

where am I?

[idamtnboy]

An occasional diversion is good for the soul, and mind!

[Starlette]

Provided we're all alert to notice the diversion.

Starlette

[Goofproof]

OT is a lot like TV, if you don't like what's on don't tune in that channel, maybe you can find an off button that way you won't be exposed to anything. Jim

[Captain_Midnight]

That's easy. OT posts should be permitted but should be labeled "OT", ideally with a clear title. And, that's that.<P>

I enjoy a good OT post, whether it be a photo essay of a bike trip, a funny story or a political statement.

And, so often, current events and even travel topics have a connection to OSA, however oblique.

The posts I always avoid are the ones with "rant" in the title. Should these be banned? Of course not, others hereabouts enjoy them.


.

[ozij]

OT posts should not be banned. They shoud be ingored.

They, and the people who start them over and over and over should be ignored, since those posts are are simply another way of crowing for personal attention.

When you respond to an OT post, you push a valid, cpap related post down from page 1 to page 2, or 3 or 4. Think of it next time one of the chronic OT'ers attempts to yank you chain yet again.

[nanwilson]

Most Off topic posts are stated as OT, if you don't want to get involved then don't read it. I start my day with this forum, I turn on my computor, go get my coffee and sit town to see whats up with my friends. If theres an OT thread I will take a look at it but if its gone off on a tangent or not something I'm interested in I'll just ignore it. I consider all of the folks here a friend, and if its wasn't for friends here I would have never gotten to where I am today with my therapy. So, dear friends, don't stop what you are doing, sometimes we need to vent or just get something off of our chests.......keep it up, I for one will still be here to talk.
Cheers
Nan

[Hephaestus]

Most Off topic posts are stated as OT, if you don't want to get involved then don't read it. I start my day with this forum, I turn on my computor, go get my coffee and sit town to see whats up with my friends. If theres an OT thread I will take a look at it but if its gone off on a tangent or not something I'm interested in I'll just ignore it. I consider all of the folks here a friend, and if its wasn't for friends here I would have never gotten to where I am today with my therapy. So, dear friends, don't stop what you are doing, sometimes we need to vent or just get something off of our chests.......keep it up, I for one will still be here to talk.
Cheers
Nan

Three cheers for Nan!

[VVV]

I came to this forum for only one reason. I desperately needed help with my CPAP therapy.

I don't participate in the political debates here (Well, this thread is my first one ).

However, I can't resist peeking at some of the political debates and mudslinging. Very entertaining at times. Helps keep a tiring subject from dragging me down and has also sent me off researching some of the political topics.

OTs should be allowed to continue. One of the most refreshing things about this forum is that the moderators seem to allow you to post anything. I think it makes for a more robust forum when people don't have to stop and think about appropriateness.

Just post it! --- Or just ignore it! The choice is up to each member.

[bettersleeper]

Hi,

I'm reluctanly new to cpap (just got my machine on Friday) and have found the questions, answers and posts very helpful and supportive on cpaptalk. Strange that my first post is about OT postings but here goes:

I come here to find information about apnea, equipment, dealing with change/anxiety, etc. The OT postings are like that crazy uncle who shows up at family gatherings, loves to tell off-color jokes and always wants to show you were a horse once bit him. They're distracting and degrade the credibility of an otherwise great support community. Many folks here say, "just ignore them" which wouldn't be bad if you didn't have to filter through them as topic subjects. The more they are allowed, they more they will appear.

Free speech? Gimme a break. We all know about robot spam, which is why your registration requires email confirmation and usually those little captcha letters and numbers that you have to enter. It's to deter computer programs from making automatic posts. Well, the way that political organizations and product promoters get around that is to pay people (humans) to post them directly. Good money for stay at home folks that can spend their days just surfing all different kinds of forums and posting hundreds of messages per day that use the same title or text. When those postings show up in Google, or Bing or Yahoo search engine scoring with the same subject - they get paid.

It's not free speech - usually it's hijacking a forum for profit. I say confine OT postings to a forum where you have the option in your control panel to remove it from your view.

That's my free speech. Thanks for listening.

[nanwilson]

Hi,

I'm reluctanly new to cpap (just got my machine on Friday) and have found the questions, answers and posts very helpful and supportive on cpaptalk. Strange that my first post is about OT postings but here goes:

I come here to find information about apnea, equipment, dealing with change/anxiety, etc. The OT postings are like that crazy uncle who shows up at family gatherings, loves to tell off-color jokes and always wants to show you were a horse once bit him. They're distracting and degrade the credibility of an otherwise great support community. Many folks here say, "just ignore them" which wouldn't be bad if you didn't have to filter through them as topic subjects. The more they are allowed, they more they will appear.

Free speech? Gimme a break. We all know about robot spam, which is why your registration requires email confirmation and usually those little captcha letters and numbers that you have to enter. It's to deter computer programs from making automatic posts. Well, the way that political organizations and product promoters get around that is to pay people (humans) to post them directly. Good money for stay at home folks that can spend their days just surfing all different kinds of forums and posting hundreds of messages per day that use the same title or text. When those postings show up in Google, or Bing or Yahoo search engine scoring with the same subject - they get paid.

It's not free speech - usually it's hijacking a forum for profit. I say confine OT postings to a forum where you have the option in your control panel to remove it from your view.

That's my free speech. Thanks for listening.

Hi there
What do you not understand about the short term OT....it stands for Off Topic. If the subject line says OT..then don't read it..just ignore it. We kinda like to talk to each other to either blow off steam or just plain vent once in awhile. You will sometimes notice that the OT subject IS medical related and can be very interesting to some of us......but, if its not intereszting to you just move on to the next thread.

[Vader]

Hi there
What do you not understand about the short term OT....it stands for Off Topic. If the subject line says OT..then don't read it..just ignore it. We kinda like to talk to each other to either blow off steam or just plain vent once in awhile. You will sometimes notice that the OT subject IS medical related and can be very interesting to some of us......but, if its not intereszting to you just move on to the next thread.

Three MORE Cheers for Nan!

[snuginarug]

Free speech? Gimme a break. We all know about robot spam, which is why your registration requires email confirmation and usually those little captcha letters and numbers that you have to enter. It's to deter computer programs from making automatic posts. Well, the way that political organizations and product promoters get around that is to pay people (humans) to post them directly. Good money for stay at home folks that can spend their days just surfing all different kinds of forums and posting hundreds of messages per day that use the same title or text. When those postings show up in Google, or Bing or Yahoo search engine scoring with the same subject - they get paid..

Maybe I am naive or unobservant, but it seems to me the same folks, REAL people, are the ones that gather around OT political topics (I tend not to read the other OT topics unless it is supposed to make me laugh). None seem to be paid political recruiters, they just aren't slick enough. ( Please don't be mad! Slick is not necessarily good!) As for product promoters... we are each given the use of a spam button after 90 days. We the people of this forum are vigilant, and such things are quickly deleted.

Free speech? Gimme a break.

That is what Johnny, who runs this whole site for our benefit, wants. He wants us to be adults, talk things through and work together to solve problems.

To summarize... we avoid bots by using the standard bot protection security requirements you mention. We unite as a community to police the board for product promoters. So far we haven't had any political promoters that I am aware of. If you want to winkle out paid political promoters, feel free to find them and alert the community. We will figure out some way to deal with them.

Please, do stick around. You can get tons of good advice and support regarding your cpap usage. Everything else, just ignore it if you want.

[bettersleeper]

"If the subject line says OT..then don't read it..just ignore it." ...."but, if its not intereszting to you just move on to the next thread."

Sound advice, Nan. It's the kind of logic that says... the post office should send out more junk-mail cause... we might find some of it interesting. One persons junk, is another persons gold.

Thanks for the advice.