I am not one to stay on topic that much. I do enjoy the "conversational tone" of answers even to specific questions. There are people who want specific answers and that only - very clinical and that is their personal choice. There are those that want "community" answers that not only gives specific but side and related issues. I respect both sides to have their own opinions.
I am quite different in that I enjoy the clean humor that is some times interjected in topics. Some of it does cause side tracking, . . but the other side of the coin is that purely and narrowly specific "on topic" takes the fun away just as much as griping, complaining and turning every honest topic such as "oil" and turning it to politics. Even when trying to enforce a "staying on topic" kind of rule, things can get so legalistic that some people will attempt to parse single letters in a sentence.
(I work with a few of those. 
)
The problem with deciding how much "staying on topic" should be - It takes analogies, illustrations, metaphors, to get the point across. However, those can and do trigger comments that go "off topic" to some degree. When someone asked once about how effective a hand drill could be for a specific situation, I compared a hand drill vs DP by using the analogy of the difference between a Circular Saw VS a table saw. Was the CS/TS analogy off topic? It made the point, it also drew a couple of comments that were off topic to the main OP. But the point was made with the OT comment.
For me, I am often a "listening post" for people with problems or frustration. It isn't so much that my advice is sought (sometimes it is), but that I just listen. Community does that, IMO. While a few will stretch topics beyond the confines of restrictions here, listening is a good exercise to show that we care about others or at least this group of wood workers.
The problem comes when the expression of frustrations by some - changes to bashing by others, which in turn wrecks legitimate discussion.
I am quite different in that I enjoy the clean humor that is some times interjected in topics. Some of it does cause side tracking, . . but the other side of the coin is that purely and narrowly specific "on topic" takes the fun away just as much as griping, complaining and turning every honest topic such as "oil" and turning it to politics. Even when trying to enforce a "staying on topic" kind of rule, things can get so legalistic that some people will attempt to parse single letters in a sentence.
(I work with a few of those. )The problem with deciding how much "staying on topic" should be - It takes analogies, illustrations, metaphors, to get the point across. However, those can and do trigger comments that go "off topic" to some degree. When someone asked once about how effective a hand drill could be for a specific situation, I compared a hand drill vs DP by using the analogy of the difference between a Circular Saw VS a table saw. Was the CS/TS analogy off topic? It made the point, it also drew a couple of comments that were off topic to the main OP. But the point was made with the OT comment.
For me, I am often a "listening post" for people with problems or frustration. It isn't so much that my advice is sought (sometimes it is), but that I just listen. Community does that, IMO. While a few will stretch topics beyond the confines of restrictions here, listening is a good exercise to show that we care about others or at least this group of wood workers.
The problem comes when the expression of frustrations by some - changes to bashing by others, which in turn wrecks legitimate discussion.
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