For those who have not been on the board so long, we had a whole year, running up to a Presidential election, 6 or 10 years ago, when political posts were flying everywhere. As is happening now, they would crop up in completely unrelated threads. The posts were made by people of all political affiliations. They got ugly. In reality, most political posts are ugly to someone, and probably to a whole bunch of chip board readers. We have posters and lurkers from across the board, politically, so whatever you espouse, you have a decent chance of offending or riling up a whole segment of people. Anyway, during that year, when things got pretty ugly, there were a lot of complaints about the political posts. Some people said goodbye and we don't hear from them anymore. Maybe they lurk, maybe not. I can't imagine that any of it wins any points with new collectors and people new to the board. At the end of the election, there was some agreement to curtail the political posts, and if necessary, label them so people could avoid them.

It's not so bad now, but they are coming up with greater frequency, often for no reason at all, and often in unrelated, even chip related posts. I know that the rule is you can post anything you want, but most of us know that it's time to attract people to the hobby, not chase them away. So, please, try to limit the political posts, and try to label them so people can avoid them. The elections are over, so now seems like a good time to get back to the fun stuff.

I'm not speaking for anyone other than myself, but I hope some others chime in here so we don't lose more people on this board.

JMHO.

Michael Siskin