I just did a count of the main page to determine just how much off topic traffic is occurring on the Whistle forum. This is what I discovered:
Off Topic:
13
C&F General Topics
4
On Topic (includes mention of any music, musical instrument and commercial postings about whistles)
32
So, what’s da prob?
The board is very fluid and a count at any one time could be quite misleading, but I believe in general over the past month or two the number of OT threads has been much higher than normal.
Susan
We can have a rolling board lottery. Dale picks the time and date, bets are made as to the number of Off Topic, C&F General Topics and Whistle related posts at that given time.
Dale could be rich, but he his not Rich now, then Dale and Rich could be rich and buy us all high end whistles from the proceeds.
MarkB
Yes, I agree that it would be, if you will, a ‘crap shoot’… and I very much like to ‘shoot the crap’ with people who actually think, and who share some of the interests I have, namely living life with a whistle within reach.
I dare say that close examination of any topic currently posted on this board would find that rather than being totally off topic, it is in reference to things happening to whistles, whistling or whistlers, and that makes it reasonably appropriate for whistlers to discuss…
Ease up folks! Life is far too short to waste on throwing people out for talking about what they find important, interesting, scary or funny… If whistlers are talking about it, it has to do with whistling.
The numbers would likely change significantly if the replies to those threads were counted.
yeah but it doesnt matter if the thread is huge, it still only takes up one line of the main page, so if you dont want to read OT it shouldnt matter if the thread is 1 or 89 pages long
It’s like ant said about the replies.
Look at the number of replies an on topic thread gets compared to the off topic threads.
I think it goes back to the tribe theory that I’ve mentioned before. Sure we could all go somewhere else to discuss religion, politics or whatever, but this is our tribe…our pack…our herd. We are a whistling community first, everything else is secondary.
We all want to belong to something…it’s in all of us. OT divides us, but whistles will always bring us back together.
Mike
Very well put, Mike. Right on target.
Cheers,
PT
I just have to suggest an amendment to Mike’s concise take: OT shows our differences. It need not divide us each and every one. But that’s up to the individual, isn’t it? 
…Susato! 
The literal interpretation, that “OT divdes us”, is not, in my view, accurate.
My tendancy is to assume (yes, I know the dangers, but trust some soul will toss me a lifeline (or a serpent!) if I’m too far off) that you meant something slightly diffferent than the wording may be interpreted to say.
I hope you meant that “OT (may divide) us, but whistles will always bring us back together”… with the emphasis on the last point.
That, I can totally agree with.
Though I agree that the OT issue isn’t too big, I’ve noticed that there is virtually no OT traffic in the other forums. I’m wondering if an OT forum would be feasible.
On the bagpipe forum there is a “beer tent” (since at Highland games most pipe band folk gather to chat in the beer tent) which is the catch-all forum. If people have tune questions there’s a music forum, if people have piobaireachd questions there’s a forum for that etc.
I think the layout of this forum is great but maybe an OT forum would be better suited for the Cutie Pie threads, the current events threads, threads about going to Ireland, etc. It could be called “The Local” or “The Pub” or something.
Cheers,
Aaron
I gave up a long time ago on the OT threads and I’m not visiting as much as I used to. Fortunately the other sub-forums are still unpolluted.
Mea culpa.