A couple of thoughts here.
First, I am sorry to see some people stop posting. There are some whose posts I read first, others whose posts I generally ignore. Having said that, I don't think I have any right to demand that anyone post, or not post. So, instead of carping, I'll simply say, I appreciate both the historical posts from the careful researchers, and the operational posts from the fellows who actually work on and run the equipment. Some of the political posts don't do as much for me - but hey, that's an opinion, and you have as much right to yours as I do to mine.
Secondly, I don't think adding categories to the forum is really going to be all that helpful. What WOULD probably help is if we all would try to be more attentive to effective use of the subject line. If your post is really moving to a new subject, perhaps a brand new post with a brand new subject line to start a new thread would be best. OK, now having said that, I admit to being just as guilty of failing to do this as the next man. But, an example of this problem would be the recent John Maxwell Collection thread. It started out on the status of the John Maxwell Collection, then wandered off into the quality of different photographers who were Maxwell's contemporaries, and into the issues of steam operation in winter. Now each of those were interesting, but the discussion of photographic artistry of Kindig, Perry, and Maxwell probably could have been its own thread, as could the discussion of locomotive operations (steam leaks) in winter.
So, I would suggest we all try to be more accurate in our use of the subject lines, and pay more attention to that. We can use that, and the name of the poster as a clue to deciding to read a thread, or to post on it.
My opinion and a couple a bucks gets you a cuppa java and a sinker....
Merry Christmas to all.
Charlie Mutschler
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