In fairness, I didn't mean to imply that anyone had been driven away by the off topic posts specifically - but the sheer volume of posts we get now is not compatible with the workload most of us have

Sad but true. I used to keep on top of the whole BBS (except forums like Installs, where I'd have nothing to contribute), but now I just skim.

(And incidentally, I personally don't think a thread called "I Crush Empeg" started by a poster called "Osama Bin Laden" needs to be in a forum called "Off-Topic" for people to realise that it's off-topic. But whatever. As others have said, much dafter things could have been done but weren't, like locking Mr Bin Laden's account.)

I suspect that this rush will settle down a bit once all the new users have got all the new user stuff worked out

I hope so.

Peter