Well, the way I see it is that this web site has a whole bunch of forums targeted to specific types or classes of boats or specific groups of people. Most of those forums are not used much.

This forum is the only one that is not specific. It is described as: "This Forum is for a General Discussion for all sailors." It does not say discussion ABOUT sailing, just discussion for sailors.

Therefore, this basically IS the "off-topic forum." And I think that is the beauty of it. I love the variety and the flexibility. You can have random threads about recipes, books, videos, music, cars, skiing, environment, politics (pretty much anything that interests sailors, even if only a few), interspersed with all the nuts-and-bolts sailing threads about halyards and hull fixes and racing rules.

I love to read about the other things that sailors are interested in. It makes me feel more like I am part of a community of PEOPLE who share the common bond of sailing but also have other lives.

I would like to think that this Open Forum gives sailors the opportunity to share their other interests with fellow sailors. And everybody can read and contribute to whatever threads interest them. Something for everyone.

Am I wrong?

P.S. I have my personal forum page set for 30 threads per page, so when I open up the forum I can see all of the ones that are active and quickly glance through and see which ones interest me enough to open and read. No problem.