citroenxm wrote: ↑Sat Mar 14, 2020 11:29 am
The only issue with topic swerve is post loss.. Would you look in a fuel topic for info on gearbox issues.
And that's the problem.
As a reference resource - which I think is what many folk look to the forum for - being able to find topics or subject matter is very important. A good many contributors put a lot of effort into posts, in order to make them clear, readable and decently illustrated and referenced.
Over the years, John has often remarked on the partly jumbly nature of the forum, and has even dropped a hint in my direction that some librarianship might not go amiss, so that valuable 'hidden' (potentially 'lost') info might be indexed and retrievable. We all know the limitations of the Search facility in trying to dig back to something previously written.
I can't speak for others, but I do try not to make the situation worse. I try to open a new topic, and give it an intuitively searchable title, when writing something new, which I think others might want to refer to. Also try to add to existing/older threads where I can remember something having been discussed before, or where I can find that it has. The latter is much more of a challenge.
My 'friendly dig' above about topic swerve was, I think, pretty self-evident: the raising of a totally unrelated gearbox issue in the middle of a thread about, and titled, E10 fuel. If that wasn't a topic swerve, I don't know what would constitute one!
My mistake (if there was one) was obviously to raise the E10 issue under General Chat, rather than Petrol matters. I hadn't realised that any subject brought up there was open-house for whisking off in any direction, irrespective of either seriousness or the thread title. As said, not a mistake I'll make again.
John's last comments above are interesting, and I'm still left wondering what they actually mean. I've always held John's opinions and judgement in the very highest regard, and in many ways he is, I think, the cornerstone of this remarkable forum, however much he might say otherwise. Not to take him seriously - even in these days of mis- and dis-information - goes a bit against the grain.