To answer the quiestion posed in the title of this thread: No, not always.
Topics can be member-related, with regard to the members as we on this site know them. (I.E. Gale, Lawdog, and Sparticus' hospital stays) Sometimes they can be a bit of a checkup as to what our other intersts are. (E.G.:
Other Passions thread.) Sometimes they're just a much-needed break in a stressful time. (E.G.: Joke threads.) There are other examples. But, rule of thumb here, is that, as a site that is "a virtual community dedicated to the discussion and advancement of responsible firearms ownership," we follow Rule One of the
Forum Policies, linked at the top of every page: <UL TYPE=SQUARE>"1) All Topics and Posts must be related to firearms, accessories or civil liberties issues."</UL>
Our rules on this are intentionally pretty non-specific. If your thread gets closed, don't be personally offended. It doesn't mean you're a bad guy, or that we don't like you; it just means that we closed it. There's only so many minutes in everyone's day. We only have so many threads that we can read in an hour online (especially those of us who are dialup.). We come for gun-related topics. Cleaning out the non-gun-related topics is a service provided (free of charge) by your devoted Moderators and Administrators.
I have been conferring with other Staff over non-contentious thread closures. I am, without waffling, pretty open-minded, and will certainly Moderate as my fellow Staff members would have me do so. Ultimately, of course, this is Rich's board, and he can override my decisions on these things. He's not yet done so, but there's a first time for everything; he may not have checked in since last night.
In the meantime; I first saw this "Chicken story" about 6 years ago, and have always seen it attributed to the AP, but have never seen a date, nor the actual name of the village this supposedly occurred in. (Very rare for AP.)
I'm inclined to classify this one under Urban Legend.
L.P.
[This message has been edited by Long Path (edited March 05, 2000).]
