Frankly, this forum isn't JUST about bikes. It's a meeting place for people that love the SOHC4's. When people hang out enough, even virtually, a relationship is formed. Relationships grow and expand. Community is formed.
As in any community, subjects that are not the communities primary function will be spoken about. Need to be spoken about and shared together to promote the sense of community.
Honestly, if posts were shown as anonymous, without character, with only enough words to give necessary information, and a total lack of individuality, no one would bother coming here. People want information, yes, but they also want to be part of something human, and endless myriad personalities giving that information is what makes a forum like this human.
Of course that's going to spill over into other subjects. The non-bike related subjects help build that sense of community, and it's a way for virtual 'friends' to continue to expand their relationships in the arena of the subject, if not the subject iself, that brought them together in the firs tplace.
I mean, #$%*, how many of you have called someone in another state to get help, from this forum? Friendships, though tenuous, are still formed even in this medium. Relationships are not made nor sustained with the simple transfer of data and figures. No relationships, no community.
And, to put it bluntly, do you really want to stick around in a place with no friends to dispense data?
