> In a friendly community, people want to express what's on their minds with
> people whose input/response etc. they appreciate. I think that to totally
> eliminate "OFF" posts would be off-putting.
One of the problems of complaining about off-topic posts on the list is that
those complaining posts are off-topic themselves! There should be a parallel
list for complaints and to talk about censorship. They're not about singing!
But, now, serious: I've been engaged in some off-topic discussions, although
most of them were so called but not actually off-topic. I don't consider
that thread about pop music X classical, for instance - including its
sub-thread, Malmsteen- as off-topic. They had A LOT TO DO with singing and
technique. We were just looking at the big picture.
On the other hand, I think that the one about elections in the US, which I
was partially involved in, was TOO off-topic, although educational. Some of
them, like the ones about language in general, are so close to singing that
I wouldn't consider them to be off-topic ( and I'm about to post something
very interesting - at least to me- about learning foreign languages ). All
classical singers and those who sing rock but are not native speakers of
English are much likely to profit from such a(n off-) topic.
Going back to the elections post: that thread might have been related to
classical X pop singing/music, and I almost did that, but I thought it would
raise so much controversy that I decided not to do that. The kind of reading
I'm interested in ( philosophy, sociology, politics, etc, although I'm not
an expert ) lead me to make those connections, but, WHEN I NOTICE THAT, I
prefer to avoid that lead and live in peace :-) Anyway, I think personal
opinions about candidates and religions, although intimately connected to
classical X pop culture ( which includes singing ) , should be PERSONALLY,
and maybe BIG SISTER...LY, when not respectful, avoided. Not that I think
those topics are not subject to discussion ( as some say in Brazil: soccer,
politics and religion shouldn't be discussed ), but I think that will bring
up more problems than clarifications.
Bye,
Caio Rossi
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