It is the preference Troy. People don't want to have to sift through page after page of stuff to find the hobby related items when they can go to the specific forum and what they want to know or see is right there.
As was pointed out to me, there is some stuff posted here that never gets seen by those who don't particularly like it here or have no interest in being in here BUT are interested in the hobby. Actually, Willies pictures was used as an example.
The other issue is new people aren't going to stay if there is nothing happening in the main forums - and THAT has become very obvious over the past x amount of months. New people join, post once or twice (maybe) and are never seen again because there is nothing happening in the area they joined for, and I don't blame them for not staying. Why would anyone stay anywhere is it were dead as a morgue?
All I am saying is please post your hobby related stuff in the appropriate forum for EVERYONE to see, comment on, learn from and enjoy - that is what the forums are for.
A simple solution for those who don't want to know the weather, what my wife is growing in her garden boxes, how Chad's house is coming along, what kinds of cars we drove, etc.
When one such person finds the coffee shop, sticks long enough to see that someone posts a lot of train pics in here, but gets offended by Willi's Onions and Green Beans... they can simply note the poster they want to follow.
Every morning/afternoon/whenever they open their crypt and log in here:
Go to the Members tab of the blue bar:
Find the name of the prolific poster you want to see photos from
After you click the Ol' Buzzard's name, you'll find the profile
Clicking either of the two options I've circled brings up a rather nice list of posts.
Let's all click on The Ol' Buzzard's
Latest Activity option...
and Wah-LA! (insert magical assistant flourish)
Pretty darn easy to find Willie's pic without looking at my wife's strawberries I posted about earlier.
As for Rules...
This is what I found:
Not sure where the Coffee Shop Rules are? They don't seem to get made anew, or follow along with each month's iteration thread. So Tony's post was a lightning bolt out of the blue that derailed one of the best parts of this place.