"Marc Lurie" wrote in message
...
I have been subscribing to rec.travel.africa for about 10 years now. I
have recently noticed a huge amount of rubbish here that has nothing
to do with travel in Africa.

I've also noticed an enormous immigration into the NG of posters who
contribute nothing but repeated, mindless drivel.

There was a time, not so long ago, where the conversations here were
sensible, focussed, and meaningful. Many questions were responsibly
answered, and loads of useable information was shared. This is no
longer the case, and it seems that the majority of postings here
revolve around some-or-other slanging match between personallities who
shouldn't (perhaps) be here in the first place.

Do the "old-timers" agree, or am I being reactionary?

Yes to both. I subscibe to a handful of NGs, and see the same deterioration
on all of them. It seems to come in cycles, and despite the drivel and spam,
some excellent new posters seem to trickle in with the riff-raff. I've
learned to just ignore or delete threads that are cluttering up the place,
and to recognize that certain posters traditionally and continually still
have something useful to say, so I always read their posts.

--riverman