Tom,
I have tried (of late, at least) to stay away from the OT threads, at least as far as posting. However, I'm not sure that "tightening up" is a good long-run idea.
The membership here breaks into three groups for the purposes of discussing GCA, as I see it:
Group 1--Professionals in the industry, including archies, supers, operators, etc.
Group 2--Nonprofessionals who have, for one reason or another, seen a relatively high % of the world's (or at least the U.S.'s) great golf courses, many of which are very exclusive and/or very expensive and/or very remote.
Group 3--Nonprofessionals who love GCA as much as the first two groups, may or may not know as much, but have much more limited access/experience seeing or studying great courses other than on television, magazines, books, or here.
Group 3 (of which I am a member
) is by far the largest group, I would imagine, and that limits things here somewhat. I can't discuss NGLA or Sand Hills intelligently, but I LOVE seeing pictures posted and reading others' thoughts, and every now and then something comes along where I CAN contribute. I imagine many here are in that same boat. If things tighten up a lot, this becomes only groups 1 and 2, and inbred pretty quickly.
I can't really imagine how the site becomes better with MORE restrictions or limitations. The "OT" label works for me.