Tommy,
Please tell me that you didn't mean this: 'One of your fellow Harvard grads and a hero of mine, once said, "Ask not for what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country"?' Talk about the quintessential example of form over substance! And I was hoping for a peaceful coexistance during the KPIII.
I am probably as guilty of wandering from the reservation as anyone on this site. I happen to see many tangents in various topics (golf, politics, and life), and at times I suffer from a terrible, irresistable malady not all that uncommon to others on this site- a compunction to tell. Fortunately for most, the cure is simply being ignored, which generally results in it passing for a period of time. (I've been seeking help from Katz for a long time, but even he ignores me.)
From my couple of years on the site, I can't see a decline. People come and go; interest ebbs and flows. Most of us love golf, golf architecture, AND many other things (family, college football, politics, business, fine food and drink nice looking women, etc.), and it is natural for these diverse interests to flow into the discussion.
There are a few very serious guys on the site, and that's great. From time to time, a tasteless wacko, generally in-cognito, appears. Most of us are much closer to the center- not always as reverent as we might be considering the import of the subject, but not that offensive either.
Until Mr. Morrissett tells us that bandwidth is a real problem, if we are to err, I hope that we do so on the side of free-flowing ideas as opposed to carefully crafted threads and responses sanitized as to say little that might be controversial. My only advice is that we eliminate the name calling and minimize the attribution of motives.
One other thing. When photographing people swinging a club, let's get more front-side views. Nearly all of the rear shots are neither attractive or of value from an architectural standpoint.