"I want this to feel like a more tight group that share more than just wheeling. Wheeling should be the main focus as that is why we all came here to begin, but I don't feel we do justice to ourselves as a group to limit it to that."
This is my feeling.
As for politics and religion. In the main rules - they are not banned. I assumed they were, but no. ...and this is original Chris rules, not something I changed. Hit the rules link (bottom of each page) and search for religion or politics -neither are listed. Religious, pertaining to no religious slurs, does exist.
Bottom line, the rules say - treat everyone nice. Most topics are fair game (there are select items called out as "dont's"). I had not noticed the chat ?guidelines? of no politics and religion.
I wish what is best for the group. We are, wonderfully, a group that gets along well. Do I wish we had more activity in the same direction, yes. If folks have recommendations for that, I'm curious.
Getting back to Cliff's comment, above, we could be "just a scheduling group" - deleting all of the other content the site offers. If we focused on that route, I know it would hurt our "let's get together for a run" aspect. Matt's recent desire to get out is one example of that - we did not have folks jumping in to say "let's go". I'd gather many of the new members have not logged in for the past two or three weeks. They're missing out on an opportunity to wheel / get together.
What might we do to have new folks (and existing folks) check in more often?
For me, I have made this URL an easy-to-click bookmark - it shows me the new/unread posts the site has to offer. I hit it multiple times per day when I'm at the computer:
http://www.frontrange4x4.com/forums/....php?do=getnew
.