As far as OT threads go, I am afraid that there are plenty of them on every Forum: right now on Keyboard Corner (the Music Player Forum about Keyboards) there is a thread entitled "Dry cleaning prices" (the original poster is an american who moved to Holland and is complaining about the price he had to pay to have his tux dry-cleaned for a job)
So, considering that Keyboard Corner is the Forum where I go when I want to read something really related to music... I guess that this leaves little hope, doesn't it?
I am not even mentioning the Harmony Central Forum, where "off topic" threads seem to be even prevalent on "on topic" ones!
I have to say that I was glad when Nigel took the decision to open "The Bar", because at least this got rid of all those useless and annoying threads about politics, economics, religion, etc, who ALWAYS ended up with people jumping at the throat of each other.
I have long time ago abandoned the idea of using this Forum to discuss more musically relevant topics, like the chord changes that other people use to play a given song, because I have seen that almost nobody here is interested into this kind of discussion. Let's face it: arranger players are affected with GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) even more than the average keyboard player, maybe because we are all grown up people with a steady income, who can afford to buy a new keyboard almost every year.... but at least this has a positive side, because if you want to know the truth, all the truth and nothing else than the truth about a new arranger keyboard, this is the place to visit!
I remember when the Korg PA1 X pro first appeared: well, Daddy JJ gave his opinion here maybe the day after the first keyboard hit the european market, and the same happened for the Roland G 70, with Roel giving us his candid opinion.
Anyway, to get back to Jim's original question: I don't like off topic threads at all, but on the other hand don't consider entirely "off topic" a question about a keyboard which is not strictly an arranger, like a Motif or a Fantom; after all, even on Keyboard Corner or Harmony Central (where 95% of the questions are about synths or digital pianos) every now and then there are people asking infos about arranger keyboards: all it takes is to re-direct them to the right place!
Final consideration: I really hope that Jim will stay with us, because I think that his presence is much needed here; at least he is one of the fews who enjoy talking arrangers from a technical point of view.