Bulletin Boards

As wonderful as new technology is, it can also be a pain in the neck when everyone discovers it at the same time! So I'm doing 4 courses at the moment, that means that there are 4 different bulletin boards. On every single one, the professor helpfully suggests that we introduce ourselves. While that's all well and interesting, I don't care to know that Joe is from Sydney and has 2 children or that Peta from Brisbane is a waitress but wants to get ahead so is doing her GradDipEd part time or that Jenny is from Melborne, studying full-time and is feeling stressed. So are we all, and all the chit-chat doesn't help! Four frickin' message boards, four frickin' sets of annoying greetings. Sure, they're all finding study buddies and old friends they went to Uni with. While it's lovely that I have yet another way to procrastinate, it makes actually using the board to ask legitimate questions REALLY hard. You have to sift through 180 messages (example in one course) to find the ones that really ask something instead of say "Hey John, did you go to Penrith High School and study music in 1994?". In one of the courses at least, the prof is limiting social chat to a Bulletin Board "Coffee Shop". I so do not have time for this stuff--and I'm contemplating moving into a house next year with no internet. Am I crazy?