@lightsofpahrumpThat is an interesting experience, I myself have never been to the ER but my brother has, but it has always been for nuisance things like that fortunately.
@Danny In a forum, people have the opportunities to share things that some may care about and others not so much. This applies to me with the Wanted section and Dating & Specifications section, neither of which interest me at all (purely a personal preference). What I do to fix this is just not looking that them. If I know I am going to be bored or unsatisfied by what I see in a particular section of a forum, I simply won't check it.
Whether you choose to lock it down or just not check it, the outcome is the same. Judging by the fact that some people enjoy this section of the forum, I would personally suggest just not checking it, that way everyone gets what they want.
I will be completely honest I don't completely understand your viewpoint, do clarify if I am misunderstanding you.
@Beta 5 I just checked the stats and you are right! I was not expecting to see that. Of course the core purpose of this site is lighting, but like I said with Danny just because other non-lighting topics exist on the site doesn't mean you have to read them if you are uninterested.
As to "steering back on track", I think we currently have a decently steady flow of lighting related content, and I personally doubt restricting off-topic content is going to change that for the better.
@Olav I politely disagree with that. We are getting plenty of new members lately, and they seem to be asking good questions and trying to learn more about lighting. Some are met with knowledgeable people that don't have the means or the intent to share their knowledge, and that is unfortunate, but they are trying. People still have interest in my opinion.