I'm really enjoying the flashlight part. But what you're saying sounds nice too.
I like BLF because it is NOT to chatty about "what is your favorite color?" type stuff. We're flashlight geeks, that's what we like! (In my case I've taken it to extremes with carbon-arc searchlights and xenon short-arc lights.)
Another consideration is the amount of data mining going on on the internet these days. It's amazing how few people realize that Facebook is really about data mining and marketing, sold under the guise of "social-media". Everything you do on that site is logged, organized, warehoused and sold to Facebook "partners"....yet people freely "give" away their info by clicking the "Like" button for commercial based posts.
Actually I was sort of thinking about excluding "Off-topic Chatter" posts from appearing on the front page. We would have to be extra careful though to watch for spam in that category, as somebody mentioned here.
I think the whole front page feed should be determined by each individual member. I should be able to get those forums that I find most interesting and not have to look at an endless stream of posts regarding commercial transactions.
The ability to block individual members comments (from my viewing) would allow each of us to eliminate having to read the comments of the rude 3 or 4 people who engage in that kind of behavior without banning them.
If someone says we are whimming or too lazy to do something or other rude comment ...just block them. Each member would be able to have the "world" that they wish to view.