It seems you're trying to work with a universal definition of "lamer," Just the opposite, actually. Your point about being a lamer in context of something you

It seems you're trying to work with a universal definition of "lamer," Just the opposite, actually. Your point about being a lamer in context of something you don't understand or like was precisely my point. My point was that a community full of "lamers" is a community that has somehow attracted posters or commenters whose tastes, opinions, knowledge level, interest level, and/or posting intent do not mesh with those of the majority of the userbase. To the extent that these lamers -- as defined by their context -- exist, that's usually a function of a community's having lost focus (or never had proper focus to begin with). Because lamers are defined by context, the only way to eliminate lamer presence is to sharpen content or context focus around the set of users you want to keep. I think we're agreeing more than we're disagreeing here. And if it doesn't sound that way, I'll concede that my post may not have been worded clearly enough.