Possibility of a more inane chit-chatter subforum?

[Futurama]

There seems a lot of chit chat about these days on OT, so is there a possiblity of starting some sort of a forum for more conversational chat, and leaving the main part of OT for more serious chat - news articles, deep discussion, etc?

 

 

 

Now, what's the point in this? Because we have a nice and friendly community, but don't interact too much person to person. There is a chat room we know - but not many people from OT use it, and bulletins are great for announcements and disucssions. This could be used for things like;

 

 

 

Birthday wishes

 

Congratulations

 

Holiday Greetings

 

Personal/life questions. Maybe even including the dreaded girlfriend topic!

 

Posts about days out/stories

 

School, College, Uni topics

 

 

 

Now, this is just a suggestion. Let's see what OT think!

[Viktorkrum77]

Or maybe a birthday thread monitored by a very trustworthy and often on user. Where one would PM them when their birthday is and they'd build a list then change the topic for each person(s) birthdays.

[Abyssalwhip]

Well it's called off topic for a reason whether it be that stupid wh--- Paris Hilton getting out of jail or people celebrating their birthday.

[Lionheart_0]

I support this. Although, I think that the mods wont be in favoure. Why, do you ask? Well such a board would be seen as a "spam" board as well, which they have already said no to. I personally like it.

[Futurama]

I wouldn't say a spam board at all, they're crap. I would say a more laid-back, conversational board, but topics must have a purpose for being there and whatnot :)

[Chocobodude0]

I like the idea, but I doubt that the more laid-back OT would be able to generate a high level of conversation, it will probably end up being mostly spammed. The more serious OT would probably be home to lots of flame wars, and would probably be very depressing, as most serious topics are.

 

 

 

It's a good idea, but probably woouldn't be able to meet it's potential. I think at this point the OT is balanced out, seperating the two will make one too silly/spammy and the other will be too depressing.

[zaquierming]

Moved to the correct forum. :)

[Phil]

Funny you should mention this Rob since it has been brought up between staff the past couple of weeks , with all this board reorganisations going on.

 

 

 

It's still in the early stages at the moment but if the majority of off topic users wanted it I don't see why it shouldn't be done.

 

 

 

My thinking towards it was having a 'discussions' type board for more serious topic and then having a normal off topic board where random topics could go. If it did happen I wouldn't like to see it become a spam board though where every comment is pointless, so don't expect that.

[zaquierming]

Expanding on what Phil said, this is a possibility already being discussed, we were thinking along the lines of, as Phil said, one forum being for serious discussion, the other for Birthday threads etc. One of our main concerns, actually was the fact that we didn't know if the Off-Topic community would completely hate the idea, or love it, so I'm glad to see this suggestion.

[tripsis]

As long as the forum didn't turn out to be a spam forum, I love the idea, and is one that we have already been considering. No offense to the OT users, but many of you guys (and girls) have a very strict idea about what's spam and what isn't. If a thread does not revolve around a serious, controversial issue, it's pretty much spam in most of the OT users' eyes and gets spammed/flamed to death until we have to lock it. I would love it if a forum could be created that was much more friendly and laid back.

[jemathonical]

I would love to see a forum like this. It seems that a thread can't survuve in OT unless it is controversial and has an arguement to it. This would make it a happy place to visit :P

[InkofDeath]

I'd like this forum too. I browse the OT very much. Although from my reading and several posts I make, there's a lot of unwritten rules on there. Quite frankly splitting stuff up like this could cause a lot of flame in my opinion.

 

 

 

Would love to see it, but not quite sure it would work.

[The_Sith]

Sounds fair to me. We'll have to come up with a better description/title than "birthday and stuff goes here." ;) Some professional way to differentiate between the two - Off-topic Discussions and Off-topic Lounge... or something with Lounge in it?

[Viktorkrum77]

Unless there's a ton of mods on (and I'm sorry to say that's often not the case in OT) this wouldn't work. People would post in the wrong one, or they would spam, it'd be an endless fight of locking and moving threads.

 

 

 

It's just not worth it. I don't support.

[Phil]

Unless there's a ton of mods on (and I'm sorry to say that's often not the case in OT) this wouldn't work. People would post in the wrong one, or they would spam, it'd be an endless fight of locking and moving threads.

 

 

 

It's just not worth it. I don't support.

 

I think that's going a little over the top there. You don't think making the forums a friendlier and more interesting place is worth it? I certainly do and if that means doing a few more moves and locks (which I don't think it will to that extent) then I will gladly do it.

 

I think over time it will cut down the amount of moderating we have to do on the OT board because every thread wont be turned into a spamfest because it doesn't suit some users tastes, like it sometimes does at the moment.

[Viktorkrum77]

Unless there's a ton of mods on (and I'm sorry to say that's often not the case in OT) this wouldn't work. People would post in the wrong one, or they would spam, it'd be an endless fight of locking and moving threads.

 

 

 

It's just not worth it. I don't support.

 

I think that's going a little over the top there. You don't think making the forums a friendlier and more interesting place is worth it? I certainly do and if that means doing a few more moves and locks (which I don't think it will to that extent) then I will gladly do it.

 

I think over time it will cut down the amount of moderating we have to do on the OT board because every thread wont be turned into a spamfest because it doesn't suit some users tastes, like it sometimes does at the moment.

 

 

 

Well, I'll give it a shot. Kind of ironic with all the merges lately. :P

 

 

 

The only problem I foresee is things like posts that start off as lounge-like posts like, My Grandma's Dieing, and then turn into a huge serious medical debates. It'd be a quagmire of sorts. And this is common in OT.

[jemathonical]

I like the idea of OT Discussions and OT Lounge. Lounge sounds so sauve :P

[Mercifull]

Seems quite interesting

[Futurama]

yeah, I like lounge 8-)

 

i suppose it'd have to be a see-how-it-goes kind of thing :)

[jemathonical]

yeah, I like lounge 8-)

 

i suppose it'd have to be a see-how-it-goes kind of thing :)

 

 

 

Yeh. No harm in trying.

[Lionheart_0]

It's possible to turn turn post count thing off in certain forums right? I would suggest doing this on a forum like this, just so people dont think of it as a free "Get my post count up". Also, if it was more laid back i could see it working good without adding to the post count cause this way if someone makes a double post or wants to post again and forgets to click the edit button, there wont be people saying "omgzor, dont double post, k?".

[Futurama]

It's possible to turn turn post count thing off in certain forums right? I would suggest doing this on a forum like this, just so people dont think of it as a free "Get my post count up". Also, if it was more laid back i could see it working good without adding to the post count cause this way if someone makes a double post or wants to post again and forgets to click the edit button, there wont be people saying "omgzor, dont double post, k?".

 

 

 

It is, think it might be a mod though. Not a bad idea but people like me only get their post count through OT so mine wouldn't rise much! ;D

[hatebringer]

yeah i like this idea, most happy birthday threads end up getting spammed and flamed by people in those fourms.

[Adam007]

I'm not really a fan of separating off topic like that. Threads aren't one dimensional like that, in the sense of them being categorized. I can see people yelling at each other for being too casual on the serious issue board, or on the chat board getting annoyed for bringing up serious issues. These kind of splits sometimes split up users too. Some people start ignoring one board or the other, one becomes less active, then the community gets a little fragmented.

 

 

 

Not to say it doesn't have it's pros. There's no use in making a big deal out of this kind of a change - my opinion is that it couldn't hurt trying it out, then voting on whether or not we want to keep it. While I don't see a need to change this because I don't think we're having any problems right now, if you guys think it would make things better, why not try it out.

[Striker6]

I think the title of this board is a bit vague and there would probably be alot of questions arising of whether or not a post should be in this new forum or Off-Topic. I think splitting off Video Games and Music and Movies is a good idea because you can't really get confused by what to post.

 

 

 

But this would be too much spam orientated. I wouldn't have a problem with just disallowing any Birthday threads because there is something very irritating about seeing the same thing written by users over and over again is that not spam?

 

 

 

However if it was ever implemented I wouldn't boycott it :mrgreen: