Off Topic : Good or Bad?

[Victory]

It detracts from AP. It lets drama spill over into other portions of the site.
Spin it off into another site.

The actual On Topic portion of the site will be much easier to moderate effectively without Off Topic.

I completely agree.

-Vic

[Osmo]

Chiming in to support OTF as subscription only.

[Matt]

The only thing about making Off Topic a private usergroup board is that somehow people have to figure out it exists. They then have to join the usergroup, and a usergroup moderator needs to grant them access in order to view OT. That step might make off topic harder to notice, and/or it may not be used as often.

Anyway, keep up the voting in the poll. This is good info.

[Crusader 6]

I would visit the site wayyyyy less if OT is shut down. I may only visit once a week or so if it was. I come here for entertainment mostly, but I like to stay in the loop with new airsoft guns and updates.

[Smith]

The way I see it, with no OTF this kind of stuff would pop up in the ON topic forums http://www.airsoftpacific.com/viewtopic.php?t=22614

[Nocte]

The only thing about making Off Topic a private usergroup board is that somehow people have to figure out it exists. They then have to join the usergroup, and a usergroup moderator needs to grant them access in order to view OT. That step might make off topic harder to notice, and/or it may not be used as often.

I'd do it. I'm sure I'm not the only staff member that'd help out, but even if I was... well, I'd do it anyway.

[CommieHunter]

I'd add people to the usergroup.

I can do it if you need it. I'm on enough anyway.

[Talondog]

I vote to keep everything as it is, OT included.

AP is a community. Dumping OT is like banishing a segment of the community, cutting off a source of ideas and information, and we could all suffer for that in the long run. What, you don't want to be offended by Morgan's crazed rants anymore? Or miss out on Gunny's spot-on political and ecomonic commentary? Or even to just have a place to discuss non-airsoft related stuff? Pretty boring otherwise.

At my work mandated, compulsory and mandatory in-service diversity training block they told us "diversity is the spice of life."

In this case, maybe they are right about that.

[Valupta]

I like off-topic.

If people find it distracting, they don't have to go there.

Imagine, if you will:

At a camp out someone blares a horn. Everyone looks. Someone is standing on top of their SUV with a megaphone.
"Hey guys, thank you all for something out. I just have one bit of business I need to get to then we can all have a good time."
Someone laughs and takes a drink of their beer"

"There will be no non-airsoft related discussion allowed at tonights campout or tomorrows game. Anyone caught discussing anything other than airsoft will be kicked off the field permanently"



And that is the end of the scenario.

[Talondog]

Valupta wrote:

I like off-topic.

If people find it distracting, they don't have to go there.

Imagine, if you will:

At a camp out someone blares a horn. Everyone looks. Someone is standing on top of their SUV with a megaphone.
"Hey guys, thank you all for something out. I just have one bit of business I need to get to then we can all have a good time."
Someone laughs and takes a drink of their beer"

"There will be no non-airsoft related discussion allowed at tonights campout or tomorrows game. Anyone caught discussing anything other than airsoft will be kicked off the field permanently"



And that is the end of the scenario.

Great point!

[PixieChinchilla]

Well, going with the subscription idea, what if it automatically shows up on peoples forums, like it does now, unless they ask it be taken away? Kind of like the opposite of asking for access? I dont think I'm explaining this right...

[Matt]

That makes sense, same thing though, if they don't know they can opt out... according to people who say "off topic turns people away from AP..." it wouldn't matter. Having access by default would just turn them away before they knew they could opt out. People are lazy and they don't figure things out that quickly.

What I wanted to figure out with this poll, was if the people who are complaining about Off-Topic to me are a squeaky wheel minority. So far, the numbers have shown that to be true. Sometimes when you get IMs and PMs from people they say things like, "Everybody is saying.." or things like, "Lots of people don't like blah..." But, it's good to just get information from the community and see what's going on. Normally, people who like something don't say anything about it, but people who complain talk a lot. So I'm glad we could poll on this.

If anything, I think off topic could use slightly more moderation. By that, I just mean that each post should be some kind of topic... Not just "Blah blah blah we're all gay and we like buttsecks." And some of that grabass stuff doesn't really serve any purpose other than the boredom of the person who posted it.

And also, we're looking to migrate to phpbb3 very soon. As a user, you have many more options on specific content and/or PEOPLE you wish to block. I haven't tested that feature 100%, but so far I've noticed users have a lot more control over what content they see on the boards. So, who knows, maybe it's as simple as saying... I don't want to see any posts from off topic. There you have it.

[Zerstoer]

I think people need to stop being such whiny bitches.

[Bubba]

As an alternative to a usergroup, would it be doable to create a profile option to exclude OTF, or other forums for that matter, from the posts-since-last-visit search?

Of course a migration to phpbb3 might make that a moot point for all I know, not having used phpbb3.

[CommieHunter]

I think off topic could use slightly more moderation. By that, I just mean that each post should be some kind of topic... Not just "Blah blah blah we're all gay and we like buttsecks." And some of that grabass stuff doesn't really serve any purpose other than the boredom of the person who posted it.

That's the truth.