Please, oh please, stop blatantly OT posts

Baalz · #1 May 18th, 2007, 12:32 PM

OT posts are like weeds, they choke out garden that is a forum. The big problem with them is that if you don't pull them up they multiply and the signal to noise ratio drops. Just look at what's happened in the last week- people see OT posts and then post their own. I've seen many a forum become unusable for what it was intended. There are LOTS of places to discuss TV, cooking, and politics...this is not one of them. Some people enjoy talking about TV, some people will jaw all day about cooking, and half the people on the internet will argue politics with you seven days a week. I don't, I come here to talk about dominions and if I want random noise the internet can supply as much of it as I can stomach. I'm hardly a forum nazi, and am not asking for a laser beam focus, but if you're prefacing a post with "OT:" because it has absolutely nothing to do with Dominions please, please go put it in a place where people who want to discuss that are. Keep in mind it has a ripple effect on what others post, and OT posts increase the noise that many people don't care about.

Wish · #2 May 18th, 2007, 12:44 PM

man i don't even click on the OT posts.

Baalz · #3 May 18th, 2007, 12:50 PM

Good luck with that if OT posts are a regular occurance and people aren't consistent about putting "OT" in the title. Like I said, the worst thing about OT posts is they encourage others to post OT posts...

Edi · #4 May 18th, 2007, 12:51 PM

I'm going to take this request as carte blanche to kick any existing OT threads, as well as any future ones, right into an appropriate subforum, which would be the Intel Bar & Grill one here for most, Shrapnel General for others. You can go look for them there.

The comments about S/N ratio are dead on target and we already have a number of stickies at the top of the forum so that we do not need any more things that bump actual Dom3-related threads downward.

Edi · #5 May 18th, 2007, 12:58 PM

The following OT threads have been moved to the Intel Bar & Grill forum:

Cooking
Politics
Freelords
Favorite TV Shows

I did not go back to further pages to see what might or might not be there, but I'll also treat other OT threads in a similar fashion unless the other moderators feel OT threads should stay here.

Baalz · #6 May 18th, 2007, 01:20 PM

Thanks Edi, we all appreciate the tireless work you do, I for one will make sure it's not thankless.

Gandalf Parker · #7 May 18th, 2007, 01:26 PM

OT posts ARE like weeds. Im not fanatical about doing weeding. An occasional one isnt a big deal but Im not going to allow them to take over either.

Teraswaerto · #8 May 18th, 2007, 01:42 PM

There are some topics such as the one about fantasy books, that IMO fit here very well, but cooking, politics, etc. no dice. They should be few and somehow relevant to Dominions.

Ballbarian · #9 May 18th, 2007, 02:36 PM

Thanks Edi!

(I would like to also request a "Thanks Edi!" button right next to "Check Spelling" in the quick reply box, along with "Thanks Gandalf!" and "Thanks Illwinter!" buttons.

)

Edi · #10 May 18th, 2007, 03:06 PM

Thanks for the compliments, guys.

Quote:

Teraswaerto said:
There are some topics such as the one about fantasy books, that IMO fit here very well, but cooking, politics, etc. no dice. They should be few and somehow relevant to Dominions.

I agree with this 100%. I would not even have considered moving the Fantasy Books thread, given how relevant such literature is to how we form ideas about fantasy games and it had tangential Dom3 discussion in the thread itself. But the recent spate of OT threads had no such relevance and thus stuck out like a sore thumb.