Off topic or IRL forum section

[{NG}Fidel]

Wondering why we dont have an off topic section of the forum.
You know to discuss the usual forum topics like Cars, Cooking, GFs/BFs. Home Ownership, Gun ownership, etc.
A section like that would be helpful.

 

[Valve1138]

Yes this.

Add beer brewing to that list.

 

[THUMPer]

As long as there isnt a soap box..

 

[Dan_D]

Wondering why we dont have an off topic section of the forum.
You know to discuss the usual forum topics like Cars, Cooking, GFs/BFs. Home Ownership, Gun ownership, etc.
A section like that would be helpful.

It's something we talked about in the beginning and will likely implement at some point. Initially, it wasn't a priority and of course, we are still talking about what form those sections of the forum will take. We didn't want to copy the HardForum exactly, and I for one, and not really sure we want a soapbox. Effectively, most of us have day jobs and we really don't want to moderate a shit show like that. The rest of the sections are something we want to do, but its something still being hashed out.

In fairness, it's not a talking point all that often compared to other things as we have bigger fish to fry right now.

 

[Brian_B]

As much as I enjoy the offtopic forms over at H, honestly, without the reviews and such there, that's about the only thing still going on over there.

I could get behind keeping this forum more or less on topic (maybe a single general O/T forum or something)... and leave the rest of the specialized O/T stuff for H.

 

[Dan_D]

Growing the community here is something we are interested in. There is a relationship between the hits for the articles at HardOCP and forum traffic and vice versa.

 

[THUMPer]

As much as I enjoy the offtopic forms over at H, honestly, without the reviews and such there, that's about the only thing still going on over there.

I could get behind keeping this forum more or less on topic (maybe a single general O/T forum or something)... and leave the rest of the specialized O/T stuff for H.

Agreed. Not much really going on at H. It's not a big deal to me I have other places I can go now to get information. But the For Sale forums I still frequent.

 

[Valve1138]

As long as there isnt a soap box..

Yes, this.

Also, how many of us are "always" in the market for new hardware? I only read reviews when I am, it's the OT stuff that makes me as regular with a sprinkling of keeping up with current hardware.

 

[MacLeod]

Agree with no Soapbox. We get politics rammed down our throats everywhere nowadays. This hobby is supposed to be an escape from all that. Plus all it seems to do his build bad blood.

Don't care one way or the other about off topic. Wouldn't be a bad idea but don't see it as a make or break feature to add.

 

[{NG}Fidel]

Its not even politics its fucking team sport lately.

 

[Dan_D]

Its not even politics its fucking team sport lately.

Yeah, its a mess. I avoid paying much attention to it as the idiocy infuriates me.

 

[David_Schroth]

So, if this were to be done, what constraints should be applied? Specifically -

• No soapbox
• No search engine indexing / viewable when not logged in
• Criteria to be admitted? Monthly fee? Certain post count? Club nomination?

I'm also not sure what level of content we're going to see - we're at about 50 active users per day right now which is a small fraction of the current front page traffic. We probably have too many subforums here as it is.

Also, with respect to the monthly fee option, I could probably configure it so that those who are paying get no ads in the forums.

 

[{NG}Fidel]

I like a one time fee more than monthly as I think it would garner more users. Or perhaps even annually.

 

[Dan_D]

The fee that Kyle had for the HardForum was largely an asshole filter. He never made that much money on it.

 

[{NG}Fidel]

Wish the filter had applied to the Mods over there. But yeah never thought he was trying to rinse us.