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So-and-so has [died/gotten sick/gotten divorced/grown a hangnail] posts
This has probably been moaned-and-groaned about ad infinitum already, but it's really started to bug me, so here goes:
Far be it from me to attempt to water down the community aspect of ENWorld. I value it as much as the rest of you folks do, believe me. It means something that one can develop an impression of posters and have an impression of their personality and likes/dislikes to help understand their position on any given discussion. Obviously some form of interaction beyond the strictest game-related discussion goes into building that community feeling, I recognize. OT threads are a fact of life, and as long as they're somewhat related - stories of how you grew up with D&D, how it affected your life, etc - that's cool.
But the General RPG Discussions forum is filling up more and more with completely irrelevant threads about pretty much any topic that means anything to any of the members. Posts about a member's health like Angelsboi I can understand - he's one of us and we care how he's doing. Posts about somebody's country being attacked by terrorists I can also understand, because they're events of large magnitude that touch many people.
But how many posts do we need about entertainer X who's died, or politician Y who got stabbed, or friend-of-a-friend Z who got sick and had to blow his nose? The way we're going, soon we'll have threads cluttering the forum whenever someone's dog does something cute, or their cat uses the litterbox, or their kid wins a spelling bee, or Ben and J-Lo get a divorce. Yay for community.
Sure that stuff may be relevant to some members, but the General RPG Discussions forum isn't the right place for it. It is after all about RPG discussions. I realize there isn't any place better right now, and Meta isn't it either, so it's a tough thing - Can we get a "Yak Yak" forum thrown together for this? Coming in every day and having to weed through the OT threads to find something of interest on what is primarily a gaming site is a little ridiculous. Obviously the warning to hold off on OT posting if there were already a few on the front page has flown completely over peoples' heads.
I'll just add that I fully expect some "If you don't like it, don't read it" responses, and while they're at least half-valid, it's quite difficult sometimes tiptoeing around the OT threads to find the ones of value to me.
Yes, that's right - of value to me. I grant completely they may be of value to others, but the part of my brain that wants things neat and tidy and sorted into their appropriate bins is holding sway today, hence the post.
I feel your pain, at least you know where to put the post (no pun) and use the right tag.
As a member I do post somethings that should not be posted but feel the need to get it off my chest, see my info highway post, the trick is posting to the right forum.
People like to share with those they are closes too and if someone post something they feel is important I am honored they feel they can come to us. I may not read every post but I will not turn my back to those that have something to say.
__________________ Signature:
All I need is minions and I would rule the world.
I'd like to agree with you man (and on most other days I'd agree) but I just posted to the Johnny Cash thread
I could do without all of the WTC post, but as you pointed out in your post, I just don't read them.
__________________
"...show me a game where the roleplaying involves deep emotional experiences and making tough decisions in-character and experiencing vicarious unpleasantness and, generally, all the stuff that people like Ron Edwards insist is the very heart of roleplaying without which the activity has no meaning and is so much wasted time, and I'll show you me leaving the room..."
I don't mean to offend, PWD, but at last count, out of the first two pages in General Discussion, I see four OT unclosed posts of the type you described (the johnny cash/john ritter one, the Swedish FM stabbing, someone turning 30, and the WTC thread); the other posts I saw marked OT were pertaining directly to members of the forums. It can certainly seem like the boards are getting overrun, especially if a group of these threads hit at one time, but overall, 4 out of 50 aren't too bad.
Even still, we'll keep an eye on OT threads the next few days, because there is a LOT of stuff going on right now in the news (I'm surprised not to see a thread on Hurricane Isabel yet. ) If we get more than what we have now, we'll have to start reducing the amount of OT stuff coming up.
__________________ "Conversely, I'm amazed at the number of people queueing up to tell people that don't like 4e that they are wrong. Why can't people just agree to disagree, and get on with actually playing the game?" --Delericho
If there's one dragon, it's a solo monster.
If there's five dragons, they're standard monsters.
If there's a dozen dragons, either most of them are minions or your DM is tired of the campaign.
--Lizard
I can dodge off-topic threads if they are labelled as such. The ones that get me are those with titles like Did Anyone Notice...
I open it assuming it to be an observation about gaming only to find it off-topic. I used a hypothetical title, because I am not here to offend anyone. I just want the OT tags please.
I don't mean to offend, PWD, but at last count, out of the first two pages in General Discussion, I see four OT unclosed posts of the type you
It may very well be my imagination Henry, but I'll swear that yesterday afternoon there were at least six or seven OT threads on the front page - and some of them were waaaaaaay OT. At times this morning I've counted either four or five. Seeing new ones about Johnny Cash/Ritter this morning just made me blow a gasket.
Yeah, it happens, and I'm not calling for a revolution or a jihad or executions or anything - just wanted to moan and groan uselessly without adding to the clutter in the General forum.
There's good people here, and I'm interested in what they've got going on in their lives, but only to a point. Ultimately I'm here to read and post about gaming. If there were a place for this stuff that'd be great, if not - I'll just try to turn a blind eye to some of the more understandable stuff.
Keep in mind, too, that a lot fewer threads per page are viewable now. Four or five OT threads on the first page, when there's only 20-30 threads visible at a time, is quite a few.
Ah, thanks for reminding me, mate. I meant to move that thread to Meta, where birthday threads (even self-started ones) ought to go...
*swoosh* There - better.
__________________ "The best gnomes were in Dark Sun." --GRAOUH !!! (WotC boards)
....Seeing new ones about Johnny Cash...this morning just made me blow a gasket...
might want to avoid that one then, cause I posted an epic
__________________
"...show me a game where the roleplaying involves deep emotional experiences and making tough decisions in-character and experiencing vicarious unpleasantness and, generally, all the stuff that people like Ron Edwards insist is the very heart of roleplaying without which the activity has no meaning and is so much wasted time, and I'll show you me leaving the room..."
---Stephenls; RPG.net Moderator---
Last edited by Teflon Billy; 12th September 2003 at 08:47 PM..
might want to avoid that one then, cause I posted an epic
How can I possibly get mad at you when there's already a second thread on the same subject?
Besides, with cracked ideas like what you tossed out in the "heads in a box" thread, I can't possibly stay mad at you - your sense of humour reminds me too much of my own. You just have a way of expressing it without offending everyone in the joint - a skill at which I am less adept.
I think PWD has something of a point. The mods went through a day or two ago, locking thread after thread, so they've probably dropped a few pages by now.
__________________ Last edited by Kwalish Apostate on 03-31-2002 at 11:21 PM
I don't mean to be a pest, but, can't you just not read them? Most are marked as such. I mean, there are both on and off topic threads I have no interest in, I read the subject line and ignore the ones I don't want to read.
I guess I just don't see what the big deal is. I have pretty slow internet service too, and it doesn't really bog me down or anything.
Different strokes I guess.
__________________ I reject your reality & substitute my own
I got no problem with off topic threads, heck I like off topic threads, after the 27,000 "3.5 will destroy the world" threads there were floating around it's a nice change, but I do have two things that do bother me about them. 1. They never seem to make it to the right forum 2. There always seems to be two or three threads on the same subject floating around. Those two seem to be related too as many of the multiple topic threads happen when a general thread gets moved to the proper forum where there is already a existing thread. Maybe if people would just pay a little attention to what is already on the board and where things go a lot of the "bothered by Off Topic" off topic post would go away too. Shame there is no way to make people's keyboards deliver a mild shock when topics are posted to the wrong forums
Personally...I would like to see a General Forum up there next to General RPG Discussions. Honestly, this has become so much of a community, that I think having a place, near the top very visible, for our day to day discussions that are either off the rpg topic or only loosely related to it would be a nice addition to the forum.
My feeling is that gamers have a uniquely gamer perspective on many issues and its good to talk about them. I know this has been discussed to death and ultimately rejected already, but I would be in favor of an Off Topic forum. Heck, I would probably spend quite a bit more time there than in the RPG General discussion forum. I feel it would satisfy the people who just want to chat and those who want to discuss nothing but gaming.
But since there isn't such a forum here, I agree with the sentiment that if you don't like them, don't read them. I also agree that if you are about to post something OT, you should first check to see if a similar thread already exists.
__________________ Darrin Drader
Freelance Writer/Game Designer
Previously posting as Whisperfoot
I'm gonna play Devil's Advocate (great movie!) about the Off-Topic Forum idea.
For one thing, bandwidth issues are already a very big thing here at ENWorld. Recent steps have made the boards run a little more smoothly, but the reality is that as the site grows in popularity (do we have numbers?) we're going to keep banging up against this wall. An off-topic forum, while interesting, might make this happen faster, since I imagine that would be one of the most popularly used forums.
Another problem I have with it is that at least one site already exists, started specifcally, AFAIK, because people wanted to post off topic stuff. That would be Nutkinland. There's no need to have it here if places already exist where off-topic posting can occur.
A third problem is that of moderation. IME, you have a lot more cases where moderation is needed with an off-topic forum. A lot of this would be because of politics and religion, which many people will assume they should be able to post about, and it's their right to post on whatever they choose. I'd like to think that ENWorld is different, but realistically the popularity of Nutkinland suggests otherwise (assuming my second point is indeed correct).
Finally, and it has been said, if you don't like posts, don't read them. I will concur, at times I've found it annoying as well, but unfortunately there's no filtering system set in place (that I know of) that allows a user to automagically weed OT threads so they don't show up. I would imagine it would use a fair bit of bandwidth anyway, since I see parallels to the search function.
I just want to throw my voice in support of PowerWordDumb's initial post.
(just deleted my unpopular opinion)
I just think there's too much OT stuff, and I do include member-personal-threads in that total.
__________________ "(Narnia) is a kids film, one that will separate the wheat from the chaff in geek culture as to who still lets their inner child come out to play and who strangled theirs to death with the banality of their own existence years ago."
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