Forum Moderators: rogerd
I have a busy topic-oriented forum where I just added a foo-like main topic. People kept posting stuff in the "real" topics about movies, politics, etc., so it seemed to make sense to give them an outlet for that kind of stuff as opposed to mods nuking the threads. It hasn't caught fire, but it seems to be reducing the clutter and there have been some popular threads.
Any thoughts about what makes an off-topic forum work best? Should there be restrictions and off-limit topics even there?
How important do you think an "off topic" area is for building community and/or keeping the main topics clear of junk?
I think it's very important. It gives the people who want to post off-topic stuff a place to do it, and it gives you and the other Mods another excuse to shut down or move threads when they're posted where they don't belong.
And probably best of all, it allows your users that don't care about people's politics, religion, whatever, to avoid that stuff and focus on the reason they're really at your forum in the first place. That's how I look at it -- it's more a service for the people who DON'T care to post and read off-topic stuff than it is for the ones who do.
FWIW, I also have a separate "Help Desk" Topic, a separate "Feedback" Topic", and a couple "General/Misc." Topics that also help keep the specific content-related Topics clear of those kinds of posts.
pointless posts that just serve to build post counts
Software permitting, I'd say it's a good idea to not have OT forum posts count toward member totals. :)
And since my fora are private (by invitation only, which makes some of them VERY busy and others mostly dead), I just don't have to worry about "iffy" topics cropping up. [None of it would bother me, but those whose fora are public (or who are either more easily offended than I or who are more accepting of censorship) most likely would want to moderate at least for a while, until the regulars in their version of "foo" got the idea as to acceptable topics and behavior....]
[[Caveat: I don't allow "terrorist" stuff, not that anyone on any of my boards has EVER even come close to that. But it IS a part of the quite limited TOS I use. I might not worry about so-called "foul" language, and as I said elsewhere, one man's "dirty pic" is another's art form; but the world has enough terror already, and I'm NOT interested in promulgating any more of it....]]
I believe the only other place I've ever run across a few pointed remarks about "staying on topic" is the phpBB forum.
Bottom line: the "management" sets the "tone" for the forum; there's not (to my mind) a breakpoint beyond which one should allow access when one is establishing (as "management") the culture/ambience/feel/tone of said forum.
That's why we have a TOS, right? (AND why some of us ought to read it thoroughly every now and again.... mea culpa!)
On the forum I mentioned above, the members pretty much demanded an off-topic area, both explicity and implicitly (by posting OT stuff wherever they could). Although I initially found it annoying, it occurred to me that this activity is one consequence of a community developing. If people weren't enjoying interacting with other members, they wouldn't feel the need to start off-topic conversations.
Looking across various places on the 'net I've frequented for a long time, I'm beginning to wonder if there's a correlation between allowing off-topic posting like this, and the longevity of the community. It does seem that the strictly policed, on-topic-only places fade away, while the ones that have some provision for plain old gossip last much longer.
Of course, looking at it in terms of the offline world, that's not entirely surprising - most people will prefer a place where they can exchange a few non-work-oriented words with co-workers, for instance.
I think your observation is correct, at least in terms of community development. Places that are highly focused (like many software support forums) have great longevity but rarely form actual communities where non-employees hang out.
It does seem that the strictly policed, on-topic-only places fade away, while the ones that have some provision for plain old gossip last much longer.
True. Except when looking at "tech-specific" or "genre-specific" fora. Here f'rinstance, or phpBB's fora, or fora extremly spec-limited such as one upon which I've been a reg for years that's related to cross-stitch, and another about quarter-horses, and another about children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder etc. etc.
Limitations exist in most cases to benefit the users. One cannot simply throw the baby out with the bathwater....
[Caveat: on the "limited" examples I posted above, EACH of them has a "foo-ish" forum as well. I would venture to state that an off-topic forum is pretty well a given any more.... at least outside of the academic communities....]
