BRING BACK OFF TOPIC SECTION

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 6:15 pm

Unless more mods are brought in to handle OT, I don't think it would be a good idea ;o

Tab. · Post by **Tab.** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 6:34 pm

Wait a minute.
Remind me again why a spam-only forum wouldn't solve everything.
Or are we too prestigious for that.

azulmagia · Post by **azulmagia** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 9:25 pm

Otohiko wrote:Despite my sheer disgust at threads like this, may I at least attempt to counterbalance the overall sentiment?

Despite respecting the decision to remove OT, I still maintain that, were it not for the said forum, I wouldn't have become active in the community, and I would certainly have never gotten into AMV's.

I know it was a pain, but I have positive memories of it as something which got me acquainted with the community and introduced me to a whole bunch of good personalities. And I'm sure there's more than one person who sees it that way around here

Indeed. No pain, no gain.

paizuri wrote:As of yet, the majority of the people that have expressed an interest in the off-topic section coming back haven't demonstrated the ability to NOT post insipid spam messages. Until that day comes, don't hold your breath on the revival of OT.

Let's see some hard numbers on that contention, instead of a subjective impression. Onus probandi, etc.

Let's at least have a forum in which people can say "Hello, I'm new here," so General AMV doesn't get spammed with those sort of topics.
BTW, that thread in the same forum where people bet when local downloads will hit 10,000 is as OT as any they come, and only "on-topic" by the sheerest technicality. The tributes the "on-topic" party pays to the "off-topic" party....

LoST RaiNDRoP · Post by **LoST RaiNDRoP** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 9:42 pm

I KNOW! how bout we take votes if there should be an OT or no OT? ..lets promote democracy. that is if our great leader Phade will agree on it ^_^

Flint the Dwarf · Post by **Flint the Dwarf** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 10:34 pm

No, no voting.

This isn't a democracy. This isn't about us or AMV creators, it's about AMVs. Our "great leader" won't be a great leader if he moves from dictatorship to democracy.

paizuri wrote:As of yet, the majority of the people that have expressed an interest in the off-topic section coming back haven't demonstrated the ability to NOT post insipid spam messages. Until that day comes, don't hold your breath on the revival of OT.

So once we stop being off topic, you'll allow us... to be off topic?

Yeah yeah, distinction between off topic and "insipid spamm messages" and blah blah but most people don't see that distinction, even if you do write it out for 'em.

Kai Stromler · Post by **Kai Stromler** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 11:18 pm

azulmagia wrote:BTW, that thread in the same forum where people bet when local downloads will hit 10,000 is as OT as any they come, and only "on-topic" by the sheerest technicality. The tributes the "on-topic" party pays to the "off-topic" party....

Hey, I resemble that.

If you check back on the first post of that thread, I acknowledged that the proper forum for that thread was the Golden Donut forum, but that since it did technically deal with general-site matters, I posted it in the highest-traffic place where it might apply. If the mods had moved it to the Donut forum, as well they might have, I would just have swapped out the Skinless link in my sig for a "Bet on the Donut here" and carried on, because they would have been justified.

That being said, if there was still an OT, the Guess the Donut pool would have started there, and included a plea to move up, because it WAS the sort of thing that OT was really supposed to be for -- more "community" stuff than relating to specific parts of the AMV process. Unfortunately, in the actual implementation, that kind of got lost under tidal waves of spam.

Bringing OT back will not solve the spam problem in General Anime (the forum where it's currently worst). More mods paying better attention -- and taking action against offenders faster -- will. The site gets more users every day, and nearly all of them have enough background to start posting in General Anime, which has almost no rules on allowable topics; spam is the *inevitable* result. I'm not going to go as far as EC's old "delete GA" rec, but it should be recognized that this particular forum has a congenital problem and needs regular pruning of spam posts by definition.

--K

LoST RaiNDRoP · Post by **LoST RaiNDRoP** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 11:45 pm

Tab. wrote:Wait a minute.
Remind me again why a spam-only forum wouldn't solve everything.
Or are we too prestigious for that.

still got no answer for this one?... it shows that OT sections were removed for no reason. and the reason you say is that because people spam on it. (which is actually suppose to happen.. duhh).. spam is getting worse since people starts to know other people more well. and the general anime forum is where all the friendship spams helplessly comes out since theres no OT forum where they can post things regarding each other. THATS WHY WE NEED OT SECTION!

Kai Stromler · Post by **Kai Stromler** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 12:09 am

LoST RaiNDRoP wrote:it shows that OT sections were removed for no reason. and the reason you say is that because people spam on it. (which is actually suppose to happen.. duhh)..

This really cuts to the heart of the debate: the people on different sides have different conceptions of what OT is supposed to be. If you were around when WOT was spun off, you'll recall that it was from the contention that the spam in OT had gotten out of hand and needed to be made into its own forum. In the minds of the administrators, OT was *NOT* supposed to be used for spam.

Read here (thread is currently locked) for more information on why exactly the OT boards were closed; spam was one of several driving factors, but not the single motivator.

--K

Declan_Vee · Post by **Declan_Vee** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 12:20 am

Let's put this into perspective. Most of the members here are retards who couldn't possibly post anything other than "insipid spam".

Kalium · Post by **Kalium** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 12:29 am

Declan_Vee wrote:Let's put this into perspective. Most of the members here are retards who couldn't possibly post anything other than "insipid spam".

Quite possibly true. That said, sometimes this "insipid spam" can be fun/amusing. Until threat from mods happen (never to me, fortunately).