[Aesculapius Piranha]

I'm sorry. I just know I have gone on a few tangents and considering I was a bit moody about something when I replied to this topic, I had it taken it a bit personally. I mean, I just migrated from another board as most know where rules were pretty lax and I read this and my first thought is "Fuck, they're going to nazimod now." And I know I have already gone on a few in depth tangents here so I figured this may be partly my fault (again, I took it personal because I was moody. Sorry about that.) But the thing is I tend to adapt to the conversation. If someone starts talking about post apocalyptic lesbian futures in a topic about bitchy women, I may argue probability. If, within a topic about a certain hyped up port of a 13 year old game, someone asks me why I think the company who owns the rights to the port is lame for protecting IP, I will indulge that question. You know.

But then I didn't know there was an established rule set of what exactly you guys find to be off topic. I will give it a look see.

This post has been edited by Aesculapius Piranha: 14 July 2008 - 03:35 PM

[Metal Man88]

I sort of ramble about both the topic and what's off topic. Most of my posts make it to either the split topic or the original one, so I guess it works—though it makes it hard to find out where to put it...

[Tweaker]

It seems a number of you have been ignoring this. So I'm bumping this so you get the message.

I am tired of seeing topics devolve into something either not relevant to the original topic or filled with shitty bandwagoning. DO NOT DO IT.

I am not going to just keep trashing posts; if if this keeps up, expect to start getting suspended for small, inane, slightly off-topic posts. This is beyond annoying, and it's causing a lot of otherwise legitimate topics to be covered in shit. Examples include the religion topics, the sexual orientation topic, and most recently all the false replies in the "ITT We admit to things" topic.

[Mad Echidna]

In other words, the back on topic cannon from the good old days needs to make a comeback.



You guys are getting lazy. One of the things Tweaker taught me is, if you want to go off topic, fine. But don't make a post where you JUST say something off topic, because that derails things. Say something like (By the way, yada yada), and then say something relevant after that. If you can't think of anything relevant to say, sit on it until you can.

This post has been edited by Mad Echidna: 27 October 2008 - 07:14 PM

[Aquaslash]

Mad Echidna, on Oct 27 2008, 06:50 PM, said:

If you can't think of anything relevant to say, sit on it until you can.

or just make a new topic?

[Mad Echidna]

I meant more if you are saying something silly

[PlasmaNuke]

I'm an idiot.

This post has been edited by PlasmaNuke: 06 January 2009 - 04:24 PM

[TmEE]

The fun part about Sega-16.com is that most topics get derailed fast, and some of the best discussions happen then. Off topic stuff should stay in some off topic section though.
I use the say something useful then off topic approach, or the other way.

[Wetflame]

Intelligent discussion will always deviate because issues are never simple monoliths. Forcing people to always keep "On topic" will mean we have to ignore side discussions that may be vital to the main discussion. This is not an opinion, but a fact.

[muteKi]

I... agree with Wetflame completely. Whoa.

[Xkeeper]

Wetflame, on Oct 30 2008, 09:21 AM, said:

Intelligent discussion will always deviate because issues are never simple monoliths. Forcing people to always keep "On topic" will mean we have to ignore side discussions that may be vital to the main discussion. This is not an opinion, but a fact.

I don't think anybody's being anal about topic drift (e.g. discussion of related ... topics).

Just not "This thread is now about whatever." kind of derailment.

At least, that's how I see it; all conversations and discussions eventually shift and change; keeping them railroaded to a set topic just kills any kind of discussion that could crop up outside of the rigid topic guidelines.

[nineko]

When the new direction is off-topic but limited to a single different topic it's also possible to split that into its own separate thread.

[Scarred Sun]

nineko, on Oct 30 2008, 05:16 PM, said:

When the new direction is off-topic but limited to a single different topic it's also possible to split that into its own separate thread.

Yeah, that's usually how I prefer to handle the problem.

[Rage]

I'm completely and totally against this policy. But I've learned not to bitch. Just wanted to state my opinion.

[Tweaker]

Rage, on Oct 31 2008, 11:17 AM, said:

I'm completely and totally against this policy. But I've learned not to bitch. Just wanted to state my opinion.

You haven't done anything against this policy, even on SClassic, so I don't know why you're worried.

But seriously, when people want to go ahead and fill an otherwise legitimate topic full of crap, that's when it becomes a problem. When the topic had no clear sense of direction in the first place, that's when there's really no holds barred.