Keep on topic.

This sounds good to me. Some topics have gone pretty far off topic lately.

Just to clarify will off topic items still be allowed if they are noted to be off topic and if the post still contains other sufficient and quality material that pertains to the original topic?

 

Did you know that OLED is looking on-track for mainstream use in TV's and computer monitors by mid 2010? Finally it looks like we'll have a display medium with decent picture quality back in the market in the near future, now that LCD has killed off CRT.


...Erm, I mean, yes, good idea. I concur. On topic. Right.

 

As a general rule, if you want to be mention something slightly off-topic, it should be a small mention—the main contents of your post should be on topic.

 

I'm curious how you plan to accomodate "topic drift"... that phenomenon that occurs after enough posts, where the topic never got truly derailed but just slowly changed to something else.


<small>...if anybody is curious, I am not going to be enforcing any of this and I don't consider my say in this to be above anybody else's; I'm only doing programming.</small>

 

I don't know, I'm still hoping on SED techology to be released soon. In the meantime, I'm still sticking to CRT

I mean yeah on topic right sure got it.

 

Ever hear of flow of conversation? Its this amazing thing where one topic can lead to another.

Topic changes = progression of topic. I'm sure most people are mature enough to keep talking about the original poster if they want to.
So yes, please do discourage free thought. I mean hell, the rest of the modern world does so too.

 

That is already known... in this same forum.

 

I think a natural flow of conversation, yeah good. Great. Awesome. But, "natural" flow means that the topic it moves onto wouldn't be so far removed from the original anyway.

However, if the topic COMPLETELY CHANGES in the space of two or three replies, that's cause enough for a split, and anyone that seems to be posting with the intention of changing the subject should have their post trashed.

It's not uncommon for somebody to post a new topic beginning "Well I saw xxx topic and that got me thinking about yyy, so what do you guys think?", which I think is a good precedent. This is what should be done in favour of derailing.

 

I think you're completely misinterpreting the scope of things.

For example, the small tangents where you have spoken on a separate subject are perfectly fine, so you can keep doing what you're doing without problems. The problems here are people replying to a topic with something completely irrelevant, and people then doing nothing but following that new topic, completely defeating the purpose of the original topic.

Say you made a topic about a new car you got and all of a sudden people started talking about cocks. Wouldn't that annoy just in the slightest bit?

I don't know; on a message board, when I click on a specific topic, I expect discussion about that topic, not something entirely different. You can misinterpret this whole thing as much as you want, but I don't think it's anywhere near as ridiculous as you may think it is.

 

I swear you look for any excuse to put "cock" in your posts.

BUT WAIT.... IS THIS ON TOPIC? I... I... DON'T KNOW!

DUN DUN DUUUUN

Funny seeing that old post from Quickman linked to, and my reply from 2004. Phewy that's going back!

 

lol, see what I mean Tweaker, cocks are your favorite subject.

I don't mind the occasional topic shift. The star wars action figure chick evolving into a discussion about which gender is superior doesn't seem like a bad one, as the original topic is for the most part over. Everyone and their grandma has commented on that. But yeah, I see what you mean, discussion on my new car should not devolve into discussion about... a new puppy. lol

 

I had a post of mine deleted yet it WAS on topic..

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.