First, this thread won't get moved or locked (mods?) as it is too important.

Two things about OT, first there are those of us that like to talk to other S2000 owners about things other than the car. The canon S100 topic and the jokes and the funny pictures etc. As a social community and a group of friends I'd personally like to talk about and ask questions about things not car related and get responses and opinions from people I know. The second is, as Sunchild says, it serves as a middle ground between totally relevent and completely locked.

I seem to remember that the OT forum at HA failed due to protests from other, non S2000, members. I don't know that this impression is true, I wasn't involed in the decision-making process.

I expect that the moderators will exercise restraint and only move topics that are truely and totally OT to the OT forum.

I have no evidence of this but I my impression is that the general forum is very popular. It seems to me that topics disappear at an alarming rate from the front page depending on the time of day, anywhere from 6 to 12 hours. Those that don't check the board every hour, have to go back many pages to pick up where they left off. How old is the bottom topic now? There are two locked threads on the first page, one is a group buy and the other is a total waste of bandwidth. In another few hours both of those will be gone.

The rule, generally, it that if it is even vaguely car related, it stays other wise it goes to OT. I have instructed moderators to never outright lock threads unless it gets abusive and never delete a thread unless it's contents are illegal or hateful.

I believe the jury is still out and I'd like to see how it unfolds. If OT dries up then it will go away.

 

I want owners and s2k' nut's oppionions on off topic subjects. Thus posting them on an s2000 board, not on x other board. I rarly scan the off topics board. If I wanted oppions on football I'd post there, but if I want s2k onners oppions on speeding I would put it here wouldn't I???

 

I just check both.
It's no big deal.

 

Tom, I agree, most people most people tend not to tolerate change. That's what this about change. New board, new ways of accomplishing things.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Zippy:
[B] Tom, I agree, most people most people tend not to tolerate change. That's what this about change.

 

I like having both. It makes it easier to find things.

 

Exactly. If we're going to have to check multiple pages, it's better to have them grouped by subject than by the date of the last post. It's that simple.

 

Cthree:

Thanks for keeping this thread here as it IS relevant to this forum. Also thanks for teaching restraint to your moderators as outlined in your response. Sometimes youthful enthusiasm has to be tempered by maturity. Hopefully that aspect will improve as experience is gained.

Personally I like having an OT forum as several of the old H-A gang and many of the new like to chat about topics not necessarily related to the S2K. That tends to happen when folks become better acquainted and find they have other identical interests. I have personally socialized with S2K owners I met through H-A in Florida, England and right here in Cincinnati. H-A posters sometimes complained about content not being car related. OT solves that problem and gives the wags such as me a place to communicate with my Buds.

The group buy forum also makes sense, however you could combine the Online and General. As previously stated, you have to go through almost the same number of clicks regardless.

Thanks for the opportunity to express my opinion...and this board tends to be more mature.

My nickles worth(inflation, ya know)

Laird



[This message has been edited by Laird (edited October 18, 2000).]

 

I like the OT forum as well. For those who don't, there's always the option of clicking on the "today's active topics" at the top of the opening page.

 

Don't get me wrong. I have no problem with an OT forum. If you want to post a topic in OT about penquins in Arizona, it's nice to have a place to do it (seriously, that was funny and I enjoyed it a lot!). I don't mind visiting several forums.

What I think detracts from the board though is posts getting locked and moved like they are. For example, I posted a thread a couple of days ago called "Second Gear Grind Service Encounter". It was certainly on-topic, and there was a lot of good information exchanged. After about 10 posts, a couple of people disagreed about the service provided by the dealers (a VERY civil disagreement), and one user said something about "this thread's getting off topic". Almost immediately there was a post from Trooper Li stating, and I quote "I'll just leave this post here, since it started out as a relevant topic, and I don't think the argument will go on too long. If it does, then I'll just move it to OT."

Who cares if 10 or 100 different people respond and disagree about this? Why would that make it off topic? Many times the differences of opinions are where we learn the most. Just my opinion, but the less monitoring that goes on the better unless it's REALLY bad. Moderators need to show a little moderation .

On another off-topic note, the speed of the new board is OUTSTANDING! I've tried several times to go back and check what's going on at H-A.net, and in 9 out of 10 times I'm still getting response times that are so slow that I stop before I ever connect (I'm on a high speed connection both at work and home). I REALLY appreciate cthree's work and expenditure to make this happen. THANKS!