Originally posted by: BD2003
I certainly see where you guys are coming from. If it was possible to effectively do something like this, we might consider it.
But there'd be a lot of difficulty in making this work right.
As is readily apparent, people don't always post in the right forum now. This is despite fairly clearly delineated categories. Having a forum for some car threads and allowing others in OT would also lead to member confusion.
You'd have people deliberately posting threads that should be in the car threads in OT when they know they should be in the car forum, and you'd have people who didn't understand where the line is drawn (or that there even is another forum outside OT) posting threads in OT.
I really like the idea of this, but I just don't think it would work out right.
Well, what is the rationale behind *forcing* topics into forums? Why the insistence behind such hard and fast lines? I dont think it bothers people too much in the OS or Gen hardware forums when people ask questions that technically belong in tech support (we answer them anyway).
IMO, don't think of the forums as a filing cabinet in which posts much be filed under their correct category. Think of the forums as a set of rooms, populated by many different types people.
OT is a general hang out where everyone screws around, and thats why we like it.
P&N is like walking into a room full of know it all pundit maniacs, and they have their fun. Plenty of P&N gets posted in OT, and it has a much lighter tone, and thats how it should be. You only hear "WRONG FORUM" get yelled when the P&N crowd spills out to OT and it gets venomous like it typically does in P&N.
The YAGT forums are quickly becoming the Dr. Phil and Dear Abby therapy rooms, but theres a lot less "Pics!" and "I'd hit it", and I think the users there are digging that.
The hardware/software forums are pretty technical, and people generally know what theyre talking about, and thats why they work well.
Even just looking at the new CE forums you can see it's a lot more informative and less immature than posting a topic in OT used to get you.
And likewise, the auto forum would be populated by people who actually know and care about cars. I doubt the general non-auto nerd OT population will really care for the kind of threads I'd expect to see in there.
If you don't force topics into it, it'll police itself. If people come in with stupid rants, theyll get ushered out by the members responses like they do in other forums. Just let it grow its own personality like many of the other forums...I really just dont understand the insistence about *forcing* topics into a specific category...who is it hurting?