Anna Nicole Smith, guns pro and con, Brittany Spears (sic), atheism.

Shut it down, please.

Hell...even that RPG motivational poster thread has gone into the toilet.
 That thread used to be the one that hooked people into the Big Purple and pink.
I'll admit - some days I only look at that forum to see what Vipergrrl is talking about.
 She plays EXALTED , by-the-way...

- E.W.C.

Quote from: RPGPunditSo I'd say its pretty clear the "Pundit's Own" forum is a gaming forum, primarily.

RPGPundit

Pfft!

Ned

Quote from: KoltarI'll admit - some days I only look at that forum to see what Vipergrrl is talking about.

EDIT : Actually, on second thoughts you probably have a reason for drawing attention to her either by being involved with her or actually being her so I'll keep quiet.

Hm, now I just need to find out how to upload photos of kittens and all will be complete.

All OT fora share certain traits, and that is unavoidable. Sooner or later, stuff like politics, religion or sports pop up, and people will talk about them. I don't see theRPGsite banning those topics in the nearby future, if you ask me. It's obvious that some threads are better than others, but that's up to personal tastes.

The real question is whether we can avoid the problems that plague places like Tangency. I think people like Gabriel, Werekoala and JimBobOz are correct in their assessments: we don't have two separate communities (gaming and OT), and there are far more gaming topics than OT ones. So far.

Dumpshock's profiles tell you which forum a user is most active in. James McMurray, for example, has 58% of his posts on the dedicated SR4 subforum. Blakkie has 73% of his posts on that same board. I also post there, but so far the majority of my posts (45%) have been on the general Shadowrun subforum.

I wonder if we couldn't add that feature to theRPGsite. What do you think?

Anybody caught spending more time in Off Topic than the main forum should be heckled.

Jeff, do you know if the % feature can be used here?
For the record, DS is a PHP board, like theRPGsite.

Quote from: JongWKJeff, do you know if the % feature can be used here?

An initial search of the admin backend turned up nothing helpful in this regard.

Quote from: jrientsAn initial search of the admin backend turned up nothing helpful in this regard.

I asked, and got this answer:

QuoteIt's a standard feature in IPB forum software, I've yet to find another that has it standard.

IPB being Invision, IIRC.

Quote from: JongWKwe don't have two separate communities (gaming and OT),

You say that like it's a bad thing for rpg.net. It's actually a good thing. Where there are two radically separate poster communities, issues from one board won't spill over into the other. Whereas this here site is so small that it's bound to happen. I don't want to see people heckle each other about their views on D&D because of their views on gun control.

Looked at another way, RPG.net has sixty times as much talk about RPGs as the RPGsite.

Comparing sites of such disparate ages and sizes doesn't really work. It's quite possible that when this site hits the age and post count of that site numbers will be similar. After a certain amount of time Off Topic discussion growth spikes because on topic discussion starts to cover the same old bounds and the people who have been around a long time start linking new threads to old.

Also, on general purpose websites off topic discussion can spike over on topic stuff because of general appeal. If there's ten active gaming threads about specific games, not everyone will be interested in all those threads. If there's ten active non-gaming threads about popular subjects (politics, war, racism, etc.) you tend to get a larger cross section of people posting in those topics.

In other words, this place ain't RPG.net, and that's not always a good thing. In terms of moderation it's mostly a good thing. In terms of gaming related post counts it's not a good thing. All IMO and YMMV of course.

Quote from: James McMurrayAfter a certain amount of time Off Topic discussion growth spikes because on topic discussion starts to cover the same old bounds and the people who have been around a long time start linking new threads to old.

Man, if we could only do that in real life with regard to the whole of human history.  Think how quiet it could get.

Person 1: "You know, I was just thinking..."
Person 2: "Hold on.  Did you check the FAQ?"
Person 1: "No...I was just figuring you and I could, you know, talk about it."
Person 2: "Pretty much everything has already been discussed.  That's why I referred you to the FAQ.  It's fully cross-referenced.  If it's not covered in the FAQ, get back to me."

!i!

Quote from: Ian AbsentiaMan, if we could only do that in real life with regard to the whole of human history.  Think how quiet it could get.

You're not the first to say so.

You should have referred him to the FAQ, then, Tony.