I was just reading through this thread: Whats forums all forums should have

The thread is basically talking about what forums we think all forums on the internet should have. As reading through the replies there was a recurring theme, Rules, Intro and Off Topic.

I honestly believe that the Off Topic forum is one forum that a new community should NEVER have. It's hard enough starting a new forum from scratch without diverting attention from the forum topic. Lets face it when you are starting a new forum that last reason people will be visiting the site is for general chit chat. It's usually to either find information or because they are interested in your forums subject. Personally I believe that an off topic forum is something that should be introduced once a community is established and not before. Before a community is well established every effort should be put into getting relevant content.

I was just wondering what everyone elses thoughts were on the matter.

We had a off topic forum since the start. It was a good call to put that. Even the off topic forum was filled with very good topics. It still is. It's not just general nonsense. But I guess that depends on the users and the general genre of the site.

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I like the off-topic forum. People in a community often get to know each other and want to share views and experiences that go beyond just the focus of your site.

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One thing that I notice when a new site starts is that a lot of focus is put onto the off topic forum. Especially when they are trying to increase content on their site sometimes admins just put more effort into the off topic forum because it's easier for them. Also a lot of the paid posting sites that i've had experiences with when posting on websites tend to just post in off topic forums because it is a lot easier.

I don't deny that the off topic forum has it's uses, however just wondering whether you think that it can sometimes take admin's focus away from the more important things?

My whole forum is based on being Off-Topic. It's a good thing for me.

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EuphoricArythmia
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Hehe that I don't doubt. I must say that the thought of trying to set up a general forum is quite scary. You seem to have done well, it must have taken you a lot of hard work to get to the point you're at today. Congratulations.