Thoughts on off topic posts

[John F]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Are you sure? I thought it was the Amazon excepting SNAP thread that drifted out to sea.

Yes, I'm sure, you miss the point entirely.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by John F

Yes, I'm sure, you miss the point entirely.

I got your point, but I so couldn't resist. Now for the entailing recipe.
You need to marinate your kittens with cooking wine, dip then in cage free eggs from Whole Foods and then roll them some organic flour bought at Amazon, then use the deep fryer and canola oil you bought from Walmart.
Oh SNAP, you don't cook the kittens, you use chicken and feed the finished product to the kittens.

Off topic enough for you.
Oh and both those threads did really go out to sea.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by meeera

It completely depends on the thread, and on the stage of the thread. If it is an ongoing working thread on say a particular firmware version or something, there should be less offtopic drift; same if it's someone actively troubleshooting and currently receiving help. If it's a less current/focused thread and it's more or less run its useful course, drift can be interesting and fun.

Very much this. Sometimes, after the main agenda is over, people keep chatting just like they do after any in-person meeting. It seems to me that, most of the time, drift only starts after starting topic has been played out. As long as the OP, or participating members, are not finding the drift objectionable then I don't have a problem with it. If the drift doesn't suit me I move on.

Like all imperfect systems, there can be times when thread drift means that some late post arrives on-topic and almost seems out of place, and it risks getting lost amid the general banter. (Like that guy from the meeting who always wants to rehash everything when all everyone else wants to do is wander back to their desks ). This can also make it hard to catch up on relevant posts when you come late to the party. But I haven't noticed this to be a major problem here - maybe that's just because I've usually moved on already.

In general, I like the way threads are managed here. P&R, overt advertising and spam are all trodden on pretty quickly, but most of the rest seems to be left up to the participants to decide if there's a problem. It seems to work pretty smoothly, although I don't have any idea how much work the moderators face to make it seem this way.

Oh, and I don't like kittens all that much.

[PKFFW]

I view threads as written conversations.

IRL I've never heard people complain overly much that the conversation is no longer specifically about the original topic and insist that no other topic be discussed so why should it be any different in a forum thread?

As another poster mentioned, either politely revive the original topic or accept that others aren't interested in that topic anymore and move on.

[John F]

And a pet peeve...

Don't start a post with "I know this is off topic ", continue the post by going off topic, and than end the post with "now let's get back on topic."

[gmw]

Originally Posted by John F

And a pet peeve...

Don't start a post with "I know this is off topic ", continue the post by going off topic, and than end the post with "now let's get back on topic."

I know this is off topic

But come on, admit it. You were expecting a reaction like this one, weren't you.

now let's get back on topic

[Alohamora]

This place would be less interesting without the thread drifts.

[doubleshuffle]

Let the kitties drift for a while before you cook them in wine.

[hildea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The moderating team would be very interested in hearing other people's views on this.

I find it mildly annoying. I'll follow some interesting thread in News or General Discussions, and after a while it drifts off to chatting about music or food or childhood memories, but I'll keep clicking on the thread when I see there are new posts, in case someone has something more to say about the original topic.

[4691mls]

I agree with these:

Originally Posted by meeera

It completely depends on the thread, and on the stage of the thread. If it is an ongoing working thread on say a particular firmware version or something, there should be less offtopic drift; same if it's someone actively troubleshooting and currently receiving help. If it's a less current/focused thread and it's more or less run its useful course, drift can be interesting and fun.

Originally Posted by gmw

Very much this. Sometimes, after the main agenda is over, people keep chatting just like they do after any in-person meeting. It seems to me that, most of the time, drift only starts after starting topic has been played out. As long as the OP, or participating members, are not finding the drift objectionable then I don't have a problem with it. If the drift doesn't suit me I move on.

Like all imperfect systems, there can be times when thread drift means that some late post arrives on-topic and almost seems out of place, and it risks getting lost amid the general banter. (Like that guy from the meeting who always wants to rehash everything when all everyone else wants to do is wander back to their desks ). This can also make it hard to catch up on relevant posts when you come late to the party. But I haven't noticed this to be a major problem here - maybe that's just because I've usually moved on already.

In general, I like the way threads are managed here. P&R, overt advertising and spam are all trodden on pretty quickly, but most of the rest seems to be left up to the participants to decide if there's a problem. It seems to work pretty smoothly, although I don't have any idea how much work the moderators face to make it seem this way.

Oh, and I don't like kittens all that much.