Topics that should be discussed on "Off-topic" board.

[hosseinimr93]

What I see under the "Off-topic" on the home page is: "Other topics that might be of interest to bitcoiners". According to this I don't think posts made in "Off-topic" board can be completely unrelated to cryptocurrencies.
I don't think topics about asking the favorite food, the favorite game or the favorite movie should be discussed on bitcointalk even on "Off-topic".
I don't think bitcointalk is an appropriate website for discussing whether should have a child or not, how to sleep better or how to spend free time.
Checking some signatures and their bounty threads, I found out there are some signature campaigns (including a few bitcoin campaigns) that are paying to users even for making posts on "off-topic" board.

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[DireWolfM14]

What I see under the "Off-topic" on the home page is: "Other topics that might be of interest to bitcoiners". According to this I don't think posts made in "Off-topic" board can be completely unrelated to cryptocurrencies.
I don't think topics about asking the favorite food, the favorite game or the favorite movie should be discussed on bitcointalk even on "Off-topic".
I don't think bitcointalk is appropriate website for discussing whether should have a child or not, how to sleep better or how to spend free time.

Why shouldn't these topics be discussed?  This forum doesn't need to be a "safe-space" where only one subject is discussed.  There are many topics that interest the diverse groups of people who spend time perusing this forum.  There's plenty to talk about that may only marginally pertain to bitcoin, and there's plenty to discuss that has nothing to do with bitcoin.

Sure, bitcoin is the one thing that brought us all here, so we all have that in common.  But we're all human with many other interests that we may also share with members of this community.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Checking some signatures and their bounty threads, I found out there are some signature campaigns (including a few bitcoin campaigns) that are paying to users even for making posts on "off-topic" board.

That's a separate subject altogether.  If you believe people are spamming shitposts just to get paid, you can report those posts.  The "Off-Topic" board isn't the only place that happens.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I tend to agree with OP.

There are a lot of topics created every day which are of interest to bitcoiners, as well as being relevant, that don't neatly fit in any other board. Topics about how to maintain your privacy online, the best browser to choose, the best VPN/email/web hosting, general programming queries, new malware and scams, other applications of blockchain technology, these kind of things. These topics usually end up in Beginners or Bitcoin Discussion, where they don't really fit. These are the kind of topics which should be going in Off Topic, but if they did, they would get buried under the mountains of spam in that board.

As it stands, Off Topic is filled with threads which have nothing to do with bitcoin at all, and could be of interest to anyone. I'm not saying there's no place for threads like "What is your favorite song?", but it would be nice to have a crypto relevant off topic board, and a general "Everything else" board.

[hugeblack]

From an off-topic name, these posts are of interest to Bitcoiners but this does not mean a permit for low-quality topics.
In my view, the general questions of the unspecified formulation are low-quality topics.

Signature campaigns that pay for these boards follow the wrong approach to promotion because most of the participants in that section are not interested in clicking/tracking.

[Thirdspace]

Checking some signatures and their bounty threads, I found out there are some signature campaigns (including a few bitcoin campaigns) that are paying to users even for making posts on "off-topic" board.

if the campaign allows that, why do you even care? it's their money they threw away
and if you think it's necessary to report any spam post in there, then just file a report

Sure, bitcoin is the one thing that brought us all here, so we all have that in common.  But we're all human with many other interests that we may also share with members of this community.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

yes, I agree. switching forum just to talk occasionally about something other than bitcoin would be impractical
but since some people may misuse it to increase post count/activity to gain rank,
why not make anything posted there doesn't count toward forum activity?

[suchmoon]

As it stands, Off Topic is filled with threads which have nothing to do with bitcoin at all, and could be of interest to anyone. I'm not saying there's no place for threads like "What is your favorite song?", but it would be nice to have a crypto relevant off topic board, and a general "Everything else" board.

Or mods could just apply rule #1 more often. There is enough space in the Off Topic board for all sorts of garbage, bitcoin-relevant or not. It's not like having a Flat Earth thread next door is preventing me from discussing some nerdy stuff, it's the shitposting hordes that make it insufferable.

I think the bigger problem is that if Off Topic (or any of the shitboards) gets moderated then shit will migrate elsewhere. As long as there is incentive to post nonsense, it will get posted.

[LTU_btc]

OP, you have valid point here. But if we would remove such topics from off-topic, I simply have no idea what will be allowed to discuss there. "Other topics that might be of interest to bitcoiners" - can someone post example of such topic, which wouldn't fit in remaining boards of forum?
Almost all thematic forums have off-topic boards, where stuff completely not related to forum theme is posted and I don't see any problems in it.
Yeah, now this board is terrible, but there is few simple solutions for this problem - apply mod, don't count posts or disable signatures.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Or mods could just apply rule #1 more often.

True, but that's a massive workload. It would need several dedicated mods just for that board.

There is enough space in the Off Topic board for all sorts of garbage, bitcoin-relevant or not. It's not like having a Flat Earth thread next door is preventing me from discussing some nerdy stuff, it's the shitposting hordes that make it insufferable.

A topic about which browser is best for privacy (for example), whilst not really belonging to Beginner's and Help, at least gets some decent discussion going and gets seen by a good number of more senior members. Post something like that in Off Topic and you would get 5 pages of nonsense saying Chrome is best before you got one meaningful response. I'm not saying you can't post meaningful stuff in Off Topic, just that as it stands, there's no point if you actually want a proper discussion.

I think the bigger problem is that if Off Topic (or any of the shitboards) gets moderated then shit will migrate elsewhere.

Yup. In the past few weeks I've been paying particular attention to the Press Board. I've had over 50 topics trashed from there in the last month, and a handful more locked, which is significant considering it usually only gets 2 or 3 new topics a day. The usual suspects quickly spilled over in to Bitcoin Discussion, Trading, and a couple of other places instead. I wouldn't want to get rid of or overly moderate Off Topic for that reason; spammers gonna spam, so might as well try to contain them somewhere. But it would be nice to have a non spam filled board for "other topics which are of interest to bitcoiners".

[Thirdspace]

... but there is few simple solutions for this problem - apply mod, don't count posts or disable signatures.

I am more inclined to support the idea of "non-counted posts"
disabling signatures will not prevent people from abusing that subforum to farm activity points

... spammers gonna spam, so might as well try to contain them somewhere.

true, but if you let them spam somewhere they will use it to accumulate activity
then they just need to write a few "guide/help" threads fishing for merit to rank up
some of them just aim for Jr.Member or Member rank, to get better rate on bounties' stakes

[suchmoon]

Or mods could just apply rule #1 more often.

True, but that's a massive workload. It would need several dedicated mods just for that board.

I would imagine one zealous mod could probably make a difference. It's just that it seems extremely counterproductive for the forum to allow to incentivize spam and then pay mods to fight spam. I don't know if ad revenue is really worth it but considering that we're also paying with our bleeding eyeballs by reading (or even just skipping over / hitting "report to moderator") that crap - the whole thing seems quite thoroughly fucked up.

Perhaps tightening some merit thresholds and/or more liberal disbursement of temp bans should be considered.

[Jet Cash]

I think a social interaction "room" is a useful addition to any large and busy forum. It helps to build relationships, and reading non-Bitcoin related posts is a useful way to assess the character of members in my opinion, Post analysis is more useful to me than the current trust system, if one is trying gauge the honesty and responsibility of a member. Topics such as favourite music, and breakfast preferences are standard fillers to build post counts, and can be ignored fairly easily.

I have started a few posts there, and I am considering one related to a vintage rotavator that I am considering restoring. I may sell this, and I would like to receive Bitcoin for it. I would like to see if there is any interest amongst crypto users for such equipment, and, if so, which coins they would use. I believe that it is also useful to indicate that Bitcoin has a general appeal, and is not just a financial tool for bankers and computer geeks.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

I stand with @Jet cash on this one, as it's healthier for the development of the social interaction between members of the forum. The description of the board could be interpreted in different ways. It said "topics of interest to bitcoiners" the way I understand that statement is, I'm free to discuss any topic of interest to me not forgetting also the forum was founded on the idea of creating a platform for bitcoiners to unite and interact. The discussion of music, hobbies, movies etc isn't the problem because if discuss rightly they could turnout to be a productive discussion.

I have made some offtopic discussion on the board and from my observation, the topic starters aren't usually the problem of the board but the responders are. Although the topics on the board aren't the best quality post out there still if the repliers can stay on topic and try to contribute to the topic been discuss then we'll experiencing some improvement on the board.

[OgNasty]

Clearly a child board should be added. It can be called the “Really Off-topic” board.

[rosezionjohn]

Clearly a child board should be added. It can be called the “Really Off-topic” board.

How about we just think of it as a general discussions board and ignore the "Other topics that might be of interest to bitcoiners" to avoid the confusion? Any topic that does not belong to a specific board can be discussed there.

[Heisenberg_Hunter]

I rarely visit Off-Topic board, but they do serve their purpose for the forum very well. So, an off-Topic board should contain topics which are of interest to bitcoiners (they are common people ofc). The forum is not only for discussing about bitcoin and it's related counterparts but it also needs a board where common topics needs to be discussed. There is also a Serious Discussion board which is also not completely related to Bitcoin or cryptocurrency but they serve their purpose of providing a extremely well written serious discussion. Browsing the Off-Topic might be really funny for many of us and I personally enjoy reading the topics present there to an extent. Similarly Serious Discussion and Ivory Tower helps us in knowing more about the serious minds of our forum members.

Creation of child boards within Off-Topic would certainly make the board more readable. The child-boards could range from Technical Stuffs, Daily Routine, Netizens life goings and a lot more. These are some of the widely discussed topics in the Off-Topic board when I at least visit them once in a week. Spammers are everywhere in the forum and they can be minimized when they are scrutinized. Along with that, an appointment of MOD is a bad idea for Off-Topic section. They are the only place where people exchange their ideas freely about everything which might be of interest to common people.

As @Jet Cash said, a bitcoiner doesn't need to be a tech-savvy or a economist always. Any human who uses bitcoin is a bitcoiner and they can be even a gamer, music lover, chef and so on!

[Jet Cash]

I started the Jet Cash coffee lounge thread in the ivory tower for senior members to discuss a whole range of topics. It gets sporadic interest, but a couple of the discussions were interesting. I hoped it would be similar to the range of discussions that one used to get in cafe society in the 60s, but I guess that is long gone now that we are in the mobile text era.

[Theb]

The way I see the off-topic section for the forum is its a catch-all for topics that failed to relate on the main sections it has been first posted. It's like a dumping ground for a diverse variety of topics that cannot be put/moved on other sections. So if we even put a certain category for the Off-topic section then these topics would be deleted right away and having a more specific category wouldn't make the off-topic section “off-topic” at all.

[actmyname]

Off-topic deserves a relabeling to "Worthless drivel"Chances are, you could run a spinner game and report the last five consecutive pages of a random thread, seeing most of them land in the good bucket.

[DaveF]

I started the Jet Cash coffee lounge thread in the ivory tower for senior members to discuss a whole range of topics. It gets sporadic interest, but a couple of the discussions were interesting. I hoped it would be similar to the range of discussions that one used to get in cafe society in the 60s, but I guess that is long gone now that we are in the mobile text era.

It's still there, it's just moved online. I am on a few forums that have very active boards outside of the main "focus"
The problem is you are more likely to get in a flame war with an anonymous internet person then someone sitting at a table near you.

There are also a lot of places in NYC that are good for open conversation.
Just not cheap.

-Dave

[TECSHARE]

I think a social interaction "room" is a useful addition to any large and busy forum. It helps to build relationships, and reading non-Bitcoin related posts is a useful way to assess the character of members in my opinion, Post analysis is more useful to me than the current trust system, if one is trying gauge the honesty and responsibility of a member. Topics such as favourite music, and breakfast preferences are standard fillers to build post counts, and can be ignored fairly easily.

I have started a few posts there, and I am considering one related to a vintage rotavator that I am considering restoring. I may sell this, and I would like to receive Bitcoin for it. I would like to see if there is any interest amongst crypto users for such equipment, and, if so, which coins they would use. I believe that it is also useful to indicate that Bitcoin has a general appeal, and is not just a financial tool for bankers and computer geeks.

I agree with this assessment. To a large degree places like Politics & Society and The Wall Observer thread currently serve that purpose, but by their nature kind of tend to lend to conflict by default. I think an addition of a "casual crypto related discussion" area would be beneficial as kind of a town square. Of course this area will be a complete clusteruck with huge page turnovers if it is intended to be less strictly organized, but that is also half the fun of being involved in a living community as it happens. Anything of significant value to other existing forums generated in this area could always be quoted or moved there as well. The serious discussion area was a good attempt at this, but we simply don't have enough higher ranked users to keep the flow of discussion moving. Part of the trade off with that though is we will have to tolerate looking at a lot more garbage.