L Perry wrote:wheaton4prez wrote:L Perry wrote:#2) No it is not just as simple. If the thread is moved, it still has valid content as to the original subject matter that would be gone.
Unless this install of phpBB is different than others I've had admin access to, you don't have to move the entire thread. You can check individual posts and move only those to a new thread.
Hmm, so it is the admin's responsibility to clean up after members by going through and selecting out posts of a thread that are off topic and placing them in a different, relevant thread/section? Hahahaha, right. 
L Perry wrote:And why do you suppose that you can not find anyone in the 'off-topic' section to hold a conversation with? Because they want to discuss subjects that are relevant/timely to them.
Not sure that I understand what is being said here. However, I think it's a bit retentive to expect that a large group of people mostly discussing football can't occasionally digress. It would be like a UO administrator shutting down a football banquet early because LaMichael James started talking about Texas instead of football. "This is a football banquet you jerks!"
I thought it was pretty clear, if people wanted to follow those particular tangents there would be no problem finding someone to converse with in the 'off-topic' section. Proof is in the pudding, nobody is there! 
But I digress, evidently the facts at hand do not matter!
L.P.
LP I think you're missing some of the bottom line. The off-topic nature of these discussions occurs within the natural context of a given thread. There is interest in the topics almost exclusively because the direction/content naturally evolved into the discussion at hand. If I were to randomly start a thread in the off-topic section on say, urbanization and population density, it may draw some interest but hardly what it might if that discussion was a natural evolution of an original discussion of recruiting (specifically on why a high profile recruit from an urban area may want to leave their environment; subsequently the conditions that lead to that sort of environment in the first place).
I submit that it is these types of tangents that give message boards most of their substance. For instance, the story on how DaT landed at Oregon really boils down to a couple of simple things that were established early in the thread. 1.) He wanted to play in our O & 2.) He wanted out of the city. If that is all one needed to know, they could have found that out in the first page or two. The thread's real value, again IMO, was in the tangent that followed. A discussion of urbanization, population density, etc... and the consideration of how those factors play into the way/where/who Oregon recruits in the future.
I agree that people should always be civil and avoid personal attacks, but I simply don't see the value in closing threads for straying from the thread title (not that it is happening in bulk here, just arguing the principle). But hey I'm not the boss, nor do I want to be. We've got a pretty good thing going at this spot, I'm just trying to offer my opinion on the subject.
