Off topic

[Oceanrower]

Once again, there's a thread running and someone is complaining that it has gone "off topic"

Is that such a bad thing? If you're chatting with some friends, maybe down the pub, you don't keep to a rigid framework. Nobody complains if the conversation  moves on. It ebbs and flows and, generally, eventually returns to whence it came.

Why is it such a sin if a topic goes "off topic"

Note. If you wish to discuss this, please keep it on this topic.

:tease:

 

[Laurie]

Threads rarely go off topic until the original purpose has been addressed and answered.
After that, does it really matter what happens?

 

[nearlywhite]

It's so that people can search for what people have talked about a particular topic in the past without having to start a new one.

Though this did not work with C**W

 

[cap n chris]

Going off topic is punishable by frowning; going seriously off topic is punishable by splitting into a new topic.

e.g. imagine, if you can do such a thing, that there's a thread about, say, the 2013 Petzl Croll; it starts off nice and predictable with pros and cons of this versus previous incarnations, a picture or two and perhaps a brief interlude of lyrical waxing about the good old days where people used prussik loops or early forms of parkour; then someone has the temerity to mention that Camp manufacture a new chest jammer and the topic geometrically explodes into a starburst of photographs, anecdotes, epic sagas of the time down the Berger when someone got to the bottom and then asked "hows does the upping kit work?", a link to a video of some kittens, a sepia photograph of Victorian caving parkour manouevres, and several tediously irrelevant pages about American techniques etc..

Then someone would press the "Report to Moderator" button and some serious things begin....

The moderation team would meet up in their best regalia in the wee small hours (usually 3am), doing a virtual widdershins dance and intoning satanic command code mnemonics before sticking a pin into a wax effigy of Floyd Collins and "KAaaap-oww-eee!!!".... a new THREAD would instantly appear, titled something like "re: other descenders, split from Petzl Croll thread".

Mopping up the offenders with stern private messages and piercing glances through squinty eyes would immediately follow, just so everyone knew not to do it again for a few hours.

Any more paragraphs and I'll probably need to split this post into its own thread as this one appears to be straying somewhat....

 

[crickleymal]

Threads rarely go off topic until the original purpose has been addressed and answered.
After that, does it really matter what happens?

You missed off the "I'm being ironic" emoticon.

 

[Les W]

...anecdotes, epic sagas of the time down the Berger when someone got to the bottom and then asked "hows does the upping kit work?"

That actually happened on a trip I was on, in the Berger...  :tease:

 

[Antwan]

Has anyone ever posted videos of kittens in a decender thread? Also if you rigged the Berger with velvet curtains do you think a cat could climb out?

 

[damo8604]

Going off topic is punishable by frowning; going seriously off topic is punishable by splitting into a new topic.

e.g. imagine, if you can do such a thing, that there's a thread about, say, the 2013 Petzl Croll; it starts off nice and predictable with pros and cons of this versus previous incarnations, a picture or two and perhaps a brief interlude of lyrical waxing about the good old days where people used prussik loops or early forms of parkour; then someone has the temerity to mention that Camp manufacture a new chest jammer and the topic geometrically explodes into a starburst of photographs, anecdotes, epic sagas of the time down the Berger when someone got to the bottom and then asked "hows does the upping kit work?", a link to a video of some kittens, a sepia photograph of Victorian caving parkour manouevres, and several tediously irrelevant pages about American techniques etc..

Then someone would press the "Report to Moderator" button and some serious things begin....

The moderation team would meet up in their best regalia in the wee small hours (usually 3am), doing a virtual widdershins dance and intoning satanic command code mnemonics before sticking a pin into a wax effigy of Floyd Collins and "KAaaap-oww-eee!!!".... a new THREAD would instantly appear, titled something like "re: other descenders, split from Petzl Croll thread".

Mopping up the offenders with stern private messages and piercing glances through squinty eyes would immediately follow, just so everyone knew not to do it again for a few hours.

Any more paragraphs and I'll probably need to split this post into its own thread as this one appears to be straying somewhat....

This sounds like an interesting thread, please start one! 

 

[ah147]

rigged the Berger with velvet curtains do you think a cat could climb out?

I've got a load of curtains, a kitten and oxlows an hour away.

Scaled down test?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bob Smith]

A bit off topic,  :thumbsdown: Mods could we please split this out. 

 

[Cartwright26]

Did anyone see the moon the other night with the big ring around it was rather spectacular 

 

[royfellows]

I was once told at aikido that if I had a lock on someone, immediately he signals I was to loose off

 

[Oceanrower]

You lot are rubbish. Complete amateurs.

THIS is how  you get a topic off-topic!


http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=608721

 

[Laurie]

or there's the thread that's started and finished in one post......
http://sniffpetrol.com/2015/01/23/forum-gets-top-gear-discussion-thread-done/#.VNT4FszE1D3

 

[Oceanrower]

 

[nearlywhite]

You lot are rubbish. Complete amateurs.

THIS is how  you get a topic off-topic!


http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=608721

I like how this criticism is back on topic, there's a beautiful irony here...

 

[droid]

Cheers Laurie.

Forgot how funny Sniff Petrol is.....