Why not? I know the powers that be have been opposed to an off-topic forum in the past. But with the new forum setup and server that will accomodate more bandwidth and such... why not? Let's compare this to hanging out in a bar with some amigos drinking quality beer. Sure, a lot of your conversation is going to center on the beers you're drinking. But when something like real football, or Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer, or Walking Dead's latest episode, or how epic the Ascari A10 is, comes up... why not let it ride? I know this probably won't go anywhere, and the Bros have made their thoughts on this clear in the past. But I'm gonna throw it out there anyway. Worst that can happen is Todd/Jason says no.
The new forum setup and servers are necessary to support the current traffic. I would imagine if they opened it up to off-topic forums those resources would become quickly strained and they'd end up in the same boat again.
Ugh please NO off topic. I come here for beer chat. There's a million other sites like fark and reddit and 4chan and forums for every other topic under the sun.
Eh, I can't imagine one additional form offering causing THAT much traffic issues. If those are your ideas of an "off topic" forum, then yeah. Maybe you would be one to not have access?
Exactly. However, if your so inclined to hold such conversations with a group, This new forum allows for private discussions, that work the same as a forum, or so it seems so far (with a cap of 25 people I think) so basically you can actually have such discussions (though I have not tested this, and will be corrected if I'm wrong) privately with a group, just not the whole website. Which as you even describe, would be like a bar conversation, rather then speaking to a stadium of 30,000 with a bull horn.
Yes, I prob. wouldn't use the feature if it was brought to BA. I think it'd just be 5000 cat photos saying U LEIK PLINEE TOO??? and whatnot.
Eh. Seems there's very little faith in the traffic ability of the new server. I'd tend to think the Bros did things well enough to accomodate something like ONE additional forum. But hey, no interest means no interest. I would think people would be interested in things like sports chat, TV chat, movies, and so on. But personally, I've got other avenues... of FAR higher quality than cesspits like 4chan and fark, so no big deal either way. I stand corrected. Carry on, without any conversation about things like... well, anything other than beer.
Again, I think that speaks much more to your personal internet usage than what might occur on this site. But maybe I've just got too much faith in people ability to be... ya know, mature?
Creating that forum isn't going to bring in new users. The traffic, in my opinion, would remain relatively similar.
That's my thought. I'm assuming that Todd and Jason set things up in a robust manner- hence, one more forum, even with a good amount of traffic, would NOT crash the system. Of course, if some people treated it like such sites as 4chan, reddit, etc.- I'd think they could prove the Bros wrong. but again, I would have some faith in the rational-ness of some off-topic, only-tengentially-beer-related chat. but maybe I've got too much of that faith. And again- I know the Bros have made their thoughts on thsi clear in the past, and I respect that. i was just thinking in terms of the new server, new forums, and such. If they're gonna open up the trade forums for posting again... how much worse could an off-topic forum be?
What do you think this is? Reddit? Whatever. I would welcome and probably use an OT forum at least a little bit. I think as long as it could be modded properly it could be fun.
I would welcome an OT forum. Where else can we post and talk about the funny Tomme Arthur comic strips?
An OT board would be a nice alternative to simply nuking OT or OT-trending topics. Some of these have useful info or interesting/fun discussions, and it would be nice if they could be allowed to live on in an exiled board.
IMO, there's nothing wrong with NSFW pictures/posts in an OT forum as long as the thread title has (NSFW) in it so those of us at work know not to open it.
This. Plenty of places on the intertubes for off topic posting. We are a beer forum, let's keep it that way. I guess I could always just ignore it, but seems unbecoming. Always the potential for problems with advertisers too. Too much foul language/racy pics for someone to want to advertise.
