I honestly don't see what this thread's purpose is other than to increase your post count, because the stuff being posted here basically belongs in Spamzilla o.O
20-03-12
Vormav
Re: Community spirit - "Off Topic"
Actually peoples who post here don't care about post count lol.
We putting many things here (questions, answers, ideas), just not to spam main PT1 page.
It started as a joke and it still continue, just to keep up "community spirit".
@Yamachi & Darksta: Ask, and ye shall receive ... a WOT
Spoiler:
Yes, it would be spamzilla ... maybe, except that it's aimed specifically at PT Development section regulars.
The thing was that we all went off topic in topics posted here, just being "social". (as humans do) Harmless, humorous, and usually with some tenuous link to the discussed topic.
I could see these discussions where "team building", but not very productive for the thread in general, so I was keeping such posts for a while, so people could see them and then trying to clear out ... then I hit upon the idea of a dumping ground / archive type running thread we could comment on stuff in the rest of the section that would otherwise be off-topic.
Stuff that would let us be a sub-community of friends and colleagues, without loosing the productivity in the actual threads. (like a tea break at work, surprisingly productive when it doesn't pollute the workshop floor)
When things are dry, those of us who actively read, even when we don't have much to share tend to drop little funnies in here to keep ourselves amused, and maintain our interest in the section and social ties while we beaver away on projects alone. ^_^
Fact is, if we placed this stuff in Spamzilla it would be leapt on by people outside the PT section to whom it isn't really addressed, whose opinion we don't care about, and would be missed by the people we are interested to know better.
I've seen many PT developers (myself included) fall out with people we would otherwise work well with because of differences in "humour". The RZ community as a whole is too big to be close to everyone, but with these sort of OT discussions, I have seen less "falling out" here. (I think ...) I believe it enables us to know each others personality better and understand where we are coming from. I have, and have seen others defending each other from confused newcomers too, because the regulars now know each others personality. So we can say "No, I don't think he meant to offend, that's just the way he is ... I know it confused me at first too."
It's probably "clicky", but at the same time I think we'd always be pretty open to welcoming people into our "click" if they are interested in working on PT with us. :D:
Perhaps there should be some rule to prevent just anyone posting just anything old thing here which doesn't fit elsewhere in RZ ... but there hasn't been a need so far. I wouldn't want to say "only regulars to the PT section can post" because that would be offensive to new members, who could benefit most from reading through this "personality archive" and maybe introducing them self to us.
So if we had to make some rule, it would need to be done with care. If we had to shut it down due to abuse, (as a worst case scenario) I think it would be missed, and as it stands, one pinned thread rather than lots of miscellaneous and reasonably innocent (but OT) posts, I think it's quite harmless. :ott1:
I don't have to move much out to this thread now. People mostly know to post OT commentary to the group here. I've used it to canvas opinion on section policy, and we've discussed the PT game outside of "development" here too. So it's no all just jokes, pets and theology. XD
25-03-12
Yamachi
Re: Community spirit - "Off Topic"
Ah, I see. Well, I'll be off, then :P
26-03-12
DarkKnightH20
Re: Community spirit - "Off Topic"
I'd say not spamzilla, but the "Entertainment" section since a lot of this happens to be pics / videos.
