Please Post ON TOPIC in every thread title in here

[MadCast Tort]

It does not make sense right now since you almost have to arrive at a thread through forum-selection, but once we get the front page up and running again, people start coming into On Topic threads thinking they are Off Topic because they just read threads off of the "Most Recent Threads" list and usually the more active forum is the Off Topic so I guess everyone assumes the default of a thread is Off Topic. This is just the simplest way of dealing with it. Thank you.


Right before the Crash, I announced the rule on behalf of the Staff:

'It has become apparent to me, and several other admins, based on recent experience that there is a large confusion in the community about what the difference is between the On-Topic forum and the Off-Topic forum on the website. We also have ten candidates right now that a month from now may very well be Full Members. In short, we are a bit overdue for an explanation to make sure we are all on the same page. [The original thread had links to examples of people not realizing the difference as well as previous discussions had about the distinction between the two forums.] These discussions are a bit dated, in fact, thread two is two years old, but for those of you who are not Full Members and can''t read those two threads, they can best be summarized as threads arising from someone getting offended in the Off-Topic forum. The subtext on the forum index page makes it as clear as possible that easily-offended parties should stay out of the Off-Topic forum.

The Official. "Everyone can act like an idiot" forum. Enter at your own risk.

The On-Topic forum also lays out the rules as clearly as possible:

Serious Discussions and debates. No Post whoring, flaming, thread hijacking or smart ass replies

Traditionally, we have had the problem of people acting foolish in the Off-Topic forum and someone getting offended. We have always sided with the offender rather than the offended in the Off-Topic forum. What has happened lately is the that the laid-backness of the Off-Topic forum has been spilling into the On-Topic forum. This cannot continue.It cannot continue because there must be somewhere on this site where all members, full or not, senior or junior, can post threads and expect serious replies and replies that are on topic. At its very core, there is no substantive difference between threads that are posted in Off-Topic and threads that are posted in On-Topic.

To be sure, a thread that is one can be posted in the other. The difference lies in the thread author''s willingness to wade through people being smart asses and otherwise having their thread hijacked by all that is allowed in Off-Topic but not allowed in On-Topic. Most members cross over from one forum to the other, and that is great, but some members want to be able to "Razz" in every reply while others want to avoid all that is Off-Topic-type conversations. We welcome both individuals here, and just as we do not tolerate people getting easily offended after going in Off-Topic, we will absolutely not tolerate people bringing Off-Topic behaviours into On-Topic. To that end, anyone who post whores, flames, hijacks, is a smart-ass, ridicules, or otherwise responds in a manner that does not further the intended discussion will receive a ban of one week from the forums. This rule applies only to the On-Topic forum.

Now, like anything that is done in MadCast, I have discussed this at length with pretty much every admin in MadCast, and one of them brought up a good point: what if someone invites Off-Topic like behavior in the On-Topic forum? Right now, when people post what appears to be serious threads in Off-Topic, we move them to the On-Topic forum.[/B] We will do the same with threads that should be in Off-Topic but are in On-Topic. If you have any questions please post them now and don''t wait until you are on the wrong end of a forum ban to say you did not understand something.