Threads getting off topic

[Ken Leung]

I still like to think that this forum is still in a testing phase, and Brandon will have a chance to correct whatever bugs or issues this forum might have.

Off-season period is the perfect time for it. Since not much people really pay attention to this place, whatever we say right now really won't have any effect once season start again. By then, everyone will be so busy talking about robotics it won't matter anymore. So, let's just put away our ego (if we have any) and think about this "off topic" issue.

Back in the days with threads, off topic wasn't exactly too big of a problem because people can always start another thread under one topic. When people were discussing a certain problem, and mindlessly mentioned some side issues, suddenly someone caught up to that little side comment, and started a huge thread under the original message with off topic discussion. Trust me, that's what made the old forum so much fun in the old days. You can never expect what will appear in any discussion.

But now, it is a problem, as we are not using threads anymore. When I was posting the QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!!, I was always afraid some off topic message will lead people off of the original question, fortunately all thee QOTW are still some what within topic. But the problem still remain that, because everyone have to read all the message within a thread, people have to keep track of a lot more things in the discussion.

Unlike the old forum, we cannot ignore posts we aren't interested in reading. Unlike the old forum, we cannot start off another thread within one thread. So, what we really need to think about is how we want the discussion happen in this place. Now, not everyone will read this message I am typing right now, because it's off-season. So, we will need to establish some sort of order that's easy for other people to understand... That's why I am calling this time the testing period.