Was there a game today?

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by preiffer


And, if I wanted to discuss skydiving, I'd do that on dropzone.com - you know, the forum site that's specifically INTERESTED in skydiving... [:w][ii]

MarkJ 0 - preiffer 1 [y]

Originally posted by preiffer
And, if I wanted to discuss skydiving, I'd do that on dropzone.com - you know, the forum site that's specifically INTERESTED in skydiving... [:w][ii]

So that makes the OT section OK to discuss anything....... as long as it's to do with flying or VA then [:w]

OR, shock horror.... as long as it's not football related

Jon B

[Pete]

Oh dear. This thread is going downhill fast.

Just for the record, it's perfectly ok to discuss pretty much anything (legal) in the OT forum, providing the usual forum rules of personal attacks, etc, are adhered too.

However, if the OT forum is monopolised by discussions of football, then it should be perfectly ok for members to express their disapproval.

If, for instance, Paul was to go on ad nauseam about Sky Diving, then other members are perfectly in their right to say "take it to drop zone, matey".

Off Topic was intended to be a place where you could have casual conversations about stuff not directly related to flying (like, for instance "did you see that episode of..?", "anyone know a good plumber in...?")

If you want to have deep, ongoing discussions about football, or sky-diving or flower arranging, then as Paul says, there are better places on the Internet to engage in those.

OT was always intended to have a light touch regarding moderation, but if we can't play nice and respect each other then I'll be forced to look at imposing stricter rules or removing OT altogether. Not a road I want to go down.

Pete

Just to bring this back O/T if an Off topic forum post can be so?? :-)
Well done to Derby for gaining entance to the premiership next season.

Originally posted by honey lamb

Originally posted by preiffer


And, if I wanted to discuss skydiving, I'd do that on dropzone.com - you know, the forum site that's specifically INTERESTED in skydiving... [:w][ii]

MarkJ 0 - preiffer 1 [y]

Blimey - I didnt realise there was a scoring system here too?? Does someone keep a score card going?

Originally posted by Pete
However, if the OT forum is monopolised by discussions of football, then it should be perfectly ok for members to express their disapproval.

If, for instance, Paul was to go on ad nauseam about Sky Diving, then other members are perfectly in their right to say "take it to drop zone, matey".

I can see where you are coming from - but in truth - is there a problem with someone having a long discussion about something - be it sky diving, football or whatever. Surely the essence of the OT secton is to prevent these subjects ending up in the main VS section - as they used to. And the key thing for al of us here is that the OT subjects are discussed and debated and enjoyed by those of us in the V-flyer community and not on some other topic specific web site.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread - those of us who write in the football threads also contribute elswhere across the site. If we only came to v-flyer to post in that thread then I agree this woujdl be senseless - but I think we all enjoy discussing other topics - and as I also said before - if Paul or anyone else for that matter - wanted to post a thread about skydiving then I would be interested to read it for his experiences and hopefully broaden my own. I agree that a football thread might not do this - but if it helps someone to win a pub quiz knowing that Ronaldo plays for Man Utd then at least it will have helped.

If the OT section is taking up server space or affecting the site because there is too much in it then surely the logical thing to do is to scrap it and ensure that all discussion on the board is strictly VS or airline orientated with mods doing the necessary checking - but wasnt this why the OT was created - and havent there been many fewer instances of topics going OT in the main section since it was created?

And this is Pete's site and we all get severe amounts of enjoyment and information from it - so if you're not happy Pete then I am sure everyone will be right behind you with whatever decision you make -in the end we all came here to discuss Virgin!! ( I personally wouldnt even be bothered if the BA bit disappeared!!)

[Pete]

Originally posted by MarkJ

is there a problem with someone having a long discussion about something - be it sky diving, football or whatever.

No problem at all. However I do have two points of concern with regard to football posts.

Firstly, there do seem to be rather a lot of them, and since you either love or hate football, monopolising the OT forum with football is no doubt going to raise the hackles of more than a handful of other members - as you've probably seen from some of their posts. Discussing footie is fine, but if the perception is football, football, football, that can be kinda tedious if you're not a fan.

Secondly, there is a language of the terraces that tip-toes a very fine line between existing forum rules regarding personal attack. Some of that language has already generated complaints from other forum users and causes a moderator headache as we try and figure out what is and what isn't acceptable. I'd much rather be programming than have to deal with arbitrating OT topics.

It's a bit of a minefield, and the easy way out would be to close OT, but that would be a shame given OT has produced some very entertaining threads. Perhaps just bringing the issue to light will allow a bit of self-regulation in terms of the language used and proliferation of posts. Football is not off-limits, let's just get the balance right.

But Pete, surely if it states in the forum topic, Foorball or sky diving, if you don't have any interest in these you don't read the posting?
E.G. in trip reports I have no interest in some of the places Virgin go to and so do not read those trip reports.

[Decker]

Mods don't have that choice Alan - and as our time is voluntary wading through reams of "footie" threads to check for ad hominems etc isn't the most fun in the world...

[honey lamb]

Surely the essence of the OT secton is to prevent these subjects ending up in the main VS section - as they used to.

Well I don't recall football ending up in the main VS section. In fact it wasn't mentioned on the board until the OT section was started.

While I don't really have a problem with a football topic per se, I do have a problem when on a page of 15 topics 4 or 5 of them relate to football. That to me seems excessive.

Originally posted by honey lamb

Surely the essence of the OT secton is to prevent these subjects ending up in the main VS section - as they used to.

Well I don't recall football ending up in the main VS section. In fact it wasn't mentioned on the board until the OT section was started.

While I don't really have a problem with a football topic per se, I do have a problem when on a page of 15 topics 4 or 5 of them relate to football. That to me seems excessive.

There was a big long post about a year ago when Virgin were sponsoring Crystal Palace in a charity game against Utd and for ne reason or another it all went a bit pear shaped. There were also references to the World cup and Im sure there are others - like has been said - if you're not interested then you dont bother to read the post or just dont remember something.

Maybe if we are to be able to have a football thread then there is just ONE thread and its all kept in there - at least it makes the mods jobs easier so that any footy related stuff is kept in in oone place?

Mark,
you beat me to it!
I was just about to say the same.
One thread, all footie comments