I want an OFF TOPIC forum

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 3:29 am

The MISC forum should be for anything subaru related that doesnt fit somewhere else. The Off Topic for the rest.

A search option for all forums except Off Topic would then make the site far more useful.

Yukonart · Post by **Yukonart** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 3:35 am

An EXCELLENT idea. . . .

I had actually thought about this the other day. Just assumed this had been addressed before and MISC was the OT here.

QuickDrive · Post by **QuickDrive** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 3:47 am

I assumed MISC was and is OT as well,

I agree with ciper.

Brat4by4 · Post by **Brat4by4** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 5:00 am

The people have spoken...

eastbaysubaru · Post by **eastbaysubaru** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 7:27 am

Here here!

-Brian

legacy92ej22t · Post by **legacy92ej22t** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 2:51 pm

I'm down wit da OT mang.

Post by **Legacy777** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 4:57 pm

This has been gone over before.....Misc is pretty much considered OT.

I know we all post subaru and non subaru stuff in Misc, and that's fine. I can see the reason for wanting to have a separate misc subaru forum & separate OT forum, however I can assume that we would see the traffic in OT climb.

This site has been a technical site, yes we have our moments of drival, but I feel it should remain technical. If you want a way to chat with others on the site about other stuff, maybe we can work on something that is web based and easily used by everyone.

Other issue, I'm not sure what the new plan/setup for the server/board is, whether we are paying or not.

We'll see what input Dave has when he get's back.

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 11:43 pm

Sounds like you are dooming us to have the misc forum full of alot of useless information which poisons our searches.

If we dont get an Off Topic forum then I think all off topic posts should be banned in MISC. The old off topic posts should be deleted.

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 11:44 pm

Can you offer some examples of searches you've tried that became useless because of the presence of off-topic posts in the "Misc" forum?

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 11:50 pm

I only had it happen twice, I was searching for something fairly generic. What I see is the amount of OT posts growing quite a bit recently. At the current rate the MISC forum will have the largest number of posts compared to any other forum. I want some type of action taken before it gets too bad.

I normally would say remove the MISC forum from the search except that some technical information is stored in it.

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 11:55 pm

I agree that we're seeing a lot more off-topic posts than we used to. That's partly just because we're a bigger board than we used to be. But it's still not that many. And a lot of the off-topic posts are still technical or car-related.

I also agree that if we had a separate forum specifically for off-topic discussion we'd have a lot more off-topic discussion which wouldn't be desirable.

I've never visited the IRC channel, but maybe that'd be a better place for our off-topic wanderings...

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 11:57 pm

How about a search option of

"All available (not including MISC)" along with the rest?

Or remove the MISC forum from indexing all together?

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 12:03 am

What if a non-technical OT had some kind of flag that could be on it so searches could ignore it?

Steve

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 12:03 am

That's not a bad idea... but if you know you're gonna rule out MISC, you can probably choose one of the other forums to limit your search to, right?

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 12:12 am

Well no, because you might want to get something out of Misc that is tech-based. The major problem would be wondering minds like me forgetting to put a flag on a non-technical OT when it was created. Moderators could always add it later, I suppose.

Steve

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 12:19 am

Steve - I was actually responding to ciper... you posted while I was writing. :)

What I meant was... say I was looking for tips on changing axles. I would limit the search to "Drivetrain" since I know that's the relevant forum. Even though Misc contains technical info, it's still not relevant to my query.

Post by **Legacy777** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 12:35 am

The problem is, there's not really an option to exclude a forum.

There is a category selection you can choose. We could possibly move the Misc forum out of the main discussion category, that way you can search just the tech forums.

Typically it's a good idea to specify the forum to help narrow down the search results.

It's Dave's baby.....so before anyone get's in an uproar, let's see what he has to say.

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 1:51 am

Lets say my turbo car wont start. I could check the turbo forum, then the engine forum, then electrical etc...

Or if hear a banging noise when I drive. Id check suspension, drivetrain, wheels, body etc...

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 2:05 am

Yeah, I see what you're saying now, ciper...

JasonGrahn · Post by **JasonGrahn** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 11:54 pm

ciper wrote:Lets say my turbo car wont start. I could check the turbo forum, then the engine forum, then electrical etc...

Or if hear a banging noise when I drive. Id check suspension, drivetrain, wheels, body etc...

Lets say your turbo car wont start. Does the turbo spin? Yes. No need to search in turbo forum. When you turn the key, no lights come on - electrical. Do lights come on but not crank? Engine forum.

If you hear a banging noise while you drive... Does it happen over a bump only? Suspension. Does it increase with engine speed but not drive speed? Engine forum. Does it happy with drive speed only? Drivetrain. Say it's none of these, well, then you need to crawl under your car and start shaking things because something is loose that shouldn't be (read: it's probably an exhaust that fell off the hangers).

With simple diagnostics, your search can be narrowed.

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 12:24 am

Yes, but answers aren't neatly catagorized within the specific forum. What if I dont have to skills to narrow down the problem as you state?

If I was a new member and didnt know much Id search all forums for an answer. Many times a thread with one subject will morph into another related subject. The title often doesnt reflect the information contained.

Just look at this thread for exmaple
http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=14464
Lots of excellent information about the turbo engine and its not even in the turbo forum or linked in the "notes on the EJ22t" sticky.

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I want an OFF TOPIC forum

I want an OFF TOPIC forum