The Future of Off-Topic

[FoxyBunny]

For about a year now, the condition of this section of the Evony forum has been a constant topic of debate. It has also been the source of frustration, countless wasted hours trying to clean it up, rick-rolls, phishing links, more drama than the Hispanic channel's daytime television line-up, and the majority of all warnings/infractions/suspensions/bannings. In other words, it has become a garbage dump.

As we have now proven in the Seriously Off-Topic section, the On-Topic section, and every OTHER section of this forum, our members are quite capable of holding polite discussions, even on heated issues. We have some of the most intelligent, thoughtful, and genuinely humorous forum members I have seen in quite a long time. We even have a fondness for most of our chronic trolls.

The problem, of course, is that none of that addresses the rubbish continuing to accumulate in this section of the forum. You've seen the staff take a crack at all the other sections and clean them up. I believe it is OT's turn. Since more than any other forum section, the OT is a true community, I want to listen to what you all have to say about this. I will also be discussing with our moderating staff what their own suggestions and recommendations are. The final decision will be made by myself and Dawnseeker in conjunction with Evony's administrators.

Here are my personal recommendations at the moment (subject to change, and yes, I'm listening to what you have to say):

Retain the King's Bar and the General Announcements threads.
Retain the active games and continue to allow forum/chat games such as the Ban Game and others.
Allow one spam thread for pictures (aka Lolcatz) and one for conversations.
All other threads will be patrolled HEAVILY to ensure they have a viable topic, respect is shown by all members within the thread, and derailing and trolling will be dealt with sharply and rapidly.

If this leads to a whole lot more infractions, a lot of closures and deletions, and even some bannings, so be it. If we can actually manage to clean up the OT and make it a respectable part of the forum, we can merge it with the Seriously Off-Topic, opening up the more serious discussions to all members and creating a much more enjoyable environment for all.

I welcome your feedback on this.

P.S. I should add that by "viable topic" I don't mean to say there can be no silliness or fun. I am not trying to stifle anyone's enjoyment. I do believe that we are overloaded on spam, though.