Idea: Gwen's head of the welcoming team, and she and Larael are both Welcomators. Why not PM them and ask what they want to decide about it? Plus, discuss it in the Welcoming Team thread. You know, there's a "how was your day" thread in the Your Life.

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Starting October 13th: globe trotting from my kitchen. Follow along on Cook In Fifty-Two

I can understand the difficulty with staying on-topic, and defining what on-topic is, and whether members feel a need for people to discuss off-topic-ness but with those who they have something in common with (that being their membership of the club or whatever); the problem is that in balancing that with trying to be fair and not being able to reassess rules and so on for each situation. To add to Ivy's suggestion, I'd suggest maybe clubs and so on starting a thread in the misc section (or your life, depending on what was deemed to be more practical) for discussing of matters off-topic. You wouldn't be able to stop others from joining in the discussion, but it's just an idea...

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I was going to say something, but I forgot.

Aaaand... now I remember it again
I think it's okay for the WT to talk about anything they like without getting reminded about the off-topicness, as long as other "random clubs" can too. Like the gentlewomen's society and the NC. If the WT can talk about something else than welcoming, why can't the NC talk about something else than evilry?

Also, I totally agree with JF about the Gentlewomen's Society. Us only having to talk about *checks JF's words* womenly matters (:D) seems wrong, since the club was started for women to talk about what women take interest in... And to just be girlishly random

So, the conclusion to this rambling of mine is that, I think it's okay for the WT to talk about whatever they like, as long as the NC and Gentlewomen's (the Gentlemen's too, for the matter) Society can too. And the other simply random clubs about randomness...
*bows and leaves*

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by Lembas

well...personally mild off-topic-ness isn't cracked down on usually, and I don't think it should be....what is cracked down on, and I think should be elminated is when people have random 5 page conversations about how their day was in a club about a tv show or book... with posts that are well, let's face it, not necessary... now before someone lynches me, I do not mean most posts aren't needed, I believe 99% are and I think sharing/conversing with friends is too! Thus the AU balls, the misc and your life sections.

But, when people for example, take over a club's posts ... when 2 people post 3 pages of normal "conversation" in a club... I feel that's wrong... if you're going to monopolize a club and talk for 48 posts between the 2 of you.. (and yeah it's happened) then, in my opinion, you need to chat on tag, in the chatroom, by pm, im or email... not on the forum for those conversations. I don't think it's fair for some members to get 30 posts added to their count a day from "hi everyone", "yeah, agrees". or "omg I know!", "night! *poofs*" posts in a club... I'm not saying an "I'm back from....." post is bad or a general comment here and there is, I'm saying when 2 lone members of a club are up talking all night and posting literally pages of a club's thread, on nothing but small talk, that's not ok to me.

I think clubs should be allowed to have some freedom, some flexibility in discussion. I agree with that... but the main pages of a club should focus on whatever the name/purpose of the club is...in my opinion.

~tin

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..back again, picking myself up, dusting off..and facing life..

This is totally against the forum rules but, WEBMISSY. I HAVE TO. That's my pathetic excuse.


Intended Post Content:

I whole-heartedly agree with every single point that Tind touched on.

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

What also annoys me is.... if WT is planning something, if Gwenneth and Larael post something important to what the WT-related..... it gets pushed away as a few people acknowledge it, and then chat on other things. The less frequent vistors of the WT thread, probably don't even BOTHER skimming the pages and I see a lot of "What's going on? Or what's been happening?" I just pull on my hair silently screaming, "Why can't you go look for yourself? There's no point of those pages being there if you DON'T LOOK."

[/real post]

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Yeah, I know what you mean. If it's something Larael and Gwen post concerning the WT...well duh..your actually posting in the WT thread, you are a member and you choose to ignore it!

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

I 100% agree with Silme Din.

Sure, the chatter in the Welcoming Team should be in the Your Life section. But it's a thread that tons of A-U members love, and changing it I think would do more harm then good. I just think it should be awknowledged that 'how's life?' chat, is much more enjoyable when it comes naturally. What exists in the WT, the NC, the GW's Society, can't just be moved to its 'proper' section and be the same. This is a Lord of the Rings Forum, and all the other threads originated from members wanting to talk about interests outside of LotR. I know that maintaining structure is necessary. We can't all just be going off topic in every thread. But...it can't be perfect. It just can't. And extremely popular threads like the WT, the NC and the GW's Society, where people tend to be random - I really don't see the harm in it. The rules are there to keep things pleasant, and make the forum better. Not just to be followed for the sake of it.

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{Beri}

But then, it goes back to being a Club.

A Club should be productive, they should be true to the club name. Have we officialized that WT was a club?

Now a lot of the clubs [such as the NC club] were created before I did a whipping up of the Club section so I have no real power over.... the organization of all the clubs --- what's fair, what's unfair ----. I gave permission for the opening of the GW's Society under the impression that they would do something productive, discuss topics about women, etc. As did I have the impression with the Gentlemen's club (since that was the only reason why the Gentlewomen's club was even made). And to this day, the Gentlemen's club is more on topic and true to the 'club' title than the Gentlewomen's club even though they have almost x10 the pages.

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*nervous cough*

I really appreciate your value of what the WT and I and Larael have to say on all this. It's really nice of you guys when you could disregard any of our wishes.

But I really can't give a firm, single-view opinion on this. The WT has always been a place where I [and others] can dish out annoyances and thrillers, but also a place where I know a sympathetic audience is listening. I'm not able to come on as much anymore, but I know that the WT is still a really, really tight community. And I'd be so sad to throw all that away, when a lot of my fondest memories are there. It has meant so much to me. The PMing system is a good idea, but it wouldn't be anything near the WT thread we have now.

On the other hand, however, I know that it really isn't fair for us to be able to chat about anything we please, while clubs aren't. But as others have said, the WT isn't a club, so things get a little murkier. Let's say the mods decided to make the WT cut down on random talk, and stay on topic with welcoming techniques. The thread would las for what, 1 week? Even that is stretching it. Not to mention I would die of boredom!

My mind is divided, so I'm not much help. I'm watching and listening to all that goes on in this thread, nonetheless, and will more than consider possible solutions brought up.

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^Thanks Gily!
<By Bubble Black

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

^Right, 'cause those posts do clog up the thread/forum very fast.

I forgot to mention my agreement with tin. I really get put out when I go back through a thread to catch up, and find that the past 5 pages are just a conversation between two people about how stupid math class is. It's called MSN.

And Kit made a good point -- it IS hard to post important notices in the WT thread with so many pages made in a day. That's why I make people PM me if they want to join, because there's no way I'll know they wanted to otherwise.

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^Thanks Gily!
<By Bubble Black

And also there is nothing more annoying than when your trying to have a serious debate in, say the GW and someone comes in and starts talking about their dinner, without even mentioning the conversation your trying to get people interested in.

I think the one word thing, has to be helped along by members. If you do see someone posting something pointless, you need to let them know not to do it, as they'll keep on doing it.

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

And I mean, when you have individual conversations with each other. "Hi, I'm back. How are you guys?" - "Oh, I'm fine, how are you." That's not what a forum is for. DO THAT in a CHAT. I'm willing to compromise with the WT may come up with topics to warm up to the newbies, however --- to put some guards up; you must be a member of the welcoming team, you must be active in your duty as a welcomer. However, posts cannot be so general and pointless. [ie. "Hey!" - "What's up?" - "I haven't been here in a while, sorry!" - "I gotta go, see ya!" - anything that reminds me of a chatroom but with bigger spaces in between each line]

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