Off Topic forums? here

[AndyJWest]

As someone heavily involved in the drama at Ubi that resulted in the 'no politics' ruling in their off-topic forum (though this is now only enforced if it gets too confrontational), I'm perhaps not best placed to give an impartial opinion, but here goes anyway:

Yes, but...

* It will need a moderator willing to ensure that debates don't get personal - indeed they will probably need to be kept less personal than those we often see here. While I'm sure that you (Nearmiss) are capable of doing this, you will be taking on a lot of extra work.

* It needs to be restricted to those who use the CloD/IL-2 forums already - the Ubi forum attracted a certain amount of 'outside participation' from people with no interest at all in IL-2. You'll need to make it clear that it is a place were forum regulars debate off-topic, rather than a soapbox for everyone and anyone. People who show no evidence of interest in the sims, but instead arrive with an agenda, should be shown the door.

* It will need a big sticky note at the top reading 'participation in this forum is voluntary'. If people don't want to read Raaaid's latest explanation of why the universe is in fact pyramid-shaped, rather than a four-dimensional torus (as the physicists insist), they don't have to. Inevitably, a lot of off-topic threads aren't particularly of interest to some people, but that isn't a reason to demand that the thread be deleted, and we all have our minds erased by the Men in Black to destroy all evidence of said thread.

But yes, if you (or another moderator) is ready with a fly-swatter for those who can't debate things without making comments regarding the marital status of their opponent's parents etc, then I'd say go ahead - it might even help cool things down a little if we can talk about other stuff.