Posting Off-topic messages in a thread (how far is too far off-topic?) :) - Russian Ukrainian Belarus Travel Music Woman Dating News

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Posting Off-topic messages in a thread (how far is too far off-topic?) :)
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Posted by: FlashingEyes

[This thread was split from another thread and made into a new topic....]

I also find it interesting that Khashyar sometimes will come out strongly saying that issues discussed here should be about Russia but other times (like this discussion) he himself initiates non-Russian discussions and in the forum guidelines he also states it's ok and after all this forum is titled "non Russian-related conversations". Personally I think that given the preponderance of Americans here that issues should be allowed to be of whatever nature is of interest to the members, and it's perfectly ok for Khashyar to have a poll about the American presidents, but I just wish he would be consistent and not turn around and criticize others when they bring up American topics. If topics on other forums wander into American issues it's very easy to move them here.

Posted by: Khashyar

Hi Flashing Eyes...

Yes, this non-Russian topic is in the "off-topic" section, and anyone can begin non-Russia-related topics here.

One of the reasons that we want to keep threads in the Russian forum sections about Russia and not move them later to the "Off-topic" area, is because that would require a lot of splitting up and moving of threads, and that just is too much work for the unpaid moderators

But, since this thread is not about a Russian-related topic, it is o.k. to speak about it here.

Also, one of the things that I personally did not think served anyone's interest was some of the unnecessary personal attacks that were in those other threads that you mentioned. That is why I felt that I needed to step in and moderate those threads.

So, it is o.k. to speak about non-Russian topics in this section, as long as we write messages that are respectful of others...

Khashyar

Posted by: FlashingEyes

Khash,

You miss my point. Certainly non-polite comments occur on non-Russian related topics, but equally they occur on Russian related topics. If someone thinks comments are becoming too contentious then by all means they should say THAT but I do think it's disingenious for someone to say that he or she has an issue with a thread because it's not about Russia if his or her real problem with it is that the posts are too contentious. Wouldn't you agree? I can tell you for a fact that the last time I was involved in a topic that fit this category I was told in a PM that the problem this particular moderator had was NOT that there was personal attacks, but that I kept returning to the same argument, which he found "annoying" so he took action to stop the comments based on them not being about Russia. I think I have saved the PM if you would like me to forward it in case you don't believe me.

Posted by: Khashyar

Hi Flashing Eyes...

Our discussion is moving far away from the Presidential election, so I think that it is better that we talk about it privately if we would like to continue....

I just want to save others from coming to this thread and finding that it is moving away from the thread's topic....

Thanks,

Khashyar

Posted by: FlashingEyes

Khash,

That's fine if you want to get back to the Presidential situation. 90% of my original post was about that, but a portion was off-topic, like many other's comments. I do disagree that it's better to have a rule that all topics should not wander from a particular named thread, if as you say in your guidelines, that we should approach this like a dinner party. Certainly at every dinner party I've ever been to discussions are allowed to wander freely and it's human nature that they do. In fact, the most interesting discussions are ones with many, seemingly unrelated, side-topics all going on at one time. Think if you will about the presidential debates - there is a given question, but in responding to those questions the candidates often wander into quite different topics. I think on the third question of the last debate, for instance, the question started out being about a domestic issue, but the responses wandered into international issues, and both candidates spent most of their time on this question talking about international concerns. A dinner party discussion should be more relaxed than a debate, so it is questionable if it's best to uphold members here to a higher standard than the presidential debates - why, because its not very fun to be in a conversation with someone and always have to be thinking, "oh, your comment about X makes me think of seemingly completely unrelated thing Y but now I have to worry is it ok to have a natural conversation here or do I constantly have to be worrying that someone might come back and say tsk tsk stay on topic."

Posted by: Khashyar

Hi Flashing Eyes...

Yes, of course it is o.k. to become creative and allow a conversation to wander a bit.

But the conversation that we are having right now, for example, is about how far we can go off a thread's topic, is completely away from this topic's thread, and is probably not interesting to most people.

Perhaps I can split this off-topic past of this thread and can create a new thread about talking about off-topic topics

But, the main thing that I disagreed with in some of the other posts that we discussed earlier is that there was an unkind quality to others in some of what was said in them. the unkindness and attacking is what I do not think belongs in this forum no matter what topic we are discussing.

Khashyar