Why is there not a true "Off-Topic" section?

[hoppipolla]

I really think it would benefit the forum to have one. I know that this section is the closest but it still requests topics that are relevant only.

By having an off-topic section we can encourage casual conversation between members also in a different way to in the chat room which in turn I think can really help people to overcome anxiety, through simply moving on to other topics with the same people

There is the panic pause section I know but it lacks much depth.

I'd love a section where we can natter about music, films and random stuff! I think it's deeply therapeutic and also the main reason I don't come on here very often (despite liking the forum a lot) is because I find it too "heavy" because there's no place to truly unwind here (other than maybe the chat room but it's not the same).

I'd really appreciate it if it could be considered and would love to hear other people's views on this too.

Perhaps if people aren't sure it could be trialled for a while, but I think it would result in a substantial anxiety decrease!

Hoppi

[23tana]

I agree Hoppi. It would be good to have somewhere to chat as not everyone goes to the chat room and people are not there at the same time.

Just being able to have a normal conversation would be great therapy for many people.

[hoppipolla]

I agree Hoppi. It would be good to have somewhere to chat as not everyone goes to the chat room and people are not there at the same time.

Just being able to have a normal conversation would be great therapy for many people.

Yeah that was my thinking

There is an awesome community here, but when anxiety is kind of the only topic I think it can reinforce the problem that's the thing.

One possibility that was suggested was a thread for like, off-topic chatter I guess in the Misc section... it might work but it might end up feeling directionless and just die off.

Might be worth a go anyway. Having a random chatter section for anxiety sufferers would just be really good for the community and therapeutic I think ^_^

[MyNameIsTerry]

They did this on the forum I was on a few years before coming here, MoneySavingExpert. They had a Pub section within another board that contained things like Debating. The Pub was just people creating threads and having a laugh and it worked really well.

If you do it on one big thread, it could get a bit out of hand if there were a lot of people.

But one of the problems I think will be intention. We have Misc and look how little it is viewed. So, it will likely be a smaller crowd of people having a chat but there's nothing wrong with that - it would be good for us all, it's too heavy on here without something light too.

[hoppipolla]

They did this on the forum I was on a few years before coming here, MoneySavingExpert. They had a Pub section within another board that contained things like Debating. The Pub was just people creating threads and having a laugh and it worked really well.

If you do it on one big thread, it could get a bit out of hand if there were a lot of people.

But one of the problems I think will be intention. We have Misc and look how little it is viewed. So, it will likely be a smaller crowd of people having a chat but there's nothing wrong with that - it would be good for us all, it's too heavy on here without something light too.

Misc is different though. It's kind of a pseudo-off-topic section lol

It's a different beast so I don't think we can judge the potential success of a real off-topic section by looking at Misc.

I really think it would do the forum a lot of good socially and psychologically to have one, strange as that may sound! It would let people unwind in a holistic and healthy sense with others

[Rennie1989]

You can talk about what ever you like here.

[hoppipolla]

Would it be easier to name misc to off topic then? Considering it basically is the off topic section anyway

Probably would be the easiest thing to do yeah lol

and relax the rules on it so it's basically for chatting about like... almost anything o.O

[blue moon]

We can talk about anything on the forum,

[mark84]

We can talk about anything on the forum,

what about that one thing? You know? That thing we're not allowed to talk about in the misc because its just so so off topic?

[hoppipolla]

what about that one thing? You know? That thing we're not allowed to talk about in the misc because its just so so off topic?

Oh. Oh yeah THAT thing. Yeah we don't talk about that thing.