Proposal of name change

[Nawdic]

Morning all,

Could I make a suggestion - could the General Transport forum be renamed something like the Transport and Current Affairs section, because the Off-Topic section seems to be underused for anything apart from Transport...

For example, more people on average view the General Transport section than the Off topic section if something like an incident in a bank - to name something off the top of my head - would get more views and answers in a renamed General Transport forum rather than in Off-Topic?

Just a thought.

[Illegal_Alien]

Er? What does a bank have to do with Transport ?

[Chrill]

It would make no sense to move "Current Affairs" to General Transport. That would make topics such as the London Olympics end up there. I guess. I'm not even sure. It would create confusion.

As it stands now, there is one section for all real-life Transport and one section for non-Transport related items. It makes perfect sense the current way.

[JamieLei]

Yeah - I have really no idea what you're talking about here...

[orudge]

I can see what you're meaning - I guess you want General Transport Discussion to be a place for more "serious" discussion of news and suchlike. For the moment at least, though, I think I'd prefer to leave things as they are.

[Illegal_Alien]

I would rather prefer having a new subforum (Sorry Orudge i know you like them ), like "News around the World" or something, wich an have all the news bits and pieces.

[JamieLei]

Actually, that's not a bad idea. It seems that over the last few years, there's been quite a, let's say, 'dumbing down' of Off-Topic. When was the last time we had a serious debate in there, for example. A third forum for proper news would get it away from silly topics like http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=62208 and http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=62181

[Nawdic]

Well at least one person approves...

[Hyronymus]

Actually, that's not a bad idea. It seems that over the last few years, there's been quite a, let's say, 'dumbing down' of Off-Topic. When was the last time we had a serious debate in there, for example. A third forum for proper news would get it away from silly topics like http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=62208 and http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=62181

I don't see how passed "dumb topics" prevent anyone to start a serious topic. It's not the forum title that shapes an online community, it's the content submitted by users that shapes an online community.

[Chris]

It's not the forum title that shapes an online community, it's the content submitted by users that shapes an online community.

Which can depend on the title. The current off-topic is full of Birthday Topic, Whatcha Listening to @ da moment, Funny Videos, Funny Images and the official-unofficial screenshot thread, as well as the suchlike from Jamie of Tits and Cocks; whilst all of these threads are lovely in their own way, they far outnumber any serious discussion topics, and hence probably discourage many people from posting any serious discussions. What would be nice is as other people suggest: Off-topic, News and Current Affairs, and General Transport.

This would leave a clear area for serious discussion and another for general off-topicness of Thread of Randomness etc.

[orudge]

There have been plenty of "serious" discussion topics in the Off-Topic forum, so I don't see why the fact there are also "light-hearted" topics there should be a reason not to post there.

[JamieLei]

I still think they should be separated, due to the different types of postings in there. The 'proper' news topics tend to get very quickly pushed to the bottom of the page because the 'silly' topics receive 5-6 posts a day.

You could say the same about before we separated the forum games into a separate sub-forum. They weren't preventing the normal off-topic threads from being used, but they did tend to overpower everything a bit.

In the end, it's just a bit difficult to have a discussion about the economy when it's surrounded by tits, cocks and a horribly mispelt (and which Owen refuses to change the grammar of "Whatcha listening 2 @ da moment?" thread.

[Dave]

That thread title gives me grammar AIDS.

I don't think I agree really though - plenty of discussion has gone on in there.

[Geo Ghost]

Personally, It's an interesting idea but I don't think we need it. We have plenty of transport and non-transport discussions.
However, my only criticism of the system is that sometimes topics are moved to other sections when they have no relevance to them.
For example, my topic (well, rant) on rail enthusiasts was moved without notice. I still wanted to know why because it was about people, not transport.

I think the Transport section and off-topic both receive a fair share of views and we have healthy discussions in each I'd prefer to have ea section dedicated to only transport-related things. Though as my own suggestion, perhaps noting that Photo of the Month is located within the General Transport section would be useful for users who may not know of it But I'll leave that up to the staff.