Off-Topic Section = Good?

[Steve Freides]

Do you find having a dedicated off-topic section adds value to your forum? We've had requests for it and are considering it.

Our forum is free to all our users; we see it as a community builder. The question is whether adding an off-topic section enhances the building of our community.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and your experiences with this.

-S-

 

[StarArmy]

I've had a problem with activity in this section ever since people started using a Star Army Discord chat to discuss off-topic stuff. I guess the question is, is there enough activity to support it? If so, I think it's a good thing and one of the things that makes a site a community instead of a storefront or reference manual.

 

[JohnWD]

I’ve always had a General Discussion area of the website, these usually allow people to discuss off topic things and not be stuck only discussing topics the forums based around. The only issue I see to this is that more people use this area and it can become a dominating section. I feel with other services like Discord if you don’t have one people will just discuss off topic there.