Forum Posting - Going on a Tangent

[Jason76]

This happens a lot and sometimes it can be good and sometimes bad. What I mean is, "Do you feel replies and topics which stick to the subject are better than ones that wander off, even if interesting?". Note on one writing job I did, the forum owner hated tangents so such posts would be deleted.

OK, an example of a tangent would be, "Do you feel having a welfare system is good or bad?" However, instead of giving a direct answer like, "I think society should help the disadvantaged and it has the means to do so.", someone might chime in personal stories about Uncle Joe and his lost job or something.

 

[Corzhens]

Hmm, that sounds so strict as to delete the comment which is not directly focused on the subject. My understanding of a forum is what the name implies - conversation among the members. And in any conversation, a segue way cannot be avoided that sometimes lead to another topic. That is normal although I admit that it is not normal in a forum. Anyway, if my comment will be deleted because of that infraction, I would probably think about it.... to leave or to stay.

 

[TaylorCTU GM]

I'm usually not strict at all. If the members are having a good time and the conversation heads down a different path so be it.

 

[Shannon Apple]

That's what the split function is for. You can move individual posts into a brand new thread. If people are gone off on a tangent because they're being abusive, it's probably deletions or a thread lock. If it's just derailing the thread to talk about something that's unrelated to the original post, but still discussion worthy in it's own right, then a split is totally reasonable. This allows posters to discuss both topics.

Telling personal stories that are related to the topic isn't bad, so long as they are making a point relating back to the original question in their telling of that story.

An off topic discussion might be for example:

I start a thread on endangered species in Africa and how the US government wants to lift the ban on bringing home trophies of the endangered animals these high society assholes kill. A discussion for or against this type of trophy hunting might happen.

Then somewhere in the middle, people start arguing the pros and cons of breeding programmes for endangered animals in zoos. That's a different argument and worthy of it's own thread. Spliting the topic ensures that people who come to the thread later can still reply to the original argument and not have a whole jumble of stuff going on.