General [This forum is for non-technical general discussion]

Originally Posted by onebuck If the thread is a viable presentation of information and some errant member presents something that's adrift then spank that post not the whole thread. I don't care if it's aligned by my thoughts or not but if errant then correct that part not stop everything that's on-going.

That's usually the policy at LQ and will once again be the policy in General when the current cleanup process has concluded. Like I said, there's no permanent policy change in place here.

--jeremy

Why even have a forum for non-technical discussions? Very few of the Linux/BSD distro forums have such a thing. Most have a Off-Topic forum but it is still for technical discussions. There are plenty of places for political or religious discussions, or just off the wall places. Isn't that what blogs are for?

Debian's forum at forums.debian.net Off-Topic policy is "Discussions in "Off topic" should still be in the spirit of this board, that is related to Linux/ Computers/ Software etc. Political, religious or racial discussions do not belong on this board."

Having "General" forum where any type of discussion goes just makes more work for the moderators. Just my two cents.

Originally Posted by craigevil Why even have a forum for non-technical discussions?

It gives members like me, with limited technical knowledge, a place to practice typing and stops our keyboards seizing up through lack of use. And all work and no play, etc.

It's a bit of a nuisance for LQ Spy users when people are playing games in General ...

OTOH, FOSS and FLOSS are about community and freedom which are not technical but are important ...

Originally Posted by catkin It's a bit of a nuisance for LQ Spy users when people are playing games in General ...

General has been excluded from LQ Spy.

--jeremy

Originally Posted by craigevil Why even have a forum for non-technical discussions?

I think having a "water cooler" area at LQ helps foster community and allows LQ members to get to know each other, which is a net positive for the site.

--jeremy

Originally Posted by jeremy General has been excluded from LQ Spy. --jeremy

Not to hijack this thread, but would it be possible for users to customise which forums they want to show up in LQ Spy? It's a lot more practical than refreshing the New Posts page all the time.

As to General, it's a sandbox most of the time. But sometimes you can find some useful information not related to Linux. Props to Jeremy, you have done and are doing an amazing job with LQ!

Hi,

Originally Posted by catkin It's a bit of a nuisance for LQ Spy users when people are playing games in General ... OTOH, FOSS and FLOSS are about community and freedom which are not technical but are important ...

LQ Spy is a choice as much as [General]. I just don't believe heavy handed biased mods should continue to close 'Open Discussion' threads that happen to have an errant member making poor comments. I'm not playing games when it comes to my concerns with what's going on politically here on LQ and in the U.S.A.

I think open discussions here on LQ that are non-technical should have a place for good exchange between members. Not flippant discussion but serious exchange by adherence to the LQ Rules by all and that should include the mods.

Hi,

Originally Posted by jeremy General has been excluded from LQ Spy. --jeremy

Why not have a check box for [General] for the members that do watch all of LQ?

Originally Posted by ctkroeker Not to hijack this thread, but would it be possible for users to customise which forums they want to show up in LQ Spy? It's a lot more practical than refreshing the New Posts page all the time.

Feel free to add this to the feature tracker and we'll keep it in mind as a future enhancement.

--jeremy

Originally Posted by jeremy General has been excluded from LQ Spy. --jeremy

Thank you so much jeremy, I spend most of my 'LQ time' on the LQ Spy page. You just improved the LQ Spy function a thousand fold

Kind regards,

Eric

Originally Posted by jeremy Feel free to add this to the feature tracker and we'll keep it in mind as a future enhancement. --jeremy

Already done http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...php?issueid=90

I am with the mods on this one.

I also don't think Rule #0 makes much sense.

I agree that it's fine to close threads that are pointless or about a topic that can insult some members, but Rule #0 sounded like moderators can close threads because of the most insignificant, irrevavent reason that they can think of, like it's a certain day of the week or the moderator is not in a great mood.

Originally Posted by ctkroeker Not to hijack this thread, but would it be possible for users to customise which forums they want to show up in LQ Spy? It's a lot more practical than refreshing the New Posts page all the time.

Can't you subscribe to the forums you wish and then have LQ Spy display only posts from "subscribed threads"? No idea if it would work and too lazy to test it myself.