You might want to consider getting rid of the general forum or putting a link to some religious,politic whatever Forum somewhere.
Since LNO closed up the philosophic departement there this started to be a pain.Give it a little more time and the mods will be busy shutting down flamewars 24 hours a day.

I think this is why they moved in the first place from LNO. In the interests of not filling the knowledgebase the site has with random warblings, I favour closing down of the General forum - or an amendment to the category - existentialist thought belongs elsewhere on the net as do 4 word chain stories.

On the other hand everyone needs to let their hair down every once in a while. Personally I'm glad to know that I can actually own a koala bear for example.

Hmmm.

Hey Bert - are you stalking me?

Is it legal to have koala bears in your home?

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...&threadid=2165

Please don't encourage them by adding to it though

No I'm not stalking you. I'm err, reading a book and walking behind you. That's all.

Bert

I am one that came from LNO/JL. When they closed the /dev/random (General) board the entire website lost its feel of community, something LQ has. As it was described on the random board at LNO "Man does not live by Linux alone", which is what that site has turned into only Linux.

My 2 cents

No more flame wars than usual, I think. General became more popular, but it's getting back to normal.

For me there's no need to delete General.

I'm an LNO/JL refugee. Look at my stats for favourite forum. You will probably find that most of us answer far more questions than we ask, Linux-wise.

Surely general is just that, general. If it's not your kind of stuff, you don't have to visit or post. I'm certainly not aware of flame wars going on. The off-topic stuff can often be the place where you find out very important people, and really make friends. Don't lose that.

Edit - crashmeister's fave forum is......General. Interesting?

(FYI, crash's favorite forum is: Linux - General, not General)

Well, I am a geek and half, and probably have posted quite a bit of my posts in General. However, that didn't make me lose site of helping other's out. I think it does give the site the sense of "community" that it has. We are all here to have fun, learn linux, and enjoy ourselves (otherwise, what's the point of doing it in your leasure time?). I think General is fine, and just because there was an influx of people from a specific site doesn't mean we should crack down on them for finding a new place to be. They are just as welcome as you and me, and if you change the rules because you don't like their behavior you segregate them. You tell them they are not welcome just like me and you. You let them feel unwelcome, and most importantly, you lose a part of the community that is LinuxQuestions.org

We all come from different places, have different views on things, fight for different causes, and live different lives. A part of that is what we are, and where better to show our "true colors" than in a forum on our favorite site where our friends are?

No one is forced to read General (other than the mods ) it's not site questions/suggestions that contains pertinent info to the site. You don't have to go in there if you decide it's not for you. There are plenty of Linux-related forums like Linux - General and Linux - Security that you can browse and never step foot in the General section. So if the issues there cause you hate and discontent, it is very safe to say, you won't miss anything "linux" if you don't go there and that's why you are here.



My 18 and 3/8 Pounds

Cool

at first the general forum was deluged with junk basically. Now a couple of weeks have passed things seem to have evened out a bit. While i personally think many of the new threads from our "refugees" are somewhat pointless, there is nothing wrong with them. apart from the ones obviously set out to become flame wars, which will be addressed accordingly.

Indeed, my mistake.

Carlywarly - when I read stuff like this (I post this and there and here and that) I am getting mdwatts flashbacks. I didn't realise I was important enough for being monitored.

Ah, come on....

I must say that the option to look at people's favourite forum is something I find quite interesting. I was just attempting, wrongly, to imply that it is possible to post a lot in the General forum and still help out a lot with newbie questions.

So, from now on, I'll definitely be monitoring you

It's really not the case that I want to stop people from having important discussions about world events and stuff.
I just don't want to see it.It's depressing enough to watch the news w/o somebody giving out smartass comments.
Isn't there a way that you don't see the general threads when you check for new threads?
And yet another post in general - but I did give out some smartass comments about gcc flags in another forum,too.

I must admit that the influx of LNO/JL users has had a big impact on the site, but ultimately for the better I feel. Some of the General posts have been pointless and non-sensical, which to me is fine as that is what the forum is for - it's when the posts start to get offensive I think things get out of hand, and blatent flame thread starters should be notified. Maybe a clearer definition of what the General forum is for - what is exceptable and what is not.

Maybe some examples of what is likely to be closed and what is not?

What everyone should start to worry about is if the 'crap' posts start to happen in the other forums, the 'serious' ones. But that doesn't seem to happen and hopefully wont with the General forum available.

crashmeister,
I like that idea (making it an option on wether to have general threads show up in view new posts). I have added it to the TODO. Thanks.

--jeremy