I wish it would work that way, but we've had this 'perhaps' assumption before, and we all saw where it lead in the past. Referencing another forum doesn't help either, because this place is not about "keeping up with the Joneses", especially if they have the exact same problem we had. Out of their 16 boards, the last 3 off-topic boards attract 40%(!) of their total forum activity. And that's not even the worst ratio I've seen.
Percentages mean nothing. Just because a lot of the activity is in off-topic boards doesn't mean there's still a thriving community within the game discussion. In fact, I frequent both on-topic and off-topic sections on the GG2 forums. Having an off-topic boards does not automatically guarantee a loss of interest in other parts of the community. And because you claim that forum should not be an example as it is way more active than ours, then look at
this forum. The community is in a similar state- in fact, even slower than ours. Yet they continue to support both Calculator and off-topic discussion. Why is this? Because general chatter sections do not shift overall community activity.
Your definition of "past" refers to the time before I even joined the forums back in '08 (or somewhere close to that). As far as I can remember, there wasn't an off-topic section. Things change over a few years. I don't see why you're so reluctant to give it another shot.
Actually, I'm not adamantly against an off-topic subforum as a general idea. it's just that it requires a certain common mindset and maturity among the userbase to make it worthwhile...which has not been proven to exist in abundance in this special community. Excuse the condescendence, but I really don't know what kind of "communtiy-vital" talk you want to hold in an offtopic board anyways...but maybe that's just me.
and really, yeah sure, we could make an offtopic board to prove that we aren't "afraid", and would probably again find the proof that it really does not work with these folks of this forum. but then again, we're the staff, so we make decisions, not court orders that have to have ultimate proof and justification and convince every single affected person.
There purpose of an off-topic forum, as I have stated before, is to allow the community to kick back and talk about other things. There is nothing significantly vital about it, but it does add to the sense of "family".
A/D over at GG2 moderates General Chatter quite efficiently; Pointless topics that do not lead to discussion are instantly locked (GC is not your blog), but otherwise general forum rules apply. Off-topic conversation is allowed as long it bears resemblance to the original post to some degree. Idiots that do not follow these rules are fool'd/banned. It's rather simple: use the off-topic forum as a place for meaningful discussion without the degrading of topics into meme-spewing fountains.
It is not about whether or not the forum can "support" a general discussion section. The point is that general discussion is not desired by the administration. Whether it would be detrimental to the rest of the forum is largely irrelevant at the moment.
Also, the non-Nifflas-related discussion that's occuring right now is split into four groups: people whining about the forum or its members, people asking for help with something, "show and tell" (dev. showcase and free games), and forum games. You say that you have something to say that won't fit in those forums, so maybe you can tell us what it is.
And holy crap, sarcasm is against the rules?
How is beneficialness largely irrelevant? It's what the administration is using as their reasoning for not including an off-topic section, and it's what I'm trying to prove.
Also, other topics: Discuss movies. Discuss music. Discuss food. Discuss programming. Discuss TV shows. Discuss Superbowl ads. Tech support thread. Discuss relationships. Discuss current events. Discuss weather. Discuss educational institutes. General introduction thread. The list goes on.
...so that board would get more discussion-oriented.
It would also get more flaming, "Oh-My-God-You-Suck", and a lot more modding needed. Just saying.
Is this statement backed by fact, or is it baseless conjecture?