Does your forum have an offtopic section?

Does your forum have a section for members to talk about normal things not related to the topic of your forum?

I have seen a few that haven't and honestly that has put me off from joining because yeah I would be interested in the topic of the forum but I also want to get to know people there too.

Do you think you would join or stay active at a forum that didn't have an off topic section?

My forum has all section to have enough discussion.

It's a 'so so' situation. I used to have general chat in most my forums and it would indeed help people 'bond'. Still when most of the discussion is there, you have a problem. I see a lot of forums that have e serious percentage of the overall content there and it doesn't look good or professional. when I join a webmaster forum, i want to talk about webmaster problems, not chat about the weather.

We have one, while it does seem to be an even split to have some discussion go into the "off-topic" section we may think of putting in "post counts don't increase" or other methods to help bring the people out of their and into the other zsections if things get bad.

my forum has one. i think its best that forums do, as even the biggest fans of whatever your forum is about dont want to talk about it all the time, they also have other interests they want to talk about. it also helps members become friends with eachother.

Yes we have a Lounge section for general chit chat

Yes we do ^^

At times, members just want to kick back and be random, so having a section for that is ideal ^^ Having a designated area for such is good for keeping it out of serious areas

Yes, all of my forums have add an off topic section. It is great for forums to have off topic sections, where people can just go and relax and talk about anything.

I think it is a must. otherwise big chance of offtopic.

Yes, I try to make it not the most active section but the hello and goodbye part always makes it really active.

I think it's good for a lot of forums to have an off-topic section. However, I do see where it would be bad, like support forums for example.

You've got a point, but I don't think software support forums should always have that.

what would happen if mybb.com removed their offtopic area?

There would be a lot less trolls like me and less people getting banned (like me). They're very strict about their off-topic area.

My forum does have an off-topic area, yes. I feel that it is beneficial to the forum but then again, it does come at a cost should it be much more used than the niche sections of the forum itself. On my forum, the General Area is used quite a bit but luckily the niche-y areas do have more content in it than the general areas. Should the general area get more crowded than the main areas though I would be telling my staff to buck their ideas up and start posting more outside the area (The staff are the majority posters currently, new forum!) because I don't want a forum for one area being took over and turned into a general forum, lol. I do believe though that having a general area allows your members an area to chill out, relax and talk about subjects which interest them other than your niches area. Who doesn't want to talk about TV/Music or General stuff at some point?

Any forum I make will have an off-topic board, and I generally prefer that most I join do as well. It's nice to just talk about other things and get to know your fellow members a little more.

Yes. You have to make sure the posts are evenly split between forums (or appropriately split) and sometimes having off topic doesn't help this.