[drewprops]

PROPOSAL
The creation of a tag for posting off-topic (ie, "Tangential") comments to threads as an attempt to keep threads on-topic.

DETAILS
Conversations, whether spoken or written, tend to move off the original topic. Some of us (looking directly at myself) find themselves wandering off-topic quite often in threads on AppleNova, whether by interest or (in my case) silliness. This is generally expected by the time a thread hits its 2nd or 3rd page, but some threads fly off topic halfway down the first page... whether by natural progression or unappreciated hijacking. In some fora it is considered appropriate to denote when you've wandered off-topic (such as "<offtopic></offtopic>"), but not so much here (because it's casual, and because a lot of people don't have old-school messageboard manners, which is fine). Still, I began wondering if there'd be a way to allow people to post off topic stuff without immediately derailing a thread.

SAMPLE USAGE
[ot]
My sister was once bitten by a moose.
[/ot]


DISCUSSION
(below)
.

[Fahrenheit]

[ot]Chucker, you up for getting drunk next weekend? [/ot]

[chucker]

Originally Posted by Farenheit [ot]Chucker, you up for getting drunk next weekend? [/ot]

If you pay for the flight.

[Fahrenheit]

Which will come to more? the drinks or the flights?

edit: oh shit, yeh, all the crap above is in poodrops ot tags.

[Schnauzer]

it would be cool

[thuh Freak]

speaking of tangents, the other day i was doing some geometry homework, but then i remembered that i'm not in school anymore, so my homework was probably a few years overdue. so i smoked a joint.

[Majost]

So, what would these [ot]yadda[/ot] tags do, exactly? I propose they knock out all text in between... except for the post author. That way the author still feels smug about bringing up his sister who got bit by a moose, but nobody else needs to freakin' read about it.

[Enki]

It could go a couple ways. The OT stuff could be in a quote type box that has a different background color than an on-topic quote, and instead of the quote name it could just say "off topic". [also loosing the automagically generated "Originally Posted by"]

Originally Posted by off topic I'd rather put my sister in a whorehouse than let her date a fighter pilot.

Or it could do the spoiler tag thing. I think the former would be better and less visually intrusive while giving good feedback on whether or not to read the post for entertainment value or skip to the boring but on topic stuff.

[billybobsky]

i like the idea of it being in a quote box without the 'Quote:'.

fuck yeah

[Brad]

Hey, this isn't a terrible idea.

I'll try an implementation alongside some other upgrades this weekend.

[drewprops]

I'll have you know that I'm the source of many not terrible ideas!!


Oh yeah, not sure about the color... for some reason I was thinking a "tan" kind of color for the box.... maybe orange. Tangent has always seemed kind of orange to me. Probably because of tangerines....


.

[EmC]

[drewprops]

HEY!!
How'd you get my picture??
And.... hey, wait-a-minute!!!!

[Banana]

That's quite a nice circle. Practically perfect.

[murbot]

Almost as good as this guy.

[atomicbartbeans]

Why not just color the text orange? We could make it the universally accepted color for off topic text.

So, this one time at band camp...

[Banana]

Except that it's bad on gray.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by atomicbartbeans Why not just color the text orange? We could make it the universally accepted color for off topic text. So, this one time at band camp...

You'd have to make it shuffle the text, though.




(Paul would get it.)

[Kraetos]

How about a quote box with a light orange background?

P.S., if we do implement this, can we not indent OT areas? Even if they were different colored, it would still be really confusing against quote tags.

[drewprops]

Actually, what if you made the background the same color as the background color of the post? (one of the alternating colors).

This would enforce the notion that off-topic discussions are diversionary and (perhaps) warranting of their own threads (due to the NON-highlighty nature of the obfuscatory styling).

Correct and universal application of the tags, and the circumstances that call for them, would of course be the tricky bit.

Horse, meet water....

[torifile]

I'd like a toggle on/off off topic posts. That way I don't need to read drew's OT posts and wonder when he started getting a little crazy.

[thegeriatric]

Why not just make the background the same colour as the post.
Then we wouldn't see it at all.

[drewprops]

water meet horse

[Banana]

Offtopic tags in action

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 What's with all the spoiler boxes? Just talk, dammit. We're not talking movie plotlines or trying to hide NSFW images. It's a taxes-oriented thread...why all the *spoiler tag* exchanges? It's annoying to have to click on just to read stuff that isn't revealing a big secret or offensive in content (the real use for spoiler tags). Goobers.

In retrospect what seemed like a good idea didn't come out exactly as hot, and I have a feeling that it's more annoying than helpful.

Does anyone else feel the same way as Paul did? Would it be just better to not use it at all and let readers decide for themselves if they want to read offtopic posts or skip over it?

Alternatively, would it help to use more subtle content to indicate off-topic portions- for example, using alt text (tooltip?) to contain the offtopic with a small icon indicating there is a off topic content?

[Brad]

Here's a thought: when posts in a thread become a stream of "off-topic" blocks perhaps it's time to start a new thread!

[Banana]

You could very well be right, but do we really want to have 100x more threads for every off-topic stream? I mean, if we look at any given thread, we can find that it has changed the course of conversation a couple of times and could very well be something not related to the OP....

[drewprops]

See, the problem with them, from a "jump in and scan the thread" viewpoint is that they look the same as quotes. If they had a slightly diff color background (or, if like the Spoiler tag, a diff color "shield") then you could tell whether or not the main thrust of the thread had already disintegrated.

just saying~
now upgrade us 2.9 of AN already~!!!!!

[joveblue]

If the box was a different colour, that would make it look more important rather than less important. I'm thinking if it were a box it should be a simple dashed box. Otherwise maybe just grey text or something. Bluey-grey, so it fades into the background a little

[BuonRotto]

I want major ajax hot graphic gooeyness. I want to see every off-topic post animated to slide off to the right and shrink to 2 point text with a loupe tool to read said text if anyone really wants to. Hotness!

[bassplayinMacFiend]

Originally Posted by Brad Here's a thought: when posts in a thread become a stream of "off-topic" blocks perhaps it's time to start a new thread!

Maybe a permanent 'off-topic' / 'stream of consciousness' thread and all the [ot][/ot] stuff can just live in there?