Moderation policy - Off topic posts

[IanB]

What is the current policy about Moderators using the Move/Copy post vBulletin options to control off topic discussion within threads.

It's use seems to be the exception rather than the rule. Is this because the task is arduous for the Moderator and/or the vBulletin server.

Some of the longer threads at Doom9 have a lot of off topic posts that are interesting in their own right but clearly do not contribute to the main thread. They make searching through these long threads a challenging task.

Early use of splitting threads could help mitigate this problem. I appreciate doing it later could become a really difficult chore.

I admit to contributing off topic post myself and would always be happy to have these posts rethreaded to keep the main topic pure.

[Guest]

The official policy is in the forum rules. Users are to remain on topic with their posts and off topic posts can be deleted without warning or comment.

In practice, different mods have different approaches beyond that. Speaking only for myself, I overlook harmless OT stuff, as long as it is accompanied by some useful on-topic material. But when a thread starts to get derailed I intervene, usually just by asking people to cease. In some cases I split the posts out but I acknowledge that I do that infrequently. I am happy to do so on request, however, if doing so appears valuable to the forum.

Of course, I speak only for myself and not my fellow moderators.