Do you always have an off-topic section/forum on your forums? I mean on forums you have that is not an off-topic forum all together but with another niche on it.
Yes, I think that's important if you want people to start building relationships. They need to be able to talk about their lives or other interests.
Off-topic forums are an absolute must. Even on a general chat forum there has to be some sense of organization, or people will be looking around thinking "huh? where do I post this"? But the off-topic forum, they can count on to be a shoot-the-breeze, just about anything goes area.
I could never go without an off-topic section. Even an off-topic forum should have an off-topic section.
Yeah, just about every forum needs one. It not only provides a place for non-niche discussion, but as Michelle said, it's a place to build relationships and friendships. I have some members who are extremely devoted to our community, and we're really her family. She tells us how things are in her life, how Church was each Sunday, how it's her daughter's birthday and they had a big party, how her granddaughters are coming to visit her, and so on. Everybody has grown so close to this member because we almost know anything and everything about her, as she opens up to us. We're her home on the internet. It's great to know that my forums isn't, "come ask your ___ questions, and have a great day". It's more like, "come ask your ____ questions, get to know us, share your stories, and enjoy your time here". Very community-like and pleasant it is.
In my mind, having an off-topic forum is absolutely crucial. You can only discuss the specific subject matter of a discussion forum for so long before you need a bit of "fun" chatter.
An Off-topic forum, to me, is imperative. This way, members have another place to go and talk about something other than the forum's genre.
i think it is important to have an off topic section, as all forums so far i have seen without one, arent active. i think this is because members can get to know eachother more, if they have an off topic section to talk about their own interests other than the topic of the forum in. also if people do not know what section to post in, they can post it there instead of not post it at all. if you dont have one, you will find that members might not always have something to say about the topic of the forum (even if its something everyone on the forum likes talking about, most people do not talk about it constantly, even in real life), or will end up posting random threads that dont fit in with the topic of the forum, in another section.
What we have done is put off topic at the bottom, and that way we can push the on topic forums first. It works pretty well for us this way.
