Off-Topic forums above or below main content?

Do you put your Off-Topic/General sections above or below your site's main content areas? I've seen it done both ways.

What about your announcements/suggestions sections? Are they above or below?

 

Interesting question,

I put off topic and news stuff above main content. I'm wondering if it should be the other way

 

Doesn't Google weight the stuff at the top of the page more? I would put them below the on-topic sections.

 

I've always positioned the off-topic categories below the main content. From experience, members have always told me that they find it easier (to navigate) by doing so.

 

Off topic = last category hidden from guests.

Announcements, Feedback, and Welcome wagon = First category open to guests.

 

Interesting - I always include my introductions forum along with the off-topic forum(s).

 

Myself also, I tend to structure my MMORPG boards as follows:

News & Announcements
Containing boarding announcements and game announcements.

Game
General game discussions including a "Questions & Answers" forum (always very popular) - these forums often contain the most activity and highest statistics.

Miscellaneous
Off topic discussion and "Introduction & Absences".

I find the structure to work very well across my network and the theory I've composed is as follows. The ultimate reason users are viewing the forums is content regarding the game. Primary activity is found within the general game discussion forums and the help based forums i.e "Stuck with a quest", "What do you think of the new update?".

By placing the board central in respect to the other categories, users are still drawn to the important News and Announcements when the forumhome loads. I find also, placing the Introduction & Absences forums alongside the Miscellaneous boards not only allows for more space to be deducted from the top of the board (focusing on the important announcements) but also draws users down to the Off Topic forums and encourages participation in off topic discussions after welcoming new additions.

Ultimatly though, it's whatever works for you and your community.

 

With my off-topic forum, it is close to the top

 

I always have the offtopic section below my main forums but the announcement and feedback section is not always above I had it below sometimes.

 

Offopic below main content. I value nice-related posts more than offtopic-crap. Unfortunately my offtopic forum holds 50% of all posts...

 

Off topic we have below main content
announcements, welcomes,site feedback and competitions, articles forums block at the top.

 

I put my off content forum sections at the bottom of the home page. I noticed that the "off topics" or general discussion section would get a lot of topics that should have went else where.

I spent a lot of time moving threads from the general discussion section to other sections.

 

Same here. Off-topic goes as the bottom on my designs site. On the new site, it's the last category in the "chat" section.

Announcements, feedback and intros/welcomes are at the top.

I will say that, unlike Dan, I do leave my off-topic viewable to guests, because I want spidies to be able to crawl it. Hey you never know when something intelligent will be posted in off-topic and you want it indexed!
All kidding aside, I think the off-topic section can be just as important as all the other ones, depending on the site.

 

Having your main content on top is best.

Personally, on Setsou Design, the off-topic boards are in the middle.

On Bird is the Word, the off-topic forums are at the bottom.

Announcements/Feedback/Suggestions forums are at the top.

 

Site Section (announcements, feedback, introductions, etc)
On-topic (heart of the forum)
Off-topic

...is usually how I do it. Obviously AA has introductions at the bottom.

 

Off topic should be at the bottom, always. The others, however, can be mixed up a bit. For instance, at RCTgo, I have announcements, introductions, and our ongoing competition at the top; on topic forums in the middle; and off topic and suggestions/feedback at the bottom.