Does Fluther need a category somewhere in between Social and General?

I agree. Strict is too much, but Social is too lenient. Gencial? haha

I’ve been meaning to post that question forever.

I’ve seen variations of this question multiple times.

I don’t think it would help much. I’ve found that a lot of people here, whether intentionally or not, digress into other areas of thought, sometimes seemingly to take the thought/question to another, more advanced level, as if that was what the OP wanted instead.

There are only so many jellies. Many threads become circular, in regards to topic. At some point, everyone has said what they want to, and re-articulated their stance multiple times. So, there will be a few trading insults, and the rest will wander.

Seems like a good idea, though it’s probably more work than there is available programmer effort at this point.

But we could try to add instructions in the question to achieve the same thing, as see how well that works. e.g.:

In a Social question, add something like ”(please stay mostly on topic)” to the subject and/or description.

In a General question, in the description, specify the level of digression that is welcome and on-topic to your question. You could add to the description that you are interested in people’s “tastes, endeavors, and experiences related to the topic”.

@Zaku Excellent ideas. I hate to restrict the free flow of ideas, but if I want the discussion to be about memories of family vacation and people start migrating the discussion towards politics or catastrophic services, that’s where it needs to stay on topic even if its social

I will start giving suggestive parameters in the future.

People have done this in the past and it works some. Just don’t say “I want only the nice people to answer” (as a Jelly named Randy used to) or you may not get any answers at all!

Maybe a mentality somewhere between self righteous & pretentious, ahh, would that it were.
That’s okay though, all amounts to ripe prey on which to gleefully feast ;-}

Ah. That reminds me why I post almost exclusively in Social. If Loli, and ucme can’t post, it just isn’t Fluther. To me…

IMO, fluther started to go downhill when questions were split up into general and social. But, with the current group of users I think the separation of the two is a good fit. Usually in the general section, if no one complains, answers stay up even if they are not necessarily on topic.

Just remember that you can ask people to respond in a certain way, but you cannot control how people answer.

There won’t be any changes made to fluther.

Not expecting changes. Just seems that there seems to be a need.

One for strictly ON TOPIC, like you are wanting to know how to clean the leather on your car.

One for General On Topic but people can describe experiences, tastes, and similar occurances.

And one for social, Where you can talk about anything. Mostly for people wanting opinions or to hear about other people;s life experiences and tastes or to criticize/bash something.

No, I believe in “Freedom of Speech” & feel it should NOT be limited just because you didn’t get exactly what it was that you wanted!!! Some of the MOST boring Q’s here have been those that try & limit what is allowed to be said & I’ve found them to be MUCH MORE worthy when some chose to veer off topic. I think that IF you’re not willing to ask a Q & let it take on its own life then you shouldn’t be asking to begin with!!! Most of my Q’s are put under Social because I don’t want my beliefs regurgitated & I enjoy being challenged to think off the grid!!!

No.

@faery is right. Adding categories to appease the influx from other sites ruined Fluther.

I think we should have a fourth category. The Faerie category. Its for questions about Faeries and what THEY think of certain issues. This would by necessity be questions about topics inconceivable to us muggle dullards.

What people have to say who have been here for ten years is relevant and noteworthy.

just saying

Everyone has a right to express their ideas, opinions, and relevant experiences along with whatever facts the question inquires about. But not everything said by anyone, regardless of the duration of their stint on Fluther, is necessarily relevant or noteworthy.

What is not relevant or noteworthy to you could very well be all important to someone else!!! So, as I said before…once the Q is out there, it should be allowed to take on a life of its own!!! Just because it didn’t go in the direction you felt it should, it takes the path that it should have taken to begin with!!!

Snowflake. Do you need a safe space?

^ Name calling really makes me want to change my mind…NOT!!!

Wasn’t addressing you.

There is a big difference in how guidelines are reinforced from back in Fluther’s earlier days, for sure. Moderation used to be quite strict, especially in General, but the mods received a lot of backlash for a long time. People felt singled out and thought that the rules were too harsh.

I think that Fluther used to have meta, social and discussion.

@RedDeerGuy1 No, Once there were categories these are what they’ve always been.