I don't know many wargamers in real life, so I enjoy coming here to chat to other wargamers, not just about wargames, but about other stuff too. This is about as simple as I can make it.

Remove the OT, and you remove a large part of the 'community' aspect from this wargaming community.

Emperors Faithful wrote:

Da Boss wrote:I like shumagorath. I mean. I LIKE him. He's sorta dreamy you know? Sometimes I think I'll touch him, just softly. But I'm always too scared. Someday I'll have the courage.
Until then, I'll just watch.

This. Is exactly why I love OT. (That and the Daschunds of Death)

Remember, most weiner dogs are crazy. Their masters are crazier. Its in the the contract when you pick them up.

I'll still come here if OT is closed.

I started coming for the painting and modelling stuff.
The main reason I join boards, actually. I want to see what ideas other people have - and yes, I will occasionally show off something if I think it is good enough - even if it is only to inspire someone else.

I would still use Dakka if the P&R stuff was removed, however I doubt that I would post that often.

When discussing any subject at length things eventualy get round to P&R in some form or another. Lets also not forget the strong P&R themes in the fluff of most GW games. One thing which will kill off an interesting thread faster than an inane troll is a mod having to lock it because someone used the G word.

Any way you look at it, this type of censurship will result in a raft of superficial and dull posts and see anything origional or thought provoking being deleted because there are a few individuals on here who are unable to conduct themselves in a mature and intelligent manner.

The way I see it is that thousands of people get stabbed each year. What we do (or should do!) is jail those who use the knife in an innapropriate way. What we should not do is ban the use and ownership of knives altogether. P&R threads should be no different, put them in a seperate sub forum and ban access to those who lack the wit and decorum to post there sensibly.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:

Manchu wrote:

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:The thing to remember is that dakka is a wargaming site that has an OT forum, not an OT forum that has a wargaming site. If people ONLY come for the OT, they really, really need to get a move on in life.

This seems derisive to me.

If you want to talk ONLY about OT discussions there is a whole world of people out there waiting to hear you speak. There are even internet forums specifically designed to cater to your every OT desire. There are ones that cover everything, and ones that will discuss the changes in the mating habits of the simpson's python through its lifespan.

To come to a wargaming site, ONLY post in the OT forum, ONLY go to the OT forum and then try and wear that as a badge of honor, well, I guess, I guess I don't know what to think. But I'm sure it involves facepalming and the slow shaking of heads.

We are miniature wargamers (primarily 40k) who have the opportunity to discuss OT subjects in a sub forum.

And like I said, I am currently FOR the OT forum. I'm not arguing for it to be torn down. I'm arguing that there is a very small subsect within the dakka community that really need to get out more, and well, get involved in the dakka community.

+1 These are my thoughts on the issue exactly. In fact I was trying to make the same point when I said the bellow, earlier. But you made it better.

whatwhat wrote:Banning political and religious discussion might get rid of the freeloaders who don't contribute anything to the part of the site which makes dakkadakka a wargaming website (someone that I sometimes am but try not to be, I certainly don't think I'm as bad as some) and don't do much besides use up bandwidth. Then again they are always going to exist if you wish to allow an online community to better act as a community, by allowing them to talk about something other than one subject. And I think that is important too.

Either way, no I wont quit if the off topic forum ceased to exist but I do think it would take more away from dakadaka than it would add.

i joined dakka because i saw it was a nice 40k forum t ojoin. them i went into the OT, and well, i spend my time just reading, i don't really post much. I say, that the OT should stay, but the obvious trolls should be banned. i think that is why yakface is polling to remove P&R from the forums, cause o fthe trolls

I see more people trolling about "OMG Mephiston is broken!1!!1" and "OMG 'Nids are broken!!#@!!" in the regular discussion boards than I do in OT.

squilverine wrote:
The way I see it is that thousands of people get stabbed each year. What we do (or should do!) is jail those who use the knife in an innapropriate way. What we should not do is ban the use and ownership of knives altogether. P&R threads should be no different, put them in a seperate sub forum and ban access to those who lack the wit and decorum to post there sensibly.

An interesting comparison. I like cutting my food into pieces before I eat it, and would be rather unhappy if a surplus of mad knife-wielding criminals made me lose this wonderful privilege.
+1