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Close the off-topic forum #15393

Open FunctorialLift opened 1 month ago

FunctorialLift commented 1 month ago

Basically, the off-topic users is divided into two communities: kids who post nonsensical repetitive spam, and pro-Trump climate change denialist trolls who try to turn the off-topic into a watered down version of 4chan. Of course there are a few sensible users, but clearly not enough to maintain a quality forum. It doesn't help that banned trolls keep coming back with new accounts.

Free online discussion is of course a desirable project (especially at a time when the overwhelming majority of social media are controlled by a few billionaires), but this is not the statement of purpose of Lichess, and furthermore, in order to not devolve into trash, it requires some moderating resources that Lichess evidently lacks at the moment.

Snippet of what I am talking about: https://lichess.org/forum/off-topic-discussion/looking-forward-to-the-biden-trump-debate https://lichess.org/forum/off-topic-discussion/you-ever-consider-that-trump-is-better-than-biden https://lichess.org/forum/off-topic-discussion/do-you-eat-pineapple-pizza-while-smoking-weed-and-playing-chess-and-voting-for-joe-biden https://lichess.org/forum/off-topic-discussion/what-do-you-smoke-when-you-are-playing-chess https://lichess.org/forum/off-topic-discussion/who-dose-lego https://lichess.org/forum/off-topic-discussion/biden-releases-1-million-gallons-gasoline-from-us-strategic-reserves-to-ease-gas-prices https://lichess.org/forum/off-topic-discussion/who-is-better-2 https://lichess.org/forum/off-topic-discussion/lets-roast-eachother https://lichess.org/forum/off-topic-discussion/do-you-remember-people-in-2021-2022-saying-lichess-off-topic-is-dead https://lichess.org/forum/off-topic-discussion/why-is-the-skibidi-toilet-meme-and-the-grimace-shake-so-popular https://lichess.org/forum/off-topic-discussion/natural-gas-methane-is-scamming-america#2 https://lichess.org/forum/off-topic-discussion/who-is-the-worst?page=1

Siderite commented 1 month ago

Don't you think that closing the off-topic forum will drive these messages to the existing forums?

FunctorialLift commented 1 month ago

Well the other forums are for chess related topics, so presumably they wouldn't open troll, spam, or political threads there. And even if they did, they would be immediately closed and/ or told off by users who want to discuss about chess.

Siderite commented 1 month ago

So, more work for the mods. I understand what you are saying, but if you don't like the off topic forum isn't easier to not read it?

FunctorialLift commented 1 month ago

I don't think so. Firstly, you need to take into account that they would also have less work from not having to read the off-topic trash. Secondly, as explained before, I really don't think the off-topic trolls would create spam topics in the other forum sections.

As for your other question: 1) regardless of whether I read it or not, it takes some resources from Lichess, 2) I don't think Lichess necessarily wants to host this garbage on their website.

ornicar commented 2 weeks ago

I agree and I would also like to close that forum.

FunctorialLift commented 2 weeks ago

You're the boss.

ddugovic commented 1 week ago

I wouldn't object to "Off-Topic Discussion" being replaced with links to Mastodon and other Lichess social media. Sure, I'd miss being able to easily share random topics (and I wish I could have separate blogs without having to create separate user accounts), but I think OP has a valid point about the purpose of Lichess.