Good point. One way to deal with this is to expire Off Topic posts after some fixed interval. One place I hang out has a reserved section that carries the notice "Go ahead and flame. It'll be gone in a week."

That is not the only consideration unfortunately. The point is that an offtopic section attracts "offtopic people", so to say, and that dilution of the populace leads to a dilution of the overall focus of the community as well, often to the point where the offtopic area becomes the main place to be and the rest of the sections is neglected, looked down on, or acquires some sort of elitist air.

I'm not sure simply setting a short expiry time would help.

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Makeshifts last the longest.

Something just occured to me: the Chatterbox Section does have a very short expiry time. *grin*

Makeshifts last the longest.

I agree entirely. Perhaps a server like perlmonk.org, running the Everything engine would suffice. Just so discussion between familiars can take place without disturbing the Monastery.

Even more wide-spread: Why not just put XML or an HTML comment in another message board's user profile or actual thread to signify that the poster is a Perl Monk. A Perl Monk Passport, so to speak.

John J Reiser
newrisedesigns.com