Tuesday, August 6, 2002
Why we have the "Off Topic" category
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 07:38 PM
I've had a couple complaints over the past week from people who want the site to remain focused on Pocket PCs, and they seem concerned over the non-Pocket PC nature of some of our posts.
There are generally three reasons why we do off-topic posts:
1) We find something of great importance that we want to share with you, and we think you'll find it useful
2) We want to vent about something, sing the praises of something, or generally share some small part of our lives with you
3) It's a slow news day for Pocket PCs and we want to generate some discussion on the site and give some people a reason to come back
The aspartame thread was way out there, and not something I'm likely to do again, but it falls under the first category. If I discovered something I felt was very important, I'd feel compelled to post it. If it ticks off 1% of you, but benefits the other 99%, so be it. My post on the digital video editing book, Marlof's post with his photos - those are all "type two" posts. We like to think that even if it's not directly related to Pocket PCs, you'll enjoy reading our posts because it may spark discussion on something we have in common.
The Apple posts today were simply the result of a slow news day - I think it's fun to debate and mix it up over topics like this. If that doesn't interest you, you're certainly not obligated to click on the discussion link and read it all - at worse you've wasted 10 seconds reading the 300 word intro I wrote.
I would, however, like your opinion on this. More off-topic, less, or none at all? Vote in the poll and give me your comments.
There are generally three reasons why we do off-topic posts:
1) We find something of great importance that we want to share with you, and we think you'll find it useful
2) We want to vent about something, sing the praises of something, or generally share some small part of our lives with you
3) It's a slow news day for Pocket PCs and we want to generate some discussion on the site and give some people a reason to come back
The aspartame thread was way out there, and not something I'm likely to do again, but it falls under the first category. If I discovered something I felt was very important, I'd feel compelled to post it. If it ticks off 1% of you, but benefits the other 99%, so be it. My post on the digital video editing book, Marlof's post with his photos - those are all "type two" posts. We like to think that even if it's not directly related to Pocket PCs, you'll enjoy reading our posts because it may spark discussion on something we have in common.
The Apple posts today were simply the result of a slow news day - I think it's fun to debate and mix it up over topics like this. If that doesn't interest you, you're certainly not obligated to click on the discussion link and read it all - at worse you've wasted 10 seconds reading the 300 word intro I wrote.
I would, however, like your opinion on this. More off-topic, less, or none at all? Vote in the poll and give me your comments.
