A Non-Engineering Section On the Front Page

You just want to argue politics.....Politics and religion are not good topics for casual conversation. it's too personal....

You know better than that.

If I want to argue politics, I'll just do it in the existing forum.

Economics, currency, Syria, Egypt, our southern border...you may think this is all political, from your perch on the beach, but these are real world events, and quite worthy of discussion.

Not to mention; awesome barbecue recipes, planning for retirement, fishing and hunting reports, etc.

Don't forget little birdie; there already is a secret OT section, that was advertised for over a month on the top of the front page. My quest is to move it into the open.

Duh.

You could post the topic in the general section, and then post a link to the 'break room'....

http://cr4.globalspec.com/group/49/CR4-Fans

I personally think that the General section is open to any subject that anyone wishes to raise, and is not subject to criticism by those that think that their function in life is to set the standards. I think that this forum took a backward set when they bared Guests, (free speech). It used to be a pleasure to throw around ideas, with the old crew, but! the forum is now becoming more and more restrictive, If I'm allowed to say so?

Regards JD.

There were some genuine problems with the "guest" function.

People would jump in on debates, stir the pot, and not have the courage to reveal who they were, in the context of this forum. These were unregistered people, and this is the only forum that I've seen, that allowed it.

The general section is good, and there is a lot of leeway; however, I don't see a reason to clutter up the left side of the front page with any more garbage than what already shows up. The only thing different about the OT section, is that threads wouldn't go to the main page by default. We would have to click on that section to open it.

I've toyed with joining the existing OT section, since most everyone is already there, but I'm not interested in another BBT, which was fun at times; but at other times, it became a place for a few select members to talk crap about other members.

I'm not looking to fight politics. It would just be nice to have a spot to talk about things that are completely outside the realm of engineering...which I already do occasionally, but it's on FB.

I'm not talking about some crazy new experiment; just taking the existing OT section, placing a link to it on the front page, and making it fully transparent.

The 3 recipes for a good product: - passion, crime, violence and sex. Am I on 3 already? This forum lacks a few.

At home, the wife does the talking. Just need a justification to wear my headset while I am at (CR4) work.

How about an anonymous section we can choose to ignore?

"The Break Room has been a total failure."

Agreed. We (CR4 members) ask and ask and ask for some freedom to discuss the topics kramarat is talking about; it is provided in the form of a quiet room, off of the beaten path, and it sits idle... I can tell you, Transcendian would be ALL OVER that forum. I sort of miss him.

CR4 provided the water trough and the water, some of us old horses wandered over to have a look, and only a few of us had a drink.

That link to break room still comes up with a server error for me - -

Works for me, just tried it again. I don't think you need a secret handshake to get in if you're a member, but guests cannot see any of it.

Savvy, what are we doing incorrectly?

You must join the user group CR4 Fans first. Then you can view the forum. It's not meant to be "secret" but that's just the way user groups work.

Anyone can join by clicking here: http://cr4.globalspec.com/group/49/CR4-Fans

Good point.

I guess the best idea is to leave the break room out of site and abandoned.

It must have something to do with being online; I don't know any real life engineers that don't want to talk about anything outside of engineering.

Like Yamdankee said, I like to talk about beer, fishing, current events, and yes...even the dreaded politics. I'd prefer to talk about those things with people I'm already familiar with, and I like the engineer's perspective, regardless of the subject.

Buy you're right, there are other forums for non-engineering talk.

When the break room started, it showed up as "private", when looking at Who's Online, and it looked like there is some kind of process involved to join...(a secret handshake?), like it is an exclusive club. That's when I lost interest.

I created the Break Room because so many people asked for a place for off topic discussion. New forums must be programmed in; I used the option available to me, this is why it's a user group and not a forum.

Technically an OT forum could be something like Commercial Space - a subset of the General section - a public forum that doesn't display posts on the home page. But that would require a programming resource that we don't have. It would still be a "hidden" forum that you'd have to visit directly in order to see posts (just like Commercial Space). So it would be much the same as the current Break Room, you just wouldn't have to join the group.

The Break Room's always been a place for any topic. It's not subject to any type of approval (other than not attacking one another, etc.) but you must join the user group because that's the only way I could get it to work. It's not a secret. I left an announcement about it on the homepage for months because I can't add a link to the right navigation.

The main forums should be at least a little bit engineering/science/tech related.

I'm not sure if the OT area isn't being used because people aren't interested or because it's not visible. Either way, it's there.

Well that explains a lot.

Your programming limitations led me to believe that it was intended to be some kind of secret club for VIP members, and I'm probably not alone.

I liked the BBT gang, but a few used it almost exclusively to plan and launch attacks, and I didn't want to part of something that had the potential to devolve to that point.

I'll give it a shot.

Oh, NO. There goes the neighborhood.

I for one had not noticed it there, but as a newbie, it would have taken time to notice it. Now that it has been pointed out, I will take a look, and if anything is worthy of comment, participate. I used to say there were no stupid questions, but this site has educated me there as well. Thanks ! :)

HOWEVER, after going back and looking for the "break room" I could not find the door lol. I clicked on the link in LYN's post and got a server error. Perhaps there's an issue to be fixed there.

I figured out how to get in, and it took me another 15 minutes to figure out how to find the threads.

I don't understand why there is a programming issue.

Why not just create another section to the right, called, "Everything Else"?

It seems like the way it is set up, it will either be ignored or abused.

The BBT gang would have owned it...if they were still around.

CR4 doesn't have a dedicated programmer. Remember that CR4 is just a part of GlobalSpec which is now a part of IHS. The programmers' work is dedicated to much larger initiatives unless something over here breaks. The resources to tweak the site into the perfect community just don't exist. Just as the users "live with it," so do the moderators and admins. We all make do and it seems to be okay for the most part. A site that pleases everyone 100% will never exist.

If you visit the see all forum threads link on the homepage (http://cr4.globalspec.com/browse/allthreads), Break Room threads will appear with all the other threads. Maybe that'll help.

That might make it easier.

It's probably fine; we're all just conditioned to seeing the regular forum threads, so we have a tendency to recoil from anything slightly different. Remember the whining about the color change at the top of the page?

I'm on vacation next week, and will be disconnected from everything but crab traps, fishing poles, shrimp nets, cold beer, good food, and the beach. I'll jump into OT land when I get back.

I joined the fishing group years ago, and I never realized it was something I could post to; I just thought I got a picture of a fish.

Given the nonsense that is on the front page every morning, I don't think it would hurt to create a section. The mods would still have to wake up and edit.

Well, I posted a satirical video in the OT section, and it looks as if it has been removed.

Most mods are probably too young to remember the Bush years, but all media was about making him look like an idiot...which he was, to some extent.

Again, mods don't probably remember, but Saturdat Night Live was all about the stupid Bush. We laughed.

Network TV replayed caskets coming home with soldiers in them, body counts, and some towel head, throwing a shoe at Bush's head.

I don't like Bush.

Good luck with your OT section.

Maybe Chelsea can discuss astrology.

Oops... that was me and I apologize. I was moderating quickly last night (it wasn't my turn, but the afternoon person forgot and there was some ugly stuff on other parts of the site).

Break Room stuff shows up in our regular admin bin. I didn't look at the forum name - I just saw the post and pulled the trigger a little too quickly. I'm sorry.