Re^9: [OT] How about an Off Topic Section?

uh.... no, no and no.

But, in each case, I can identify a broad general subject matter: something that (traditionally) relied on rhyming or rhythm; note-worthy information (usually fresh), and a teaching document of some sort; IOW, poetry, news and a tut.

And I do think that "topic" is accurately aliased as "broad general subject matter" FWIW (not very much, I fear) an online Roget's-sourced Thesaurus ( http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/topic )seems to support that reading, with:

Concept Thesaurus for word topic
Synonyms - noun
    subject of thought
    subject 
    ....

Nonetheless I emphatically agree with you that most suggestions for new topics (e.g., Perl 6; javascript; etc) are too narrow and -- when relevant to Perl (regardless of the trailing number) -- questions, tuts, news items are fine for SOPW, Tutorials or Perl News. I just am not happy with your version of the meaning of "topic."

Spirit of the Monastery

Comment on Re^9: [OT] How about an Off Topic Section?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^10: [OT] How about an Off Topic Section? by jdporter (Paladin) on Jun 09, 2015 at 03:43 UTC
The point is that the sections are (with a couple exceptions) not about content. They're about form. Is this ideal? I am not inclined to argue so. I believe, ultimately, we'd like to get rid of sections entirely (concretely implemented as close all but one section) and use a system of tags to indicate topics and form, and whatever other attributes we might think of. Until then, sections aligned by form (or "mode of discourse"), with individual posts tagged with keywords in the title, seems to me to be a very workable solution. I reckon we are the only monastery ever to have a dungeon stuffed with 16,000 zombies.	[reply]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re^10: [OT] How about an Off Topic Section?
by jdporter (Paladin) on Jun 09, 2015 at 03:43 UTC

The point is that the sections are (with a couple exceptions) not about content. They're about form.

Is this ideal? I am not inclined to argue so. I believe, ultimately, we'd like to get rid of sections entirely (concretely implemented as close all but one section) and use a system of tags to indicate topics and form, and whatever other attributes we might think of. Until then, sections aligned by form (or "mode of discourse"), with individual posts tagged with keywords in the title, seems to me to be a very workable solution.

I reckon we are the only monastery ever to have a dungeon stuffed with 16,000 zombies.

[reply]