The squeaky wheel has been oiled Off Topics has been removed from hot-topics and as a result more and more would be off topic threads are appearing on the front page in other sections. ioi doesn’t think they belong on the front page because the primary function of the site is gaming sales data. Which is fine but if you are concerned about legitimacy of the site via its appearance then take the forums (hot topics) off the front page, like every other legitimate site. Or hide them under a tab with news in front and hot topics behind. But separating things only degrades the number of contributors to that section which degrades interest.

A large number of people come here to socialize, and I would think the extra page views would be worth the while. Those people have lost a huge amount of their social topics here. As no one talks about gaming only all day. There is a direct correlation between off-topics and forum users. With it you have a social community. Without it you have a specialized topical discussion. That will take you from habitual users to casual contributors.

The effects are becoming more and more obvious. As the only real benefit so far is kn has stopped complaining and the sites image is a little better. It is very clear that there has been a huge drop in the number of contributors in off-topic. And that means people are going some place else to get there general interest needs met. Some argue it easy just go up and click forum off topics. Web-sites live and die by convince and ease of use, and off topics is dieing. And yes there is a bit of a catch 22 with site image and convenience but I don’t think the forum users are constantly refreshing for the numbers on the front page. So why not put the whole thing (hot topics {with off topics}) one page back, and leave a small specialized hot topics on the front.

Who else would like to see off-topics back in hot topics?

I would like to see off topics back, I've always thought of gaming as being very socialble so why not gaming webistes as well. If VGChartz needs a better image then the forums should be moved off the front page altogether. Sometimes the forums move really slow for the simple fact there isn't much to discuss about videogames.

I agree completely

I saw we start an online petition, those are all the rage these days.

....That's sarcasm by the way (the second line)

But seriously. We need to at least find some middle ground with the off topic debacle; you can't just shut it away into some forgotten corner of the site and pretend it doesn't exist. Instead of trying to simper and parlay to the percieved expectations of an imaginary population of visitors to the site who would be horribly offended by off topic, why not cater a little bit to the interests of the dedicated, faithful members of this site?

It seems like lots of the off topics are just being tossed onto the other forums, because half of the stuff on the front page is just spam now anyways.

I vote for bringing it back, it´s easely one of the top 5 reasons this site is one of the best.

Another user in another thread made the suggestion that we could make offtopic visible on the front page for only logged in members and that is probably the best idea about this whole subject.

So I vote for bringing offtopic back and for it to be visible for only logged in members.

i agree

I agree, off topics should be back to the hot topics...

If they could take off topic from us with one snap, i wonder how hard it is to make it appear only to logged members.

I don't feel like posting off topics anymore since...

I agree!

All that's happened is that people still have off-topic threads, but put them in other forums.

I don't want to name names, but at least five threads in the hot topics right now are off-topic.