Non-technical Forum Discussion

Question

To all of the regulars, including the Hosts, would it be possible to create a forum discussion area for non-technical exchanges?
Recently we had a thread that went a ways off the topic but was interesting and a lot of fun just interacting with each other. There is always a risk of those types of discussion crossing boundaries and getting shut off. But the interaction was so much fun that it seems to me a useful type of topic area just for general interaction between the forum members.
I guess the only question in this thread is, would it be feasible to have such an area and would the hosts permit it, even if they have to really monitor to make sure boundaries are not crossed.

Answer 1

I think one of the problems with allowing flaky -- I see I'd been spelling it wrong -- discussions (and I don't think non-technical discussions necessarily have to be "flaky" or even always "fun filled") on a regular basis is when they enter the uncharted, churning waters of politics or culture wars. This is something that even smaller boards where people know each other quite well sometimes have to contend with.
One way of dealing with this that some boards employ is to create a walled off area where people know what they may be letting themselves in for and proceed at their own risk. Ars Technica has a Lounge and some other boards have something similar. Given its size, I don't know how practical a solution this would be for Apple Discussions. Another possibility is to leave it up to members to be self-policing. Those who peacefully participated peace in Flakey Discussions I and II had been around for a while and already had a sense of the limits of respectful conversation. To some degree, we had already encountered each other elsewhere and had some sense of relationship which we wanted to preserve. We also ended up in Feedback, a relatively little known corner of Discussions, with some idea that things are usually already a bit looser here. But I'm not sure, given the vast numbers visiting this site, what would happen if there were a regular spot explicitly devoted to the non-technical. I think things might veer off into the incendiary at times.
That said, without explicitly creating such a place, maybe the best approach would be to loosen things up a little in an off-the-beaten-path area like Feedback, or its equivalent when Communities arrives, and let plain common sense be the best guide. Flakey was enjoyable, but one wouldn't want it to turn into a stomach churning experience for members or a headache for the mods who already have enough on their plates. I know I've raised some questions without really proposing any obvious answers; I don't think there are any easy answers.
Finally, it would be nice to see things loosen up a little...but not too much. The problem is, as always, how does "not too much" get defined and by whom?