I think the practical result of all these moves is that the Manjaro Team must be prepared to bear more of the burden of helping newcomers if fewer experienced members, who don’t actually need to visit the forums for help, are around to offer their help.
I’m surprised at that direction because that’s more work on the Team, but based on the last post of the locked General Discussion thread, that’s what they are willing to undertake.
Fair enough.
I think I can summarize — quite succinctly — what’s been going on here.
This doesn’t seem to just be “We don’t have an off-topic so let’s bitch about it” even though that’s basically what we’ve been doing. The core issue at hand is for those who are less inclined to provide direct assistance, they feel like, without expressing as such, that there is some ongoing war between logical and creative thinkers.
For the logical, they strive for a constant signal-to-noise ratio of 100:0. They want to provide clean answers without much fuss. They would rather work with code than to pick up a digital paintbrush.
For the creative, they’d rather wax philosophy, make art and even though they may not directly provide answers for people seeking help, create answers to their own questions based on their own discovery. While not strictly those who work with code — some creatives don’t even play with code — they use tools made by logical thinkers to create their work.
The creatives are asking for culture — begging, pleading, to be the culture — in a land they’re under the impression is stifling creativity because creativity doesn’t produce quality results quickly. To many strictly-logical thinkers, they want to muck things up and make a mess of a surface they’ve worked so hard to keep clean and pristine. Why throw paint on the floor if someone behind them has to mop it up?
As for me, I’m the sorry lad who’s stuck between them both. I am not a strictly logical thinker. I can’t help as many people as I would love to due to a lack of experience with many problems people have. Though, for what I do know, I strive to make my primary art — writing and presentation — of use by developing informative and clearly-formatted prose explaining resolutions to issues I’ve encountered.
Based upon what I’ve been observing, that makes me a sub-par user here. I shouldn’t be feeling that way, but that’s the impression I’ve been receiving. And from what I had observed, I am not the only one feeling like they’re being punished for daring to even breathe on any of the currently-sanitized surfaces here.
Exactly, plus they are proprietary piece of unicorns.
The now-archived forums had some really good threads in OT. One of my personal favorites was the thread with “Lesser known apps” amongst many others. I really don’t think it is as binary as you say. Both topics have their own significance. Sometimes a relevant piece of news can lead to some really good discussions.
Sure, we have reddit, twitter and what-not for our social cravings. But it really isn’t the same. I think people’s behaviour also change as per the platform. I don’t remember the term that is used for this (hawthorne effect? I don’t remember). But the point is, this community is different, the people are awesome and off-topic is usually informative and/or fun.
(OT) I absolutely love the new dark theme on the forums than the previous dark (read gray) theme.
A few years ago, when I was a Windows User, I was just that: A user. Nothing more. Then I came to Linux, especially to Manjaro, and I became more than a user. I became a part of a community! But you have to communicate with each other in a community.
So I regularely read the old Manjaro Forum mainly Off-Topic topics and made some posts. Then I checked the New Threads section and sometimes I saw a problem where I had the feeling that I could possibly help. (I am not an expert, so I was glad when I sometimes found a solution).
But without Off-topic it will be dull to check the forum and I think that I am not alone with this feeling. People will stay away or check less often. That has also a negative effect for users searching for help.
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/favorite-lesser-known-apps/5481
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/favorite-lesser-known-commands/5494
These still exist and can give ideas to try useful new things.
IMHO just posting screenshots is irrelevant by ex. Though, tips or tutorials for tinkering (I would love to try KDE but each time, I feel overwhelmed the first minutes and come back to familiar good ol’ Cinnamon) could be useful. Dock customizations, applets/desklets review, KDE/Gnome tips… seem more useful, as it has a purpose, not just showing off the prettiest desktop.
Since Manjaro forum is a community forum, I think it would be best that a poll is created with the question:
Should the forum have an off-topic section?
Then a disision is made based on the outcome.
Seems logical to me.
Manjaro Team is the host and users are guests. That’s how many see the relationship. We want to be welcoming hosts, of course. But for now we wanted to set the limits that there is no Off-Topic section.
You’re assuming he was being annoying at all, much less on purpose. He wasn’t. Oh by the way this isn’t some insurance or greeting card company. It’s not process a thousand claims / create a thousand greeting cards this month or you’re fired. we are here to help the best we can ob OUR OWN time. So if we want a off topic section to give our brains a bit of a rest we should have it.
@Hebgbs not going to cover your entire post, just going to point out without the creative individual the logical individual is COMPLETELY worthless.
I think you meant “So if we want a off topic section to give our brains a bit of a rest we should feel we can ask for it, and be upset if we don’t get it, but will move on with our lives”. Otherwise, as I said in the screenshot forum request thread… I would not be surprised if the response you get from any of team green is:
Once you’ve developed your own fork of Arch, set-up the infrastructure to do so and host a support forum for that OS, then you can decide what forum categories there are!
Edit: Lets see if I beat 
I know how good the community has become in helping! I noticed it in my own workload.
It is a balance act between your rest, the moderators’ unrest and the overall productivity of the forum. As some correctly pointed out, not providing Off-Topic will result in many helpers leaving the forum. The question is: Will it become less effective in providing support to the extent that we will regret it? Will it also reduce the aggregate happiness of the community? I think it’s no in both cases. The quality will probably stay the same. Those who like off-topic will find other sources of joy elsewhere. Those who don’t like it will be happier.
I see you are thinking in the same ways that I do 
I like that
and I am really suprised how much time the team is donating to replying on the “rude guests” post, to take @eugen-b 's phrase:
It is a community not a slave factory, stop treating it like one.
If you don’t want to support a technical forum without being able to do your facebook/instagram/reddit stuff on a technical support forum, you should really leave. This forum is the wrong place for you obviously.
Perhaps midway @BS86 
I can say I would like to see the Off Topic category present, but can understand the reasons that the Manjaro Team are against it, and that it is their prerogative as the forum hosts to not have it. Doesn’t mean I won’t moan and whine about it, but I won’t belabour the point too far (on forum, anyway, didn’t stop me poking Bogdan via PM 
)
I agree with @linesma. People hang around on the forum reading something interesting so that when new questions pop up, they can be answered as soon as possible. The new post design showing at the right side of the main page of the forum is good, but without a hook to attract experienced users to stay online, fewer volunteers to help the others.
The first is an example of a typical off-topic post. Some news about MS or Google. The most informative and compelling answers: “I always told you they will conquer and destroy Linux.” “I’ve been using the Tor browser whole of my life exactly for those reasons.”
The second is an example of topics on the Manjaro forum which are interesting for me presonally.
Sorry but the average person WILL navigate towards the off-topic / nonsensible post to give their brain a rest.
well, people using middle-finger-icons and poop-icons on posts instead of arguments only proof that one is right anyway 
Let’s see how much longer this topic goes before it is closed ^^
I won’t waste my time here in this offtopic thread any longer but will continue to look into the “latest” category more often, because here on the new forum, there is no off-topic cluttering my primary starting point of my check for topics that might need my help.
If I want to rest my brain, I use sites that are designed for that, like 9gag, youtube, netflix, reddit and such.
Delusional much? Don’r answer cause we already know the answer.