Hmm.
I don't know about an OT forum. Personally I don't like them, and thought that IHAQ was an excellent alternative. Just enough OT to stop the place being sterile, without it being too much that it just becomes a general chat forum.
I never post in OT fora on other fora where I post. And it means there is a whole community - often with different people who only ever post OT - missed out by those who only post in the mainstream part.
Moreover, you end up with political and other bar-room arguments which lead to bad feeling and can be very difficult indeed to moderate.
Certainly don't have too many separate fora. Here is a forum with FIFTY ONE fora - quite ridiculous www.flyforums.co.uk/ . And for something that is supposed to be a "community" entire sections of community life can happen without other parts of the community knowing about it. That's 51 links to click and pages to load in order to find out what's happening... I think that two (or three) is absolutely more than enough.
Or at least, if you really must, have an option to view all threads on all fora at once.
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