A question often asked: The short answer is, we tried things that way, and it did not work well. So we changed to something that works better. ##windows now regularly has 400 or more people in it, and has fairly regular activity 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When we were a much smaller channel, we did allow off-topic chat, and things worked fine most of the time. But as the channel grew, we began seeing problems with off-topic chat. Here are a few that we remember:
One other point: surprisingly often, people ask off-topic questions in our channels because, in their words, "there is no channel suitable to my question." We're sorry about that, and gratified that these folks find us so helpful with Windows that they want our help with other things. But let's be realistic: the lack of a more suitable channel does not magically transform us into a catch-all channel for every question under the sun. Ultimately, we want our ##windows channels to be known as places where you can get knowledgeable discussion and help about Windows. We are not a general entertainment chat channel. So please, stay on topic. For other topics, you can probably find or start channels that work well. |
Channel Guidelines > topic-guidelines >