Sandbox rules too restrictive to allow general chat?

[fly]

Hi moderator,

Ref. to your reply in the Sandbox, that "General chats on email or on other sites please", but isn't that where "anything goes"? I guess it's a fine line between general chats and some of the existing topics in the Sandbox already, some of these seem to fall into the "general chat" category (i.e. pickup lines, jokes, etc.), no?

[KnowItAll]

The only problem is that I do not want this to degrade into 200 post discussions on what people had for lunch. This in our viewpoint is a huge problem with some of the other sites that seem to be popular with the monday morning and friday afternoon crowds.

I don't mind some banter.. something funny, but "hi how are you type things are best left to private messages, emails and other sites".

[fly]

That's fair, it doesn't sound very interesting if that is what is might degenerate into... but there's also the chance that it might turn into something more interesting. I guess given the nature of chat, combined with the medium itself, anything is possible (hence "anything goes"), maybe you can consider shutting down a thread if it does turn towards a downward spiral, but give it a chance first before seeing where it goes? It may turn into some funny banter that has got nothing at all to do with lunch perhaps.

[Angie]

fly, I am on your side!

[KnowItAll]

Fly, been there done that. We've been running forums since '97 and know what works far better than most people give us credit.

We will continue to close threads and prune where required.