I recently found that a lot of community-, device-, Maemo- or Nokia-related threads disappear from my radar because they get dumped in the "Off Topic" section.

As I type this, the first two pages in "Off Topic" includes threads such as:

• Poll: Will this be your last Nokia product?
• N900 will be history in 6months!
• Nokia Q42009 and whole 2009 Finacial Results Call (live webcast )
• Poll: Nokia Internet Tablets Poll: What do you own?
• Left IT at home
• Women Executives at Nokia (Multi-page thread 1 2 )
• Is nokian910.com an official site?
• Q4 2009 N900s Shipped Sweepstake
• linux on nokia booklets
• I offer myself as developer if..
• Network, Country, Plan, Price?
• N900 is made for TRUE MEN!!
• n900 criticism
• Erroneous update notifications from "My Nokia"
• I hate when articles mislead people on the N900
• ARToolkit...
• round 1 Nokia wins
• Whats your ringtone
• Bug 55378008 - bugteam overworked

Most of them should be in "General", some in "Community", a lot in "N900", one or two even in "Maemo 5".

What's going on here? Is this a hidden spam filter going nuts? Please keep threads that aren't off topic at all out of the "Off Topic" section.

I have presented this issue to the moderator/admin group.

i only noticed a few that should be off topic. the others have nothing to do with the n900. what exactly is the criteria for off topic? rumors about new phones, ringtones, phone plans etc, are they not off topic?

It depends-- and largely on how broad an individual's scope is for what's ON topic.

I see anything Nokia-specific as on topic of some sort, and same goes for new devices, phone plans, etc. Off Topic to me is the weather, jokes, family, etc. But some obviously disagree. That's why I'm trying to get moderator consensus. One way or another we need this resolved, and made clear. I'd even go so far as to add a bit more text to the subforum descriptions.

The question I wonder is how many of those were moved off-topic by a mod.. and how many were started in off topic by users..

exactly. the point is: this community shares a common interest in maemo, maemo devices, using maemo devices, the future of maemo, .... - things like data plans and ring tones are about using maemo devices. nokias plans for symbian and nokias market share are about the future of maemo devices. articles spreading rumors about maemo, nokia sending false update notifications (!),... how could any of that be off topic? if even android and apple is considered on topic, because there's a sub-forum "competitors"?

"off topic" can only be things that really have no relation to maemo, nokia, the daily use of maemo and maemo devices etc etc. - when i find a performance of "kristina fran duvemala" on youtube and want to share it with you, that's off topic.

Off-topic is a place where you are less likely to be flamed for posting, which makes it attractive.

Did you know that overcrowded rats get into a state in which they devour the first one that moves? True.

As human's we are more civilized.

I'll start the vote:

I say we eat geneven. Takers?

I'm concerned he may be bitter and overripe.

Wow. Sounds like this thread itself should be moved to of-topic

On a serious note, I think the labelling and clear classification would be a good idea, but I don't see it solving the issue completely (when do people ever read instructions, anyway)...