I totally agree with you. No matter how much the polls say people want it, there will be no Sports Forum. And it will come up again in 6 months. It's cyclical, but this is the most powerful statement yet for a Sports Forum.

But TV and Video Games are not really off topic- at least not as off topic as Other, Books, and Sports.

This is a home theater site, that is centered around DVDs. DVDs are something that are displayed/used through home theaters. So are TV and Video Games. People watch TV on their home theater, and most play their Video games on their home theater, especially since some of the newer games are in surround sound. So those belong.

Book talk is only here because Geoff had a personal interest in it, and that's fine. He want's it, so it's there.

A ton of people want a sports forum, so Geoff should at least consider it seriously. But in the end it is his decision and his alone.

But the sub-forum argument you made just doesn't hold water for the reasons above. If sports is made a sub-forum of other, then there is no reason to change any of the other areas as TV and Video Games aren't off-topic and Books is there because Geoff wanted it.

I hate to disagree with you, as it sounds like (at least passively) you are in support of a Sports Forum, but TV Talk and Video Game Talk are just as "off topic" as Book Talk or Sports Talk. Let's be serious, here: in TV Talk, we discuss various television programs we enjoy watching. The fact that DVDs are often also displayed on television sets is on par with saying a Cardboard Forum would be "on topic" because DVDs are often shipped in cardboard boxes. In truth, there is no relation between any of the General Discussion forums and DVDs. They are there because we are a community, and supporting the community with a place to visit and discuss all our interests, not just DVDs, provides much more opportunity for the site to make money.

But I don't believe "on topic" has to be specifically tied to DVDs. Over time, the forums have evolved into all forms of Entertainment, with DVDs being the backbone. From a DVD perspective, TV Talk, Movie Talk, Video Game Talk are only related by the fact that they are sometimes sold on DVD. But, to be fair, so are sporting events. In fact, I own a healthy amount of sports-specific DVDs. But, more appropriately, they are forms of entertainment that the people who buy DVDs through Geoff's affiliate links happen to enjoy. Sports, for some reason, is the one main form of entertainment that is being ignored. It's no more on or off topic than the other General Discussion forums. That's why they're called General Discussion forums in the first place.

There are a few major forms of entertainment: film, television, print, music, gaming, and sports. While I'm sure you could argue "driving to the store" or "downloading pr0n" or "discussing politics" are "entertaining" it's really not the same thing. Professional sports is an entertainment industry, not unlike the others. Yet it gets no respect. All this talk of it being a sub-forum of Otter makes little sense to me. It belongs in General Discussion with the rest of the major forms of Entertainment.

Unfortunately, these are just wasted words in favor of something that appears destined not to be.

das

I stick to my original argument. But you do add a good point to it. This is a home theater site, which necissitates having forums to talk about entertainment. Not too many people are going to regularly post about the technical aspects of home theater and DVDs. Look how slow the DVD and Home Theater Hardware forum is and how few techinical threads there are in DVD Talk. There's only so many tech heads and people that want to brag about their setups to keep these kind of forums running.

People post on home theater forums to talk about the things that they enjoy on their home theaters -- movies, television, music, and video games. Hence those things are on-topic IMO.

This has nothing to do with Sports, I just felt the need to state that these topics deserve there own forums, as RandyC had called them off topic.

And to clarify, I'm strongly in support of a Sports forum. I enjoy the sports threads, but I know longer participate in them because I refuse to waste my time in Other any more. It's the most useless pile of banality on the Internet.

The main reason I got into home theater was I wanted a huge TV to watch football on Sundays. Laser Discs, then DVDs followed.

To be honest, the deciding factor in my purchasing a widescreen television is to watch football in HDTV. From the moment I saw a football trench stretched across that wide screen, I was sold. DVDs are great, and I love them ... but nothing compares to watching your favorite sporting event in massive scale.

das

das.....that is the best arguement I've heard so far. Very well put and thought out.

Just adding another voice to the cause... I'm definitely in favor of a sports forum... We have books, why not sports? To be honest, the sports threads are half of the reason that I even read the other forum threads... The weemin being the other reason of course...

now we just need a mod to change your no vote, to a yes vote in the poll

And while he's at it, perhaps he could create a Sports Forum!

das

i was about to say the same thing. to some of us sports is a bigger part of home theater than is dvd. i guess it's possible that there are people who watch a dvd every day...but my guess is that those people are in the minority. yet i'm certain that there are many of us who watch some kind of sporting event on a daily basis. and now with sports available in high definition (HDNET and some regional sports channels like MSG) watching our favorite teams in HD is actually more high tech than watching dvds with their puny 480 lines of (non-HD) resolution.

We DO hear the message loud and clear about adding a sports forum.

Please see my proposal on what were thinking of doing with OTHER and some reorginization of the forum (which includes adding some new forum areas)

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...46#post2328246

- Geoff

three cheers for geoff!

hip hip hooray!

Thanks Geoff.

All those changes look great. Especially the new areas and the new rule of all posts having to involve discussions.