Posting from the GalCiv forum, I see pretty much the same problem. I see no reason I'll ever participate in a forum game and wish they'd stop pushing the GalCiv-related posts off the page. I suggest that the Off-Topic forums be made into a completely separate forum from the various 'game forums'. Of course I know nothing about web design and how inconvenient this may be... but I do feel it's needed.

Although I have to ask the OP: isn't it a little ironic that you posted this in the Off-Topic section?

Well, I wouldn't put it quite that strongly... judging from all the responses they get, they must be quite popular... but I want them to stop getting in the way of the stuff I care about!

meh, maybe. i posted it here because this was the forum it was concerned about. it makes the most sence too.  I mean, where else would you put it? not only that, but at least everyone else can see this post too, and most importantly, apparently, sins is not the only subforum with this issue.

That fine but keep them in YOUR "My Replies" and out of MY "Recent Posts"

Their not YOUR 'Recent Posts'

Its the FORUMS 'Recent Posts'

More like recent spam

Zombie - funny as hell +1. All the spam on 1 horrible sandwich 

Double post again... stupid "Forums Go Boom".

Yeah... but it'd be more convenient. I mean, you can tweak other aspects of the forums when logged on. A filter just seems like a natural idea. I can say with confidence that I will never post in the vast majority of off-topic (or for that matter, PC gaming) threads - so why can't I just filter them out somehow?

I doubt that anything will come of this - the Forums Go Boom problem is FAR more annoying and there's no sign Stardock will ever do anything about that - but it would be nice. I don't think Off-Topic threads should be removed from the recent posts completely (i.e. for all users) - but when logged in, I should have a way to get rid of them myself. I can just go to the forums I'm actually interested in - but I shouldn't have to.

.. offtopic takes up 1/3 of 1 recent page list at MOST, even @ peek hours.  To actually be thrown off the recent post list entirely, that would be 3 pages worth of off topic threads bumped continuously, and that definitely is not the case.  No need to exaggerate your opinion, it only hurts your point.

I used to say the same thing 2 years ago. Now if you eliminated the Off-topic forum there would hardly be anything left.

However now that Bara has implemented the "bubble up" feature you can sort of do this yourself.

If you go into "My Account" and click on the "Options" tab you'll see the "Flatten Forum Categories" 2nd from the top. Click this and then when you monitor a specific forum you will also see any threads from any subforums.

This is not a perfect solution however it is a solution. The problem I always had with simply monitoring the GalCiv II forum (https://forums.galciv2.com/forum/162) was that sure I could see only the activity in the GalCiv II forum however if I also wanted to see any of the activity in any of the 11 GalCiv II related subforums then I would have to monitor each and every one of them one at a time.

So in the case of GalCiv2 you could use the "Flatten Forum Categories" and then only have to monitor the following 3 forums and you would be guaranteed to see everything GalCiv2 related and never have to view another Off-Topic or Impulse thread again.

GalCiv II and 11 subforums (https://forums.galciv2.com/forum/162)

GalCiv Dev Journals (https://forums.galciv2.com/forum/164)

GalCiv II News (https://forums.galciv2.com/forum/161)

On the Sins site it's even easier. Just monitor the main Sins Forum which will also show all activity from the 12 different Sins subforums and the Sins Clans forum if that interests you as well.

Sins of a Solar Empire and 12 subforums (https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/forum/402)

Sins Clans and Recruitment subforum (https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/forum/410)

And voila, no more Off-topic threads to scroll by to push off the threads that you're actually interested in.

Of course the problem is that most people *say* they don't want to view the Off-topic threads but in reality are drawn to them like a train wreck. So if you *really* want to avoid them and just view the things that you're interested in then here's a way to do it. Just don't be too surprised when you still find yourself perusing the Recent Topics list for something to get pissed off about.

I really dislike the Off-topic spam posts. It really does detract from my ability to quickly see if anything new has popped up. Flattening forums also fails to be good solution to the problem.

It has been defined at the highest levels (i.e. Brad) that the Off-topic forum will be visible on pretty much all of Stardock's sites. Good luck changing that. The method I gave you is your only option, take it or leave it.

9 of 10 in recent.

In More Recent there were:

15 of the first 20,

20 of the total 40.

And most of them I care nothing about.

I have nothing against Off-Topic being in the Recent list. But I do not like all the fluff garbage spam that comes with it. How about a little moderator help in deleting the truly stupid threads?