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wiki/Community/Forum/Off-Topic/en.md

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 # Off-Topic
 
-<!-- TODO: A LOT could be written here: https://github.com/ppy/osu-wiki/issues/2804 -->
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 [**Off-Topic**](https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/52) is a forum meant for the community to have conversations without any particular topic in focus. Threads can often be random, change topic, and/or have multiple topics simultaneously. Topics can range anything from daily life, opinions about the game, role play, jokes and meta content, nonsense, or anything in between.
+
+## History
+
+The [General Discussion](https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/7) subforum initially hosted any gameplay unrelated topic the people wanted to talk about. As forum games started polluting the subforum, people suggested making a separate subforum for "self perpetuating threads" [[1]](#references). On 19 February 2009 [peppy](/wiki/People/peppy) created the suggested subforum named *Forum Games/Random* [[2]](#references) [[3]](#references).
+
+The new subforum created a distinction that *General Discussion* is to be used for serious discussions while *Forum Games/Random* is to be used for forum games and non-serious discussions. Given the nature of the *Forum Games/Random* subforum, people would often interrupt games hosted with random conversations [[4]](#references). On 2 February 2010, *Forum Games/Random* was renamed to *Off-Topic* and the *Forum Games* subforum was created [[5]](#references).
+
+Two more subforum would later be created: *Mafia* subforum on 14 September 2011, and *Surveys* subforum on 5 March 2014.
+
+## Traditions and culture
+
+### Valhalla
+
+Given the nonsensical nature of OT, majority of threads and discussions carried out in the subforum are of very poor quality. Threads are rarely considered great, but when they are it is said to have reached valhalla.
+
+The term was first used by [Ephemeral](https://osu.ppy.sh/users/102335) in the [ITT: We're Dirty](https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/topics/40298) thread, and subsequently a few time after. Since then others people in the subforum have adopted the term.
+
+### Old Avatar Week
+
+Old Avatar Week as an annual event in celebration of the upcoming new year. On December 28 of every year people would change their avatar to one of their older one for one week. This would remind OT regulars of an older time when the person had the avatar, giving a sense of reflection between current times and older times like the transition from the old year to the new year.
+
+### Dancing anime girls
+
+People in the early off-topic days occasionally created threads dedicated to dancing anime girls. If a thread was bad then posting a few dancing anime girls made it better. When people started making threads about quitting OT and actually not quitting, people took that as attention grabbing and posted dancing anime girls to change thread's topic. Eventually posting dancing anime girls on any goodbye or welcome thread was a common thing to do, and thus solidifying as a tradition [[6]](#references).
+
+On 9 June 2017 [Ephemeral](https://osu.ppy.sh/users/102335) asserted slightly different version of the tradition into the [off-topic rules](https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/topics/604424) by requiring people to post no less than 3 dancing anime girls on birthday threads. This made its way to the osu!'s official rules [[7]](#references) up until 11 November 2019 when it was removed in a [cleanup effort](https://github.com/ppy/osu-wiki/pull/2655). As of writing the rule still stands in the off-topic subforum's rules.
+
+
+### Exile
+
+Exile is an unofficial moderation concept introduced by [Ephemeral](https://osu.ppy.sh/users/102335) in [the grand edict thread](https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/topics/604424) in response to people repeatedly spamming the subforum and creating otherwise annoying content. The exile system is enforced by moderation by removing any thread, and sometimes posts, by the person who is exiled. It serves as an indicator that the person is on the verge of being heavily sanctioned by more official means of moderation.
+
+### Denizen
+
+Since the off-topic subforum is composed of mostly the same regulars chatting among themselves in threads, everyone comes to know one another other. Those who stick around long enough to be considered regulars are called "denizen". While this term was first used by [Ephemeral](https://osu.ppy.sh/users/102335) in [this thread](https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/posts/1607086), it was not adopted by regulars until its popularization by the [OT!News thread series](https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/topics/577518).
+
+### OT Lore
+
+OT Lore is an effort started by [abraker](https://osu.ppy.sh/users/4635891) and perpetuated by other denizens to create a story narrative consisting out of various threads people in OT create. The culmination of this effort was compiled into the [OT!Chronicles](https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/posts/6230570), and shaped a time period of OT which consisted of many improvised roleplay related threads.
+
+### Thread Derails
+
+Thread derailment is common in OT due to the definition of its nature - "Off-topic". This means a thread created with a topic in mind cannot be expected to remain on that topic.
+
+## Notable threads
+
+Despite majority of OT being nonsense and misc content of unimportance, there are some notable mentions for people unfamiliar with the subforum to check out.
+
+### OT!News series
+
+This series of threads is a great way to get a sense of the highs and lows of OT without seeing most of the nonsense.
+
+https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/posts/5942617
+
+### OT COURT II: A-Breaking Laboratory & R.O.S.Q. vs Asht. Co
+
+OT Court is OT Lore material involving a detailed imitation of an actual trial. Its organization was improvised on the spot and, against all odds, it successfully lasted from beginning to end without lost of interest or being derailed.
+
+https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/posts/6956061
+
+### Tad the Tadpole
+
+This is a joke thread turned in OT Lore material. It is a great example of how denizens can create jokes threads about each other and then proceed to build narrative off the resulting interactions. It also demonstrate the unpredictable nature of how threads evolve and the nonsensical randomness that may come out of it.
+
+https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/posts/7126163
+
+
+### Testing
+
+OT Lore material that creates an interesting improvised narrative involving a mega-teletubby god that wrecks havoc upon OT and denizen efforts to destroy it.
+
+https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/posts/7549082
+
+
+# References
+
+1. [Discussion for making a new subforum for forum games](https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/posts/80316)
+
+2. [ppy's announcement of the new subforum](https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/posts/8814)
+
+3. [Mention of off-topic subforum's old name](https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/posts/132900)
+
+4. [Mention how forum games were being trolled](https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/posts/313614)
+
+5. [People's reactions to the off-topic subforum change](https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/posts/316732)
+
+6. [abraker's research regarding the dancing anime girl birthday thread tradition](https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/topics/1525770)
+
+7. [Aug 17 2022 capture of osu! official rules ](http://web.archive.org/web/20170817161329/http://osu.ppy.sh/help/wiki/Rules)