In the context of
mailing lists,
discussion groups
A focus group is a group interview involving a small number of demographically similar people or participants who have other common traits/experiences. Their reactions to specific researcher/evaluator-posed questions are studied. Focus groups are ...
,
discussion forums,
bulletin board
A bulletin board (pinboard, pin board, noticeboard, or notice board in British English) is a surface intended for the posting of public messages, for example, to advertise items wanted or for sale, announce events, or provide information. B ...
s,
newsgroup
A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically disti ...
s, and
wikis a contribution is off-topic if it is not within the bounds of the current discussion, and on-topic if it is.
Even on very specialized forums and lists, off-topic posting is not necessarily frowned upon, but a common
netiquette convention is to mark a new off-topic posting or email by beginning it with "OT"
''"It is appreciated if articles that have absolutely nothing to do with Tolkien have subject lines beginning with "OT:" ("Off Topic")."''
The Tolkien Newsgroups FAQ - for example in a forum discussing the Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...
operating system someone might post: "OT: Did anyone else see that giant skunk?".
Posting off-topic messages to deliberately aggravate other members is a form of trolling.
See also
* Netiquette
References
External links
NewsReaders.com: Getting Started: NetiquetteOff Topic Forum
Internet forum terminology
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ru:Сетевой этикет#Оффтопик