Your comparison is apples and oranges. If you're just having a general conversation with friends, then a topic can shift at any given time without consequence. However, forums have a structure, and topics ask you to discuss about the subject itself. By telling people to remain on-topic, you keep the conversations clean, organized, and not intrusive for the mods. If there's no on-topic rule for the forums, then the forum is poorly organized, and the staff will have a complete headache on their hands.

If your answer to the OP or person you're quoting deviates away from the topic, then maybe it's best not to respond at all in the thread.

Your comparison is apples and oranges. If you're just having a general conversation with friends, then a topic can shift at any given time. However, forums have a structure, and topics ask you to discuss about the subject itself. By telling people to remain on-topic, you keep the conversations clean, organized, and not intrusive for the mods. If there's no on-topic rule for the forums, then the forum is poorly organized, and the staff will have a complete headache on their hands.

At no point during my blog post did I so much as mention fruits.  Of any kind.  Your comment under my blog post pointing out the silliness of off-topic is, itself, off-topic and therefore threatens the continued survival of the planet on which we reside.

And it's more to do with the strict and seemingly whim-motivated enforcement of that rule or how it stifles conversation and self-expression in a public venue that is supposedly devoted to those two things.

At no point during my blog post did I so much as mention fruits. Of any kind.

"Apples and oranges" is an idiom to describe a fallacy. You're comparing two things that can't be compared.

But I did compare them.

Therefore they can be compared; my blog post proves it.

Apples and oranges are similarly comparable; they're both fruits.  They're both edible.  They both contain seeds.  Both can be thrown at passers-by.  Juice might be derived from either.

But let's address the real issue: Why are you so obsessed with fruits?  You're almost as pointlessly and detrimentally obsessed with fruits as forum staff are with this amorphous, communication-strangling concept of "on-topic."

"Apples and oranges" is an idiom to describe a fallacy. You're comparing two things that can't be compared.

They're both fruits.

They're both fruits.

Fruits that are so different from each other, it makes no sense to compare them.

Therefore they can be compared; my blog post proves it.

You compared them, and your comparison makes absolutely no sense, hence the name of the idiom (an idiom you badly misinterpreted).

In real life, conversation is allowed to be fluid. When you're merely chatting with friends or family, you have all the time and room to chat from one topic to another. But on forums, this casual conversation is completely inappropriate. An Internet forum is like a discussion with the text in the OP as a mediator. You're asking a question, and others answer and discuss.

Let's say, for example, a thread asking for the most cringeworthy moment in FIM history. If someone posted something about a funny moment or if the conversation turned into one about being the funniest moment, then that's going off-topic and making the thread disorganized.

There are reasons why it's important for forums to be organized. Solid organization keeps it clean and fun for not only the mods, but everyone here. Having topics be one gigantic conglomerate of discussions is poor organization, and it translates to the mods not giving a damn about the forums.

But let's address the real issue: Why are you so obsessed with fruits?

If you want an honest discussion, don't twist points to make yourself look better, and be careful not to pull fallacies like this loaded question. It kills your opinion, shows lack of sincerity to your points, and it makes others not want to talk to you at all.

When posting in a thread it's best to talk about the subject at hand. There's a difference from going slightly off-topic (but still within the subject matter) for one or two posts than for an entire page or more is more than likely a problem and just messes everything up. 

There's a difference between posting in a thread about your favorite episode and mentioning why the episode works so well than posting in the same thread and mentioning why a specific season is your favorite, it's off topic, doesn't belong and even has its own thread. 

So...basically everything Dark said, lol. 

If you want an honest discussion, don't twist points to make yourself look better, and be careful not to pull fallacies like this loaded question. It kills your opinion, shows lack of sincerity to your points, and it makes others not want to talk to you at all.

I'd be perfectly fine with your not wanting to talk to me lol.  I find you exceedingly dry; you're so serious that I can't take you seriously.  You approach a topic with this humorless, pretentious, and inappropriate gravity.  Do you think yourself a judge with the final say on the opinions of others?  You're far too certain, and I distrust that.  Certainty is oft the companion of narrow-mindedness.  I'm certain of very little, and I don't take myself seriously enough to attempt and "make myself look better."  You're a self-limiting individual who seemingly relishes his chains and seeks to throw them upon others.  You seem preoccupied with structure and order; things that are, in and of themselves, fallacious.  Feigned and imagined and held in too high regard.

Incoming disillusion: Yours was a flavorless comment under a blog post on a pony forum.  Know your surroundings, Mr. Dirk Caveat.  And don't, by any means, make some effort at banter; it might threaten your air of infallibility and actually make people want to talk to you.

When posting in a thread it's best to talk about the subject at hand. There's a difference from going slightly off-topic (but still within the subject matter) for one or two posts than for an entire page or more is more than likely a problem and just messes everything up. 

 

There's a difference between posting in a thread about your favorite episode and mentioning why the episode works so well than posting in the same thread and mentioning why a specific season is your favorite, it's off topic, doesn't belong and even has its own thread. 

 

So...basically everything Dark said, lol. 

He prefers to be called "Dirk."  He told me so. < _<

At what point, though, does the world explode?  As a result of exploring something not strictly falling under the parameters set by the OP.  WHY is it "best?"  Is your idea of best the best idea of best? xD  Aren't these things entirely opinion-based and subjective?  They must be: Because I disagree with you.

I, fool that I am, expect something more.  And simultaneously, something less.  I expect more freedom - and less arbitrary scolding and subsequent punishment.  It belittles creativity and favors the contrived.  More fluidity - and less illusion surrounding the importance of order and unfailing seriousness.  This is a pony forum.  Just how seriouslessly and precisely and consistently can we - or should we - discuss something that was, to the best of my knowledge, founded on none of those things?  Seriousness, precision, and consistency.  Boring and boring-er and boring-est (arguably).

Though I do thank you for your comment.  Despite your agreeing with Dirk Caveat. xD

You know, the other day, i mixed some apple juice with some orange juice. It was nice really, tho it had a weird after taste -- i blame the orange tbh. I still drank it tho, i was able to stomach the apple-orange fusion drink, and you know what? Im still alive. This is a good thing.

When posting in a thread it's best to talk about the subject at hand. There's a difference from going slightly off-topic (but still within the subject matter) for one or two posts than for an entire page or more is more than likely a problem and just messes everything up. 

an entire thread i was on got locked for off topice when a guy said you won the internet have a cookie and I simply asked what kind of cookie...