It seems that it isn't the case, General Discusion IS off-topic, but without the completely uselesss silly shit.
Like, "here you can talk about other cool things", which is why I thought threads like the photography one should be there.

I'm not campaigning for an off topic forum just wondering what the reasoning behind not having one was.

My logic goes something like this and I admit its largely a semantic difference but forums are generally centered around a theme, in this case obviously chip music. "General Discussion" implies general discussion about said theme and off topic implies discussion about anything other than that theme. If moderation is geared more toward common sense and interesting discussion > being incredibly strict about being on topic, thats just peachy keen for me.

I just looked at the categories forum are splitted in, and maybe what would be cool is a few relocations of forums.
I am totally missing the point of the graphic design forum, to neme it'd be part of general talk (stuff people might want to talk about but it's not a core element of chipmusic).

It would be good that recent posts can be configured so certain forums are not shown (like a "show me all new messages but ignore this forum" sort of thing)

I am a graphic designer as well. That has nothing to do with the point I made.
It is not a parallel to chipmusic. Hairs, you guys are splitting
Just put itin General Discussion and it's fine, it's what that forum is about, isn't t?

Ditto.

"Graphics, Artwork & Design" doesn't have to be solely chip music-related. As the forum's introductory description states, "Chipmusic.org is an online community in respect and relation to chip music, art and its parallels.", photography and watches are related to chipmusic.org in the same way monks are related to beer.

Not to me actually, as a designer I found the watches nice / inspiring. so i dont know.

http://chipmusic.org/forums/post/2396/#p2396
No, really, please, give me a break.
This clearly goes in General Discussion.
The forum's title is being abused, I think.

Not a big deal to me, I mean yeah it might not fix completely, but we are trying to bring order to chaos here.

The photography thread is just a reflex of beign used to 8bc, where it was a subforum of GD.

There's no difference.
Also, why does the graphics forum, for example, now have a a photography thread? Wouldn't that be in General Discussion? How's that related to chipmusic? I am having a hard time trying to see the point of that in there. Perhaps those forums should be subforums of General Discussion...
oh well..

Answer: nothing

Can someone explain to me the categorical difference between General Discussion and Off Topic?

If people don't get so derailing as it turned in the other forum, everything is gonna be fine. Good off-topic threads, no bullshit. General Discussion is going pretty well (so is chipmusic.org)

With more members, come more threads, come a wider range of topics. But at the moment it's aiiighttt dawwg.

Right now, I don't miss any particular forums section. I think the 'merged' sections work pretty well.