We have long allowed birthday wishes, festivals, national holidays, and other off-topic discussions to feature in our forums, with the hope that these shared identities will bring Koders closer as one Community. While they did not directly add to the knowledge-base of the Community, they indirectly helped members talk about their interests and passions, which in turn encouraged a greater contribution to discussions.
Unfortunately, at some point in the past few months, our leniency was falsely conflated to a disrespect for the rules and etiquette expectations in the Community. From immature ad-hominem attacks on users to inappropriate content being posted, we have seen a rise in the deviation from the core principles our Community believes in. These incidents not only lower the bar for discussion in our forums, but also encourage others to break these rules themselves with no fear of consequences.
Note that we used to encourage off-topic discussion in the past when it encouraged community involvement. For instance, I had posted a topic on behalf of the staff for India’s Independence Day 2017/18 (I can’t recollect now which it was)
Unfortunately, the purpose of off-topic discussions changed somewhere the past few months, where they stopped contributing to the spirit of the Community. This is why we felt the need to disable the category entirely