like i said , tv film & books , sport ,off topic discussion for news stories current affairs etc & an unmoderated forum for general converstion & silly threads.

Mm hmm, I think a religious/political issues type thang would work well here. We need something like that... Except rules would have to be tighter there, people can get carried away.

I don't understand. By default the lounge is a designated area to discuss topics not related to music, but its fundamental purpose is its a place to relax and be more social than you would in a forum with focused discussion. If you create a bunch of forums within the lounge it ceases to be the lounge and a becomes just a "sub-message board". What is the difference between someone starting a thread about books, movies, etc. on their own accord in the lounge as it is, and someone doing the samething in a forum designated for that discussion. The difference is that the added structure of a sub-forum will lead to people becoming just as disgruntled in the lounge area as anywhere else on the forum. If you keep the lounge it will still serve as a respite for members who aren't about what's going on in the rest of the forum.

does this forum have a spam thread?

Right now, people are complaining because threads in the lounge are far too off-topic and end up in general spamming. If we put boundaries on the threads that go in there, in theory, they'll be more on-topic. Especially if, like Urban said, theres a sub-forum for general crap threads and spamming.

The idea of a "crap thread" sounds appealing. there's been many times where Ive had a random observation/revelation I've wanted to share but knew it was way too pointless to start a thread about. a spamming thread is a contradiction in terms. Spam is a blatantly off topic post. The idea of having a designated place for spamming seems appealing, but it will never work because usually when people spam its unintentional, and when it is intentional its usually by people who are only here with the intention of being a nuiisance to others and will inevitably get banned.

Maybe just set up a warning system for frequent spammers?

But if people do spam the main forum you`ll have the option of being able to move it somewhere rather than close it. Then if it turns back into an interesting thread you can place it back to the original forum , this eliminating the dilemma you spoke of earlier.

I don't know. If by spamming you mean 'hijacking' a thread, or meandering a bit off topic, well, I definitely do my fair share of that, and I'm pretty unapologetic about it. Anyone who is concerned about where a thread is going has the power to steer it back on topic by posting something relevant. On the other hand, there are people on this forum who simply use a thread as a vehicle to start off topic conversation and never seem to talk about music, or at least the topic they're spamming, and for those people, yeah, i think a some intervention is necessary.

I think there should be a warning system so the people know that there being bad and if the continue ban them.