I am pleased to announce that we now have an Off-Topic category in the gallery.  You may use it to share photos that you feel would be of interest to the group that are not directly related to lighting.  The Off-Topic forum will remain available as well.  As with lighting-related content, use the gallery when a picture is the primary focus and use the forum for topics that are not specific to a single image.

The administrators reserve the right to remove photos from Off-Topic gallery at any time for any reason.  Every now and then we may need to clear out the off-topic gallery in order to conserve server space.  Photos that we deem to be offensive, controversial, or otherwise inappropriate may be deleted as well.  We will send you a warning if we feel your pictures are unacceptable.  To avoid any surprises, please ask if you are unsure whether or not a picture is appropriate for the site.  Continue to report any concerns about off-topic pictures like you would for any others.

Given that the primary focus of this site remains lighting, we will not display Off-Topic photos on the home page, or in main sections of the gallery such as Last Uploads or Last Comments.  Off-Topic pictures will only appear in the sitewide Off-Topic album and on member album pages.  From this point forward, we will be taking a stricter stance on off-topic content posted outside of the Off-Topic gallery or Off-Topic forum.  If you have existing photos are are not lighting-related, please re-categorize them when you have a chance.  We expect all newly uploaded photos to be placed in the correct categories.

Nice! Looks to have been implemented pretty seamlessly.

So is it safe to assume that, due to server space, photos uploaded there are only going to be temporary?

Fascinating. 

I moved all of my off-topic videos and pictures to the off-topic gallery within just ~2 mins, by using the Edit Files, which allows editing several pictures in the gallery at the same time.

Done mine took 2 mins only a few

If admin needs to delete my off topic ones at any time due to space be my guest but let me know.

Dan

If off topic pictures dont appear in the gallery, how are other members expected to notice them ? (How can i point them to those pictures in a non obtrusive way, ie. not as in linking to them from a post on some other member's lighting related picture)

Maybe add a bottom-of-page section (below all the lighting related) that does show off topic too ?

You go to the off-topic page and look. The whole point of its design is to be inconspicuous, hence not being on the front page.

There is a thing that got me asking

I sometimes do post pics that are a "reply" to other pics, as in - Somebody posted a pic of something, and i post a pic of how the same thing is made over here

Earlier today i had a discussion in a light related (nonOT) picture that went on to types of cables, so i posted a couple pics of mine. But those are pics of cables, not of lights

If the pics would appear, i assume the others with which i was doing the discussion that went on to cables (and to them the picture is targeted), can just happen to come across them in the main page and have a look. But if they dont visit the OT section specifically, the pics are in a sense "wasted"....

And i dont want to share the link to my pics in an obtrusive way, such as posting yet another post in the other member's pic (which is lighting related) just for that. I think editing my last existing post and adding the link is a good option, but in the general case it might not always be (for example, if i have not had an existing post in there)