Hi All! I’m still finding my way around here and have had some posts moved to other forums which I understand after the fact 
. Today though, I did a favorite theme songs under IMHO. The description says what’s your favorite… Anyway, it got moved to Cafe Society. I don’t want to keep posting in the wrong places. Thanks!
Sorry, so my question, how do I know where to post. I mean other than GQ which is for factual answers. Can’t believe I forgot to include the question.
I’m fairly new here but I’ll give a shot at a quick summary of what is not obvious, I may learn something too…
Cafe Society is all arts stuff, and that overrides other considerations.
The Pit is all sweary stuff, again overriding other considerations.
The difference between Great Debates and IMHO is fuzzy, based on seriousness of the topic and anticipated level of discourse, I guess. But bear in mind that some sub-forums do have slightly different ROE, to be found in stickies.
A slightly counterintuitive one is the MPSIMS includes breaking news threads.
There’s a GQ rule that you should wait for a few serious answers before posting snark, and avoid partisan politics there.
Riemann, thanks, that helps, I think 
. I just need to remember Cafe Society is artsy stuff. I can see where IMHO and Great Debates could get murky sometimes. I guess I’ll be keeping the mods busy moving my stuff now and then.
It makes a bit more sense if you know the history of the board. Originally, there was no Cafe Society and no games forums and no elections forum. Those were all split off of other forums because there were so many posts on those topics that they became a bit overwhelming for the other forums, or in the case of Cafe Society because there wasn’t a good place to discuss artsy stuff.
Originally, Cafe Society was mostly just to discuss the creative side of things. Once we started putting posts about music, the enjoyment of food, etc. there, then other topics that may have been just opinions or maybe something factual just made more sense to go there as well. So factual questions about food tend to go in Cafe Society even though they aren’t about the enjoyment of food, just because that’s where all of the foodies hang out. Similarly, a question about what’s your favorite musical group goes in Cafe Society now just because all of the other musical related stuff tends to go there.
There are always exceptions. For example, we’ve had questions in GQ about games that were left in GQ because they were more concerned with the physics involved than the rules of the game. There have been recent questions about the US elections that have been in most forums, GQ for factual questions about the electoral college for example, IMHO for opinions on the election process, etc.
And in all cases, the line between each forum can be a bit fuzzy. If all else fails, take your best guess as to which forum to post it in. It’s no big deal to have your thread moved if we decide it belongs in a different forum.
It helps to read the descriptions on the main SDMB page, too.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=15
For example, Cafe Society:
“Our salon for art, drama, literature, movies, music, comics, cuisine – all the artistic disciplines – if it’s about creativity, entertainment, or leisure, it goes here.”
Thanks! I appreciate the advice.
As I understand it, this is a common misconception, but has never been true. Any thread can contain any amount of swearing in any forum as long as it’s not personally insulting a SDMB member or staff.
Fuckin’ ay! 
Not really true. Occasional profanity/obscenity is no big deal, but a GQ post that consisted mostly of swearing would not be appropriate. Outside the Pit, we expect conversations to be kept reasonably civil.