In fact why is General Questions, In My Humble Opinion and Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share … a lot alike?
I know IMHO has polls, but I clicked on the wrong one and couldn’t find any where I had been till I realized they were different, but they sure looked the same.
Same zany people, same zany questions, same zany answers … I hope this doesn’t wind up in Great Debates 
They isn’t all that much alike, but people get careless about the distinction.
General Questions = “Hey guys, what do you know about this?”
IMHO = “Hey guys, what do you think about this?”
MPSIMS = “Hey guys, look at this!”
The BBQ Pit = “Hey guys, this sucks!”
This should be in ATMB but I will take a crack out of it. IMHO and MPSIMS are more similar than the other forums but they aren’t identical.
MPSIMS allows truly mundane announcements and chit-chat whereas IMHO does not. For example, if you want to tell people here that your pet skunk died, you have to use MPSIMS and not IMHO. MPSIMS also has the Monday Morning Post (MMP) which I have never understood but it is just idle chatter about whatever is happening in people’s lives and some people like that type of thing.
IMHO topics are supposed to have a themes that are of general interest and less personal like hypothetical scenario questions, what to do in a particular real-life scenario, or suggestions for a particular type of product. Polling is also a part of IMHO but that feature hasn’t been enabled for all that long. Before there were multiple choice polls, many threads in IMHO were free-form poll type questions and many threads there still are.
And Great Debates = “Hey guys, lets discuss this!”
Barn House =
The Game Room = “Hey guys, let’s see who can go down to the quarry and throw this in it the best!”
This is horse shit. 
Moved to ATMB, since it’s a question about this message board.
samclem, moderator
They’re pretty similar in some ways. The benefit of splitting them into two forums is that topics get more room to breathe. If you doubled the traffic in MPSIMS, I imagine a lot of threads would go unnoticed because there would just be too much activity.
I once posted something in MPSIMS that was so mundane and pointless, it got locked. It was a thread about how I had just farted, and wanted to hear about other people’s farts.
That’s for Facebook or Twitter.
Keep in mind that every time someone asks for advice about something, that’s an IMHO thread. And that makes sense, because much of the advice being sought is not “mundane”.
When IMHO started some people called it MPSIMS 2. IIRC the reason it started was because MPSIMS was just too crowded and threads were falling off the page before people could reply, so TPTB split it into.two forums. Over time IMHO has developed its own identity, but the two forums do share some similarities.
When we started these boards, Cecil thought there was only need for two forums: one to respond to his columns, and one for everything else. Over time, that proved impractical, so we separated forums based on the type of discussion. Thus:
“About this Message Board” was for questions related to the boards and their operation;
“Comments on Cecil’s Columns” was for response to Cecil’s Columns (duh);
“General Questions” were for questions that had objective answers (even though Mr Quatro has lumped it with MPSIMS and IMHO, it’s the one that is really distinct.)
It was then noticed that people did like to share information, ranging from the mundane and trivial to the profound and disturbing. (Cecil thought it was all mundane and pointless, but then, his social interactions are … um… well, he’s the boss, I’ll say no more.)(Say no more.)(I can say no more.)
Hence, MPSIMS was a formed as a catch-all, it was really “personal miscellany that doesn’t fit the other forums.”
I think pretty much simultaneously, the BBQ Pit was created to allow people to vent and try to keep raging anger out of the other, more polite forums.
As MPSIMS got overcrowded, IMHO was created for expression of personal opinions rather than sharing personal information. Thus, MPSIMS is for sharing events (stuff) such as “I need a heart transplant” or “my canary died.” While IMHO is for “I don’t like asparagas” and “I love the Cubs.” Admittedly, the line was always fuzzy.
Then, over time, Cafe Society was created, the first forum to really focus on a topic rather than a style of discussion. So, the edges got blurred, and while “I don’t like asparagas” could still be in IMHO, but “How can I cook asparagas and get rid of the mushy texture” would go in Cafe Society. ANd the Game Room came along, so “I love the Cubs” would go there. ANd, more recently, Elections was set up to keep political discussions in a separate forum for those who thought that US Presidential elections overwhelmed the other forums during the 18-months or so that they went onl
Thus, yes, the distinction between MPSIMS and IMHO is less than crystal clear.
I’ve heard IMHO referred to as “GD-lite”. GD is devoted to policy, philosophy, religion and other questions without objective answers. IMHO is directed at personal advice.
Thank you C K Dexter Haven for a lengthy and well explained answer. A sticky perhaps, but that’s up to you.
Yes measure for measure I like IMHO the best so far …
Why don’t you let the threads go up and down the way you do post in the threads? putting, “About this board” and “Comments on Cecil’s Columns” for the first two with the others riding on public opinion?
Since “Cecil” is a fictional character, I doubt he had much opinion on the matter.
I agree with that characterization.
“Fictional” is in the eye of the beholder. He’s the boss, he says he’s not fictional, so I agree. Have you ever tried to argue with someone, claiming that they’re fictional? It’s sort of a losing proposition, from the start.
Since he’s fictional and, you know, don’t exist, I imagine the men in white coats ended your conversation.
Does Eminem exist? …Bono? …the Edge?