I’ve changed some of the permissions on the Off-Topic category.
Now, the category (should be) invisible to users who are not logged in.
Trust Level 1 (basic users) cannot post in Off-Topic threads, they can only read them.
Trust Level 2 (members) can reply and interact with Off-Topic threads, but they cannot start a new one.
Trust Level 3 (regulars) and above, and published authors, can create new Off-Topic threads.
I’m hoping this will curtail some of the random threads that get started and then shut down almost immediately. It will also stop new users from immediately chiming in on the Politics thread (for example) without having spent a bare minimum amount of time interacting with the forum.