Hey! Why would someone downvote this? It's a legitimate question. Remember, each of us was once new here too. To answer your question, abcd_z, the open thread is a thread, posted weekly now, that is intended for posting all these minor or slightly off topic things. Basically, if it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes there. Your post is the kind of thing that definitely should be in the Open Thread rather than in Discussion.

I'm not sure why you were downvoted, but here's my best guess:

Google search, site:lesswrong.com "open thread" On my results page, any of four of the top five hits would have answered your first question and partially answered your second.

I'm not sure how to phrase the above paragraph in a way which doesn't make me sound like a condescending jackass, but I swear I'm trying to be helpful. If your first instinct with questions like these is "hope someone will be kind enough to answer me personally" rather than "use search engines and find most answers instantly", you can probably improve your life a great deal by correcting that.