This is something that has been on my mind since 9/11 but until now I just haven’t gotten around to posting something about it.
Most subject matters on the SDMB fall neatly into one of the existing forums – Cafe Society certainly helped make things a lot easier in that regard – but the two things that don’t seem to have forums naturally suited to them are news events and sports.
For example, right now sports threads usually end up in Cafe Society, if only for the reason that they’re on television. Yet sports are clearly not an artistic discipline. News events are a more egregious example. The 9/11 thread (and I mean the 9/11 thread, the one with constant news updates and whatnot on the day of) was in MPSIMS, for crying out loud. Nothing about that day and those events was mundane or pointless, but there it was. Countless other news events (like President Reagan’s death) also get consigned to that forum, right next to someone’s thread about a particularly bad appointment with the dentist. That seems incongruous.
I understand the problem with a “News” forum… threads could easily mutate into discussions more appropriate to GD or even The Pit. But I’m convinced that with some good rules and a damn fine moderator, such a forum could work. Perhaps threads could be locked once a news event is deemed over (example: once Reagan’s buried, the thread about his death would be locked). Basically, threads in the “News” forum would serve the purpose of just getting information out there and people asking questions of a “what’s going on with such-and-such?” and getting answers. And, for huge news events, as we saw with 9/11, a thread can become the prime source of information for most people.
Why combine news and sports? Well, news events and sports events are both things that happen in real life, and usually have defined beginnings and endings. Really, sports is just a subsection of news, but I think having it in the name of the forum would clear up some confusion.
Just a thought. I’d love to know what others, including mods and admins, think.
The forums were not set up by “topic” at all. They were set up based on the type of discussion.
So, let’s take your example of news, and the Iraq War. A question with a factual answer (“How many Iraqis have been killed to date?”) would go in GENERAL QUESTIONS. A question that won’t be resolved but will generate debate (“Is the U.S. justified in this war?”) would be in GREAT DEBATES. An opinion survey (“How do you feel about abusing prisoners?”) would go in IMHO while a description of a personal anecdote (“Let me tell you about the time I was in the prior Iraq War…”) would go in MPSIMS. And, of course, the BBQ Pit would handle situations such as, “George Bush is a lying, scum-sucking weasler!”
So, the forums aren’t organized by topics but by type of discussion. Cafe Society is the only exception (well, OK, Comment on Cecil’s Columns and Comment on Staff Reports, and ABOUT THIS MESSAGE BOARD, arguably.) And Sports Discussions, insofar as they are about sports-as-entertainment can go there. But no one would get upset if a sports question were posted in the PIT (“That umpire was blind! Sosa was out by a mile!!”) or in IMHO (“Oh, those Red Sox!”) or in GREAT DEBATES (“Why isn’t soccer more popular in the US?”)
I will call the Moderator’s attention to your post, but I suspect the answer will be that we’re happy with the current arrangment, pretty much, and we don’t want to add more forums (which will only add more confusion, since the borders will always be fuzzy.)
For that matter, Hawking radiation, piano concertos, and annoying neighbors are things that happen in real life, too. And let me tell you, Hawking radiation has a VERY well-defined ending. But those threads already fit quite comfortably into General Questions, Cafe Society, and the BBQ Pit.
Point taken. I should have just gone with the “sports is a subsection of news” argument and left it at that. Obviously, Hawking radiation, piano concertos and annoying neighbors are not news. (Well, unless they were all happening in the same place at the same time. )
I appreciate the breakdown, Dex, and it certainly did allow me to understand the philosophy behind the forums better. However, none of those examples gave me any clue how a thread like the 9/11 thread or a generic “Reagan’s dead” thread or even a “NBA Playoffs discussion” thread is appropriate to any of the existing forums (fora?). If anything, I guess I would argue that if sports had to be put in an existing forum, it’d be IMHO, because a sports thread will inevitably include boasting and complaining and all the other things that go with sports discussions. Still, I would rather see it lumped into a “News Events” forum, which I believe is greatly needed and would round things out nicely.
Finally, Dex, I greatly appreciate you forwarding my concerns on to the moderators. I don’t expect a response, either, but it’s nice to know people are listening.
I get upset if there’s a sports thread in the Pit, because sports bores me to tears, and sooner or later someone’s gonna expect me to READ that thread. Gah. Probably I should work out a deal with Coldfire where he will just read all the sports threads in the Pit, and I’ll read the Zits and Other Gross Skin Conditions threads in MPSIMS, which apparently give him the heebie-jeebies, and which I, on the other hand, rather enjoy and will participate in.
I think what’s been left unsaid, but certainly implied, is that these folks just don’t need another forum to moderate. UncleBeer and manhattan hung 'em up recently, and as far as I know they haven’t added any new staff since xash signed on.
I know that this was just off the top of your head, but I feel obligated to nitpick: Palomar Observatory is in California, and the western United States was one of the few populated areas of the globe (along with the tip of South America and New Zealand) which was unable to see any of the transit at all. All they’d be able to show you at Palomar would be a video feed from Greece or some other such suitable location, which you could see at any museum in the country (or at home, if you have access to NASA TV).
Actually, Chronos, I knew that, since I was bummed that we had no sight for the transit from Chicago (or none to speak of)… so I deliberately used Palomar to bait you.
Well, that, and because I didn’t know the names of any famous European observatories.
Bah! Damn you, TubaDiva, and your logical arguments!
In thinking about this, I’ve realized that most of my frustration from this comes from what happened on 9/11, with the principal thread about that subject being in a forum for mundane and pointless things.
Perhaps a RISIMS (Really Important Stuff I Must Share) forum? Or, hell, just rename MPSIMS, especially since it’s only named that because of a GQ thread from Long Long Ago.
The sports thing was more due to my inability to see how it fit into Cafe Society. Really, it doesn’t need a separate forum. I would argue that sports threads just don’t belong in that particular forum and instead should, based on type of discussion, go into IMHO, GQ, The Pit, MPSIMS, or even GD, if we’re talking about heavy issues like steroid use or the designated hitter rule.
The comments from moderators all echoed TubaDiva. The one exception was Lynn, who said that putting sports questions into a separate forum would mean she’d never ever have to see them, and that would make her happy.
Basically, we think the current forums handle these topics:
Sports fit into Cafe Society, it’s a form of entertainment. OK, lots of such discussions are temporary (no one cares about last year’s World Series anymore), but that’s not different from other entertainment like TV shows.
Big-time discussable news goes into Great Debates. Short-term commentary-type news (death of Reagan) goes into MPSIMS.
So, we’re leaving things as they are. I’ll float the idea of re-naming MPSIMS among the mods, and see where that gets us.
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