There are a lot of threads about Trump. Most of them negative. Many of those threads are false or attempted slams (no, Trump is not functionally illiterate). A casual visitor might well look at the Dope and decry us as bigoted moonbats.
I am concerned that the concerted unwarranted attacks on Trump are diminishing the utility and brand of the Straight Dope. I don’t like the man (how sad is it that I actually have to say that?) but we’re supposed to be about fighting ignorance, not promoting it.
Until the bastard is gone, there cannot be too many anti Trump threads. Every thread should attack him in every way possible. And if he’s not illiterate, he sure fakes it well. The man speaks worse than Sarah Palin.
What would the OP have us do? Have no threads about Trump? Have a quota for Trump-related threads? And I’d like to see some backup for the idea that the Trump threads are “unwarranted attacks” on him.
There is a difference in overall tenor between the Trump threads listed in post #1 and the Obama threads listed in post #3. No one has made the claim that they should be considered equivalent, but I hope that’s not the inference we are supposed to draw. Anyway, there is no reason they should be the same - Obama and Trump are so different, who cares if the tone (heh) of the threads is different?
I don’t think we ordinary posters have access to the data that could answer the question, but if TPTB care, I am sure they could easily analyze SDMB viewing and posting trends from before Trump began to dominate the news and now. My guess is that overall, it’s been positive, simply in terms of the number of page views we are getting, not to mention the number of posts being made, time spent on each page, etc. (I’m not an expert on those metrics, as you can tell, but I know they are out there.)
I understand that the SDMB values quality over quantity, but my guess is that overall the Trump phenomenon has been good for this board in both ways: in terms of the amount of posting/viewing/clicking, and the thoughtfulness that goes into the discussion. Yeah, there is a certain amount of hyperbole and overblown rhetoric out there, but I doubt there is a message board anywhere concerned with current US politics that doesn’t have occasional craziness. It kinda goes with the times we live in. Anyone who can’t deal with it probably shouldn’t post on message boards anyway.
I don’t have a problem with Trump threads per se but I will say it gets tiring when you can’t escape the political potshots in threads about fixing a car or what your favorite cereal is or something, it gets very tedious after a while.
They will eventually die down as people begin to realize that Trump isn’t going anywhere for at least four years. I confess that I started a lot of Trump threads after the election. I’ve consciously sworn off them now. I’ll take part in others’ threads if they’re interesting but for myself enough is enough. Once every few months maybe unless he’s seen walking on water or something.
Maybe we can celebrate the Trump presidency for getting more people than ever to think about civics. Sure, much (most?) of the the thinking is just plain wrong, but what are you going to do? The mods must be going crazy what with all the redundant thread, nonsense thread, and threads posted in the wrong forum. There are probably half a dozen or more threads in the BBQ Pit that are the same generic “let’s piss on Trump” threads. Should the mods combine them or just let them play themselves out. I’m thinking it might was well be the latter. Otherwise there will be endless whining about stifling certain political points of view.
I imagine that every other MB similar to this one is going thru the same process.
The entire national conversation is about Trump. Nothing else is news. Saying that the Dope shouldn’t have so many threads about the most extreme national conversation since the 60s is flabbergasting. You should want as many diverse threads on the issue as possible.
I agree that political potshots should be moderated in other threads. If you see one, report it. If you see threads duplicating existing discussions, report them. If you see ignorance in a post, refute it.
There’s nothing else to do except to encourage more and better discussion of the most important issue of the day. Let a hundred threads blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend.
Nobody said he’s illiterate. The charge is functionally illiterate. That basically means that he’s not literate enough for the function he’s attempting to perform. Currently, that function would be fulfilling the office of president. There’s extremely little doubt that he’s literate enough for that.
Oratory prowess isn’t always the mark of literacy/functional literacy. What’s scary is the message that Trump actually does manage to convey in his blather.
I’ve got to say that when I first heard this it was as a joke. But the way on camera he handles reading documents in front of him and the demand that briefing papers be limited to one page and nine bullet points are startling. You cannot absorb information the way that he demonstrates he does. This may be ADD or dyslexia or sleeping through school and never learning long words. But I no longer doubt that there’s some there there.
There may be no unwarranted attacks on Trump because there is no bottom to him. Or maybe he’ll prove us wrong. But he’s responsible for providing that evidence, not us.
You wanna talk about something “diminishing the brand”? The (traditionally quite hard-assed - in a good way) moderators not banning people who are blatantly obvious trolls with nothing of value to contribute to any discussion whatsoever. But an abundance of threads about Trump? Nah. Don’t really see that.
If there’s a lot of threads about Donald Trump, it’s because a lot of people want to talk about Donald Trump. You think that, on this discussion board, we should limit how much people can talk about this very popular topic, because it might be bad for the board if people can talk about topics they want to talk about?
That’s an interesting business sense you’ve got on you there, Quartz.