# Are we off the rails in "Elections"? Do we need corrective action? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 17, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974 "2016-12-17T21:09:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/41 "2016-12-19T23:00:16Z")
Concur. Anyone who’s been here long enough knows that the oddest looking and sounding threads can surprise by turning into real discussions. I’d prefer to give them the chance in the appropriate forum rather than adopting a policy of just shutting them down. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/42 "2016-12-19T23:25:41Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > I tend to look at the OP (original post) when evaluating if a move is in warranted. If the OP is primarily a rant then it’s not the majority of folks walking up to the line, but the basis for the thread from the get go. If subsequent participants are instigating then that would be moderated accordingly. > [@Fenris](#): > > Why not just close it rather than pollute the Pit? It’s not like there’s any shortage of threads filled with people shrieking incoherently about the election one way or the other and it’s certainly not as if there’s even a hope of an original new rant. It might be worthwhile checking to see if there is already a Pit thread on that topic. Or just ask **Miller** to do that. He’s got a cush job anyway, right? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/43 "2016-12-19T23:26:44Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > The election is over. If it were up to me, I’d shut the forum down until 2020. NO. Please no. Keep it all contained in one section of the board – before the election forum, it was all over GD and GQ and you couldn’t have a thread about anything else. Either that or change the name to “Politics” forum. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/44 "2016-12-19T23:48:19Z")
How about a “Trump” sub-forum then? Pretty much anything about your soon to be president can go there. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/45 "2016-12-19T23:55:56Z")
He’d probably sue us for licensing fees… ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/46 "2016-12-19T23:57:10Z")
Then call it “The US President” and it can keep getting recycled every 4-8 years. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/47 "2016-12-20T00:20:23Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Elections is still our newest forum and I think it can be improved. Isn’t the Thread Games forum younger? Speaking as an outsider, the Elections Forum seems just fine the way it is. It’s in a place I can completely ignore, especially in any year divisible by four, just like I try to do with all other media whenever an election’s happening. (Hearing the Seven Trumpets of the Apocalypse blowing is a completely different story…) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/48 "2016-12-20T10:30:43Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Why not just close it rather than pollute the Pit?. I wasn’t aware the pit had such high environmental standards. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/49 "2016-12-20T13:20:28Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I wasn’t aware the pit had such high environmental standards. Trump has already lowered the standards as part of his deregulation scheme! ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/50 "2016-12-20T14:10:50Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > Then call it “The US President” and it can keep getting recycled every 4-8 years. 🙂 Seriously, this isn’t a bad idea. We all know that Trump and his administration will be the subject of massive debates over the next four (possibly eight - _nooooooooooo!!!_) years. Up until now, the Elections forum has been the natural place for them. But now the Electoral College has voted, and Trump is indisputably the President-elect; the 2016 election’s business hours are _over_, baby. Aside from the post-mortems, Trump threads really won’t belong there any more. In the absence of a “U.S. President” forum, GD will pretty much get overrun by Trump threads. Might not be a bad idea to have somewhere else to put all the non-Pit Trump threads to keep that from happening. I know TPTB don’t want to add new fora at the drop of a hat, and there are good reasons for a conservative approach to that. But I’d encourage the admins to at least consider the idea. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/51 "2016-12-20T14:13:25Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > There are several crucial elections in Europe in 2017. Also, some U.S. states. Virginia has a gubernatorial election in 2017, and it has state legislative elections next year as well. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/52 "2016-12-20T14:46:45Z")
I agree that derangement syndrome has taken over. I expect it to be temporary, but it’ll feel longer than most folks wish it was. A modest proposal: After the nominating conventions finished, the mods created omnibus Trump & omnibus Clinton threads. Folks were not onbligated to use them, but it did provide some continuity of discussion for the ongoing play by play. And yes, many other Trump-or Clinton-related threads were created. We also have the various long running “Stupid \_\_\_\_\_\_ idea of the day” series. So we have some history of omnibus threads working at least partially. I propose the mods create an omnibus “Trump’s Latest Controversy” thread. And encourage posts about that kind of news-driven presidential topics into that thread. That would leave room on the front page for topics unrelated to the US president. By concentrating the primal screaming into that thread it will also permit more reasoned discussion about larger non-news-driven Presidential issues to have higher quality threads of their own. These kinds of threads would enjoy tighter moderating along these lines. “Hey **Bub** , take the cheap shots and quasi-trolling to the omnibus controversy thread. Stick to the OP’s stated issue in this thread.” ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/53 "2016-12-20T15:25:32Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > … > I propose the mods create an omnibus “Trump’s Latest Controversy” thread. And encourage posts about that kind of news-driven presidential topics into that thread. > > That would leave room on the front page for topics unrelated to the US president. > > By concentrating the primal screaming into that thread it will also permit more reasoned discussion about larger non-news-driven Presidential issues to have higher quality threads of their own. These kinds of threads would enjoy tighter moderating along these lines. “Hey **Bub** , take the cheap shots and quasi-trolling to the omnibus controversy thread. Stick to the OP’s stated issue in this thread.” Omnibus threads are a terrible idea. They are too large to follow a particular discussion, and relevant posts would be lost in the clutter or responses/comments to other posts. Not only that, giving the mods one more thing to do in a busy forum, along with the reading the mailboxes full of reports they would receive, would drive them to drinking way before their current 9 AM starting time. I’d much rather choose which threads to open and comment in that having to filter through some long omnibus thread wondering whether or not anyone posted about whatever current event, then filtering responses to non-relevant posts. It’s way easier to overlook those you’re not interested in participating in. Omnibus threads should be an endangered species. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/54 "2016-12-20T15:36:18Z")
While I think omnibus threads have their purpose, I doubt they’d be much good at containing the Trump controversies headed our way. Too many people will respond to the latest Trump outrage by thinking - correctly, an awful lot of the time - that ‘this is too big a deal to go in the omnibus thread,’ so they’ll start a new thread. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/55 "2016-12-20T16:04:20Z")
We have no particular policy on Omnibus threads of which I am aware. On the other hand, personally, I’m not a fan. I know I don’t read them because they tend to get fragmented and difficult to read. I’m not going to do a survey but I wouldn’t be surprised if some others felt the same way. I’m also opposed to setting up an omnibus thread as a sort of ‘topic ghetto’ for everything on a specific topic. Best advice I can think of? Be patient. Let it die down and see what happens. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/56 "2016-12-20T17:06:27Z")
My personal take is I’m not a fan of omnibus threads (I did start one, I acknowledge). As a moderator I’m indifferent to them. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/57 "2016-12-20T18:01:29Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > It is my firmest belief that it will calm down. Though I won’t be surprised if there’s a flair up around inauguration day. > > We’ll keep moving them to the Pit as needed. Keep reporting them and sharing your thoughts. I still consider Elections to be a work in progress. I dont think threads should be moved to the Pit without the approval of the OP. I have no problems with you guys saying “We are either going to close this or move it” but to force people who hate the Pit and all it stands for to have to post in the Pit is unfair. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/58 "2016-12-20T18:05:18Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Why not just close it rather than pollute the Pit? The Pit can be polluted? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/59 "2016-12-20T19:38:15Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I dont think threads should be moved to the Pit without the approval of the OP. I have no problems with you guys saying “We are either going to close this or move it” but to force people who hate the Pit and all it stands for to have to post in the Pit is unfair. Who is being forced to post in the Pit? As **Bone** noted, he doesn’t move stuff to the Pit unless the OP is a rant. So don’t post ranty OPs outside the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974/60 "2016-12-20T19:43:37Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I propose the mods create an omnibus “Trump’s Latest Controversy” thread. And encourage posts about that kind of news-driven presidential topics into that thread. Sorry, but I strongly disagree. I hate omnibus threads precisely because they sweep all discussion into one spot, regardless of the particular importance of different issues. They also become hard to follow, and often dominated by a smaller groups of posters who are re-arguing the same points over and over. I avoid them as much as possible. > [@](#): > > By concentrating the primal screaming into that thread it will also permit more reasoned discussion about larger non-news-driven Presidential issues to have higher quality threads of their own. These kinds of threads would enjoy tighter moderating along these lines. “Hey **Bub** , take the cheap shots and quasi-trolling to the omnibus controversy thread. Stick to the OP’s stated issue in this thread.” So that would mean that there would be different standards of acceptable behavior in the same forum? If it’s a regular thread in Elections or GD, no cheap shots or semi-trolling are allowed, but cheap shots and semi-trolling would be allowed in the Trump omnibus threads in GD or Elections? That doesn’t sound like a workable standard for the GD and Elections mods: different standards for different threads in the same forum. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-off-the-rails-in-elections-do-we-need-corrective-action/774974.md?page=4)