I saw that the “Ripped from the Headlines” forum thread was closed, so I wanted to bring up an example of the kind of thread that would fit more neatly into a current-affairs forum than in any of our existing fora.
I mean … you could start such a general discussion thread in IMHO or MPSIMS, and they may stay or be moved depending on the way the discussion moves. I guess someone could also Pit the bridge failure. But I think such a thread is a poor fit for any of those fora. The disaster certainly isn’t pointless … and I agree with the poster from the other thread who mentioned that IMHO has drifted into a “opinions about personal issues” forum.
Okay … I found the main discussion thread in MPSIMS. Okay, then. No harm, I don’t guess. “Mundane Pointless Stuff” is just a label, really … perhaps it need not be slavishly adhered to. :shrug:
There are also discussions about this disaster in the Pit and in GQ.
The point is that the discussion’s proper forum will depend upon what is being discussed. I think that’s the main point many made with regard to the proposed forum. Thus, if you have a factual question about the bridge collapse (e.g.: what can cause a bridge to collapse structurally?, or how many people died in the collapse?), ask it in General Questions. If you want to debate something about the collapse (e.g.: Bridges in America are unsafe at any speed!), it goes in Great Debates, or in IMHO, depending upon your mood, I guess. If you want to make some minor point about the collapse (e.g.: The news coverage of the collapse was awesome!), then it goes into IMHO. If you want to discuss the collapse in general, without it having anything to do with any other specific category, it goes in MPSIMS (which I’ve always thought of as the catch-all forum; e.g.: It’s sad that people had to die that day). And, of course, if you intend to go off on the whole thing in a rant involving all sorts of bad language, etc., the Pit awaits
Then maybe it’s just the name of the MPSIMS forum that rankles. I may be taking the label “Mundane Pointless Stuff” more seriously than others.
I don’t visit MPSIMS very often … it never occurs to me to go there first for discussion of a current news topic, especially one of grave import. Many current events do happen to fit neatly into Great Debates, but for those that don’t … I don’t know.
I don’t know, DSYoungEsq … one could argue that all possible human discourse fits neatly into one of the existing fora. Especially if one considers MPSIMS to be the catch-all forum (which I never did). But how good of an argument can you make? Opinions will differ, of course.
MPSIMS is badly named, because things discussed there are often neither mindless nor pointless. “Miscellaneous Stuff I Must Share” would be a better name for the forum.
Yes, don’t let the name of the forum fool you, bordelond, it’s clearly more than “Mundane, Pointless Stuff” (named, no doubt, with a bit of tongue in cheek).
Named with a lot of tongue in cheek, as actually some pretty serious and nonmundane matters get discussed there all the time, subjecs that are not pointless at all. It’s also where the fluffy threads go so between the two extremes there is perhaps some balance.
Again we say perhaps we should hold off on new forum ideas until we know what the new guys want to do.
