There’s many times where I’d like to just post a piece of interesting news, a recent development in science or politics, and so forth. I don’t particularly have a debate in mind or a general question to ask, and therefore I post the link in MPSIMS (or even not bother posting it), but am mindful that many people upon reading the story will likely initiate some sort of debate.
A recent submission in this pattern is the ongoing thread on the Wikileaks Afghan war leak here, which I initially posted to MPSIMS, but then was moved to GD (despite there not really being a debate as such outlined in the OP) by Marley because it was becoming buried in MPSIMS, and the strong possibility of a debate being initiated.
It seems to me that there’s room for a new forum somewhere between MPSIMS and GD, where people just post (serious) news links with no particular debate in mind but will likely devolve into debate at some future point. What do other people think? I know that there has to be some limit on the number of forums, but, at the same time, many people hardly ever visit MPSIMS (including me, it has to be said) because of all the “noise”. Perhaps we can relax rules on what is posted to GD instead, so news stories that look likely to pose a debate are allowed, even with no specific debate spelt out in the OP?
My first gut reaction was that we already have this - it’s called Fark.com. But then, it would be more interesting to be able to discuss stories here. You have my official Smeghead Stamp of Approval, which, along with five bucks, will get you a cup of coffee.
Take a look at the BP spill threads. There got to be some debate at times, but that was mostly incidental to documenting the crisis and people trying to grok what was happening from disparate and contradictory sources.
Hi, my name is Fenris. I’m not a mod, but I play one on another board.
I heartily endorse this product or service.
Seriously–awesome idea. It’d also be a great place to put science-y type threads “Astronomers discover new moon of Pluto” or something–it’s not MPSIMS, it’s not a GD, it’s not a GQ…
I don’t feel strongly about it either way, but one problem I see with having too many fora or too many categories to divide things in is that you end up with a bunch of areas with each area having little discussion or participation. It can make a board seem deserted.
And the more categories you have, the more of a risk there will be with posters ignoring certain areas of the board altogether, which means that discussions will get fewer participants.
I look at the new “2010 Elections” forum, and there is not much there - those threads could easily fit into GD.
It’s an interesting idea and one I like in theory, but, as someone with a media background, I can tell you that most “News” isn’t. For every Oil Spill there’s a hundred “What’s happening on some reality TV game-show” or “Someone you’ve never heard of said something controversial” stories.
However, if we could include “Politics” in the “News” thread, I’d say it’s a good idea that’s well worth considering.
Some board owners/administrators seem to think that increasing the number of forums makes it look like there’s more traffic and will lure additional advertisers. The end result is that forum visits remain the same and the board is ghettoized into smaller subsections which draw less interest.
I’ve never visited the elections forum. If threads there were still posted in GD I might take a look and comment on occasion.
I think a “Politics and News” forum would be a good idea too, since it seems most political threads that aren’t actual debates seem to be just discussion on a news article or three anyways. It doesn’t seem right in MPSIMS, or in GD. IMHO used to be the place for this, but it seems it really is more about polls. I kind of get annoyed when I see threads bounced around between the three fora until someone takes pity on it and lets it stay.
That happens. Perhaps a slight reinterpretation of GD rules could suffice.
US election forum will come into it’s own in a few months, and perhaps prevent GD from getting toxic to all non-US members.
Actually, the Dope is one of my primary news sources. Yes, I regularly ingest the NYT, BBC and a few other sites, but many smaller yet important stories come through here. That kind of gives perspective on how many newsy threads there are.
But I’m hesitant to cheer on the formation of another sub-board.
As mentioned above, too many boards in a relatively insular community will increase small-scale isolation. The **News Junkies **(hey, it fits with The Straight Dope!) forum will have a solid cadre of denizens and a lot of crossover, but it will on balance decrease views in other forums. Fewer pairs of eyes and views slows things down and cuts into the rich diversity of opinion and perspective that goes into making the board so worthy. Not that there isn’t a lot of crossover now, this wouldn’t destroy the boards. Just make individual forums a bit quieter.
Second, it’s ambiguous, abstract, and can be vexing to some, but there are lines between forums and news posts can fit within each. There is movement, but generally RO threads hit the Pit, GQ threads generally stay there unless someone drives it into GD, etc.
A side benefit of posting to GQ is the restriction on debate and vitriol–some controversial news-related questions benefit from the stricter rules on decorum and subjective opinion insertion.
Yeah, but it’s only July. The “2010 Elections” forum should start getting much more active around September, or so. Most of us “Merkins” don’t start thinking about the elections until then.
OK, mods have discussed. Our feeling in general is that we don’t want to create new forums unless we really, really have to. And we think an all-news, all-the-time, forum doesn’t handle a raging need. Current forums (mostly) are devoted to the type of discussion rather than the topic, because our discussions (and Cecil’s columns) rarely can be classified by traditional subject matters. And current forums seems able to handle news discussions based on the type of discussion desired:
· If you’re pissed off about the event or want to express outrage: start the thread in the Pit
· If you want to talk about how it affects you: start in MPSIMS
· If you want to ask how others feel about it: start in IMHO
· If you want reasoned debate about the event: start it in Great Debates
· If you have a technical question about some detail of the event: start it in General Questions
And, of course, we do have some topic-related forums:
· If it’s about arts/entertainment: start it in Cafe Society
· If it’s about the US 2010 elections: start it in that special temporary forum
· If it’s about sports or related: start it in the Game Room
Yes, we’ll always have discussions that start one way and move another way, and may be moved from one forum to another. It’s not a capital offense (heck, it’s not even a minor error) to start a thread somewhere and have a mod move it elsewhere. Our forum divisions (like any classification system) necessarily have some overlap and ambiguity. We think we’d rather live with that, then start up a new forum.
Thanks for the idea, though, it certainly generated some interesting debate.
I’m new here, so apologies if I’m repeating an old point, but it seems to me that MPSIMS is where news-related stuff belongs, but the problem is that the name of the forum trivialises important subjects.
Yup, it’s an old point, but we don’t have a problem with your asking. There is strong resistance to changing the name of that forum, or even the referents for the acronym, because that name is part of the the history of the Board. The forum description was changed, however, sometime back, to remind people that that’s where all personal announcements and general chatter go.
In the mod loop discussion of this issue, I compared MPSIMS to our living room – some of the couple of dozen simultaneous conversations going on there at any time are deep and serious and personal (deaths and divorces) – others are on serious topics in the news – and still others are, frankly, quite silly. It’s that mix that makes MPSIMS what it is, and it’s why we feel it continues to be the best place to have the discussions about current events, when there isn’t a slant on the news (or the OP’s reaction to it) that makes it more appropriate for a specific forum like GQ or GD.
While true, there are also a lot of people who think MPSIMS is a terrible name for a forum. Personally, I think we should go so far as to merge IMHO and MPSIMS as they’re basically the same forum, but the latter has more pictures of cats.
Thanks Twickster. I do like the name as it happens, and fully get why people wouldn’t want to change it. I’ve just been back to read the forum description and rules thread, and there’s no mention of news or current affairs in either. It’s only through lurking for a while before joining that I came to realise that would be the place for those topics, so maybe mentioning it in either would help newcomers?
