Yeah, but it cannot be unseen.
Another kudos for the experiment. I’m not presently seeing the reason for closing it down, though–why not just let it bleed into the next election cycle? Maybe it’ll be like one of those fast-food limited-time specials that are only limited time if they suck, and if it’s popular it’ll actually stay around indefinitely.
A valid argument if Ed Zotti were proposing a Goatse forum. Not so much here.
There. You now have a mission. I would do it myself but I just wasted my wish asking for a thread to be stickied. Had I only known…
As the sensei of my sensei used to say: “Good thinking by you.”
So, when does this kick off?
:eek:
OK, in all seriousness, I think this is a good idea. Let’s see how the experiment works.
Dunno, the staff has to talk it over.
Fantastic idea. I’m very interested in US politics, even as an outsider, but it’s a shame when it overwhelms GD.
Sounds like a good idea to me all around. My vote (heh) would be to make the entire forum read-only a week after the November 2010 election, but then permit people to link to individual threads as a jumping-off point for further debates or discussions thereafter. Keep it searchable forever, too.
Thanks, Doper poobahs!
I’d oppose setting up a politics forum, since the remainder -philosophy and religion- would be pretty small anyway.
I vote against the election 2010 forum. But those are my preferences: most feel differently. If the Powers that Be can recruit a jackbooted mod to dispense capricious injustice and tyranny in the new forum, well why not experiment?
You do understand that this Election 2010 forum is not the same as a Political forum, right? General political discussions would still be in GD.
Meh.
I read a lot of GD and the Pit, occasionally I post something (inane or worthless, goes without saying). I congratulate TPTB for making the attempt.
However, I myself find it difficult to see a bright line separation between subject areas here. Sure, some are obvious (“What are Joe Blow’s chances in the dogcatcher race?”) but much presently in the existing forums would be difficult to parse into the proposed forum. I can foresee duplication of effort, and an ongoing need to combine and/or move posts. And I suspect I’ll just be adding another click (Format- Elections) to my usual routine.
But I may be wrong. So let it happen. I’d like nothing better than to be pleasantly surprised.
Sounds like you’re on the right track, and all the good questions will be asked and answered. Go for it.
FTR, yes I did understand that. I guess I wasn’t sufficiently clear.
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I vote against the Election 2010 forum, because I think it unnecessary. Those who don’t want to discuss the elections can merely not click the relevant thread. My preferences here are less than vehement.
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Separately a political-only forum, which has been proposed in the past, is ill-advised for the reasons given above.
The problem with this- which gets ignored or overlooked by the pro-politics crowds- is that merely “not clicking on the relevant threads” takes at least 50% and usually more of GD out of commission.
Personally, I think anyone who objects to a Politics Forum is just afraid no-one except the usual suspects is going to see their (usually partisan) views on whatever the outrage du jour is and they’re mad they’re going to lose a large percentage of their perceived audience.
I think this is an excellent idea. It is great to see changes being made that users have requested.
This. Threads don’t have to move, the old ones will just fall out of the window naturally. Non-US elections would provide content in our off-season. If the experiment went well, the forum might naturally evolve into a solid Politics forum.
I’m afraid this bit is a little delusional. As mentioned upthread, there’s a very tight UK election going on currently that seems likely to return a minority government and only one thread had been started about it*. Canadian, Australian and Iraqi elections usually get about that much too.
*Now it’s two because the PM called some lady a bigot on the radio.
I was trying to be nice to the foreigners. 