I’m also trowing in a request for a Current Affairs forum. I’ve done this twice before but somehow both times it grinded to a halt. First time no one really bothered. Second time, the thread was closed due to imminent changes.
I’d really like to see this forum, since there are always orphan threads in different fora (so there!) being there just because they don’t fit, these include R.O. threads in the pit. A dead actor is remembered in CS but where do I post a thread about a dead CEO? MPSIMS?
If there’s some news I want to talk about, and there’s no general question, nothing to pit or debate, well I guess it could be considered something I post IMHO or MPSIMS but the signal to noise ratio in those fora is not attractive.
I agree in general. Numbers and topics of forums is a fine art I feel. If we splits the games forum into “Halo 3”, and “Halo 2” etc you end up with LOTS of dead forums and lots of navigating required to find what you want. On the other hand if you have a single Straight Dope forum, it ends up being so busy that interesting threads drop off the bottom of the page in no time and we miss out on good stuff. The path to enlightenment, as always, lies in the middle. Overall I think the SDMB has it basically right. The forums are grouped in a way that makes some sense and facilitates stumbling across interesting threads without the forums being too busy, however there is always room for improvement. Merging SD Staff reports with Cecil’s Column would enliven a couple of dead forums. On the other hand, having an Election 2008 forum would nicely separate the myriad political threads in GD from the other stuff. The only downside I see is that there are many GDs that will devolve into Election 2008 threads, so I foresee a fair amount of work for the mods as they move threads. A general Politics forum may be a better way to deal with it.
I have to disagree with the idea of merging IMHO and MPSIMS. They support different styles of discussion, even if they’re not as different as GD and MPSIMS. Perhaps we should clarify the forum descriptions and better enforce the difference, but merging them is the wrong way to go.
IMHO: Kind of a less factual GQ, but also a place where people offer unsolicited opinions on certain non-political/hot button issues. “What dog breed would you recommend?”, “Tell me about living in Austin”, and so on.
MPSIMS: General discussion that doesn’t fit anywhere else. “My dog had puppies!”, “I’m moving to Austin!”, etc.
Cafe Society and Game Room break the mold of the traditional SDMB approach to forums; that they’re based on the type and style of discussion, rather than the subject.
Again, I’m all for new forums, but not so many where the SDMB community would become fragmented in the way that Something Awful is, or we end up with a bunch of slow-moving or dead forums.
As I posted in anther thread, we could have a “Side Conversation” for the Election 2008 “discussions” going on at the moment, as the Barn House has now been set up as one.
After the election is over a lot of the political discussion threads will die down.
I agree with silenus as well. I’m much less likely to run through all forums if there are lots of them, even if all of them are of interest.
Also, I very much like the idea of using Side Conversations for transitory topics that would interest/tire lots of members (2008 U.S. Elections, the Olympics, major disasters, etc).
But then we have another problem – is 2008 U.S. Elections a child under Major Disasters, or does it deserve its own sub-forum?
Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, yeah, I agree with you guys; would be nice to have a place for items “of the moment” separate from regular stuff, whatever **that **is.
I came into this discussion thinking to post nearly the exact same suggestion. “All things pets” like anyrose suggested, or a broader category that would include other animal related subjects, like bird feeding/watching, wildlife stories, etc. Posts that concern pets are scattered about in MPSIMS, GQ, IMHO and occasionally even Cafe Soc; a forum for people’s questions and comments about animal subjects would be convenient for those who are interested, and considerate of those who aren’t. Maybe it could even be called something droll, like Zoo View, The Beast Generation, or Creature Comforts!
I strongly disagree with the concept of using Forums to sequester certain topics of discussion. The goal of the Dope is to inspire discussion and to expose people to new ideas and the crosstalk that happens within each forum is one of the most valuable features.
It was very wise and important to add The Game Room not because the game and sports threads were taking up too much space in IMHO or MPSIMS but because people had no idea where to put them and people seeking them couldn’t find them because they were so widely scattered.
A Politics Forum seems unnecessary and redundant to me. If the general consensus is that it’s crowding out other Debates in GD then there is an argument for it, but it seems to me that people simply want to categorize it because it’s categorizable. Also, it seems that it’s a knee jerk response to a temporary problem. The 2008 election is making a lot of waves right now but in 2010 I highly doubt that there will be enough politics threads to warrant it’s own forum. Lastly, there’s a greater issue with creating a Politics forum in that politics are somewhat pervasive and esoteric. How many threads about the Law, the Environment and Religion have a strong political aspect. Do they belong in GD or Politics?
A better solution so the question of “Politics” is to simply strengthen the Forum description for Great Debates to emphasize that it’s the place for all political topics. This would eliminate the fragmentation of the topic.
The idea of a temporary forum or side conversation for Election 2008 is an interesting one, but it raises the question of what to do with it after the election is over. Once a forum is created it’s content is essentially permanent unless you are going to delete threads which pretty much everyone would be against. So 2 years from now we’d still be looking at a forum called “Election 2008” that would just get more and more out of date.
On the topic of merging IMHO and MPSIMS is simply a non-starter. Old members like me remember the days before IMHO and that it was created because MPSIMS had become too unwieldy and threads were being pushed off the front page too quickly. Remerging them would simply recreate that problem, and even worse as membership grows under free posting.
Merging Comments on Cecil’s Columns and Comments on Staff Reports is a very good idea however. That division always seemed very forced and unnecessary.
Adding a Pets forum is a silly idea. There’s exactly one animal related thread on the front page of MPSIMS and IMHO combined right now. What’s the point? I like a kitty pics thread as much as the next straight single male but having it’s own forum is nonsense.
I don’t think it’s important to subdivide The Game Room into Sports/Video Games/Parlor Games sub-groups. It’s simply a solution to a non-existent problem. The forum isn’t overwhelmed by any one theme and the concepts are similar enough to make the interplay feel organic.
Something I will mention in further support of a “Politics” forum is this:
America is not the only democracy in the world. Other countries have elections and Major Political Events too.
For example, the Premier of New South Wales resigned on Friday, after firing his Treasurer. The same day, the Governor of Queensland was sworn in as Australia’s first female Governor-General. Even though I don’t live in NSW, there are still implications for the rest of the country and I’ll be interested to see what Nathan Rees (new Premier of [del]Mexico[/del] New South Wales) does for the state.
If there was a “Politics” forum, this would be the ideal place to discuss the implications of this. So even when [del]The Only Country In The World[/del] America isn’t having elections, primaries, or whatever the hell it is you do in the run-up to picking an El Presidente, I think there would be enough political stuff happening in Australia, NZ, Canada, the UK, South Africa, Europe, Thailand, etc to justify a Political forum. In many ways it might stimulate more non-US political discussion because people know that, being in the politics forum, it will only get seen by people who are interested in politics.
At the moment I don’t think a lot of Non-US people bother starting Political threads out of concern they’ll get ignored (which is why I haven’t bothered with a thread about Morris Iemma quitting or Quentin Bryce becoming G-G; anyone who lives in Australia already knows and no-one in the US is likely to give a gnat-sized shit at the moment).
But yeah, I do think that not only is a “Politics” forum a good idea, it’s a necessary idea, and an Election 2008 sub-forum is also a necessity at this time too, for reasons that have been outlined by several people both here and elsewhere on the boards.
Also very true. I, for one, love lists, and I’ll categorise anything, given a chance.
Also true, but there are many subjects that are of their time, and gradually lose relevance. They are still part of the history of the board.
A very good point. Although I sometimes puzzle about the distinction between IMHO and MPSIMS, it would be a grievous disservice to many dopers to have their threads disappear off the front page too quickly.
Yes, but all these subjects you mention live in threads. Irrelevant dated threads by their nature fall off the first few pages and are happily buried amongst the rest of the old threads out of sight. Creating a temporary forum or side conversation would elevate that irrelevant dated subject to permanency on the main forum display and forum jump drop down. Unlike all the other dead topics of the Dope these would forever be front and center.
Not to be combative, but I can’t see what a Politics Forum would do that the Great Debates forum doesn’t already do. This political drama Down Under could be a perfectly valid thread in GD and if there are enough politically minded Aussies it’d prosper. I fail to see how adding a Politics forum does anything to diversify the discussion. If anything greater fragmentation of topics would discourage minority topics like that from being feasible. This is a American based website with a largely American audience, a Politics forum is going to be heavily skewed to US politics just as the GD forum is. If people come to expect nothing but US politics in a Politics forum fewer people will take the time to even read it if they aren’t interested. Right now non-US, non-political Dopers will visit GD and find a thread like the one you propose, I doubt many of those posters would ever visit a Politics forum. Greater forum fragmentation means more threads will be ignored, not fewer.
According to the latest numbers on Alexa the Straightdope’s traffic is as follows.
United States 72.2%
United Kingdom 5.7%
Canada 4.6%
India 2.5%
Germany 2.4%
So while we all know the US is not the only country in the world. It is by far the majority country of the Dope.
Maybe a Foreign Politics GD Subforum or Side Issues Forum would not be a bad idea. Or maybe just a general forum for Non-US issues so they would not get swallowed up as quickly as in GD and the other forums?
I don’t think pulling politics out of GD would help a thread on Elections in Australia but maybe Aussie and other non-US politic thread out of GD would help.
