And there are lots of places you can debate politics, movies, rant about your boss, lie about your IQ and bitch about how tough gym class was. There’s an infinite number of places to discuss anything discussed on the SDMB. None of the other forums are unique on the Internet. And the American-centric problem’s true of all the other forums, too.
Just in case anyone missed the links don’t ask posted earlier, TubaDiva’s post therein seems to make a thread like this pretty pointless for those of us who’d like to see a little more recognition for sports discussions:
Yeah, I know. Still, the dearth of an intelligent sports forum on the Web is unfortunate.
Wouldn’t want those dopey sports threads taking up valuable space that could be occupied by musings on misleading movie titles or the dearth of amateur lesbian porn, now would we?
I am with the contingent that would like to see a separate Sports Forum, but **TubaDiva ** and many other mods seem to be very against this.
This has come up many times in ATMB and elsewhere, sometimes as sidebars to other questions.
Reasons for it I have seen:
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The Administrators are very resistant to adding more Forums. They really do not want to.
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There appears to be a fear of the board being over run by sports fans and many of the sports threads just ending up in the pit. As noted, most Sports message boards are populated by what we would consider Trolls and Morons.
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Some Administrators and Moderators just seem to be anti-sport and want to keep us Sports nuts as Gypsies roaming the forums as dictated by the content of the Op.
Martini Enfield, we would see threads on Soccer and Cricket at least, probably many more than now in fact. It would also be extra useful during the Olympics.
So rejoice my friend, my Yanks are at the bottom currently.
Jim
While I could see some use to a Sports Forum I don’t really think it is necessary. But I do think the description of Cafe Society, which currently reads
“Our salon for art, drama, literature, movies, music, comics, cuisine…”
should also include sports and games.
Gangster, Dex has explicitly stated that sports are a Cafe topic, which means they are just like movies or tv shows. What is a never-ending source of annoyance to me is that sports threads are not given proper CS treatment.
Try and start a thread about a movie in IMHO, MPSIMS, or GQ and a mod will almost immediately kick it over to the Cafe, citing “the thread will do better/get more responses/reach its target audience better” in Cafe Society. These same mods simply will not move a sports thread, probably for the same logic. (I contend that they aren’t moved precisely because they would do better; the mods hate them and wish they would die, and keeping them spread among the different forums reduces their exposure and activity.) This in spite of the fact that their very own guidelines and precedents dictate that they should.
The only mod response I’ve ever gotten when I bring this up is “maybe the mods like sports threads, so they don’t want to kick them out of their forum.” Which is insultingly stupid.
One thing that seems to be completely off the table is the possibility of adjusting the forums in any way, despite the huge disparity in activity among them. This makes no sense to me; I’d estimate that a third to half of all new threads are created (or moved to) the Cafe. MPSIMS is a veritable ghost town in comparison. I would think that moving Sports over to MPSIMS would be a no-brainer, but the mods seem to feel this would violate some fundamental law. The irony is that MPSIMS is already a topic-based forum, not “type of discussion,” and yet they don’t want to put sports threads there because they “don’t split the forums by topic.”
Where do daily minutia threads belong? MPSIMS. Daily minutia is a topic. Where do health and fitness threads belong? MPSIMS. Also a topic. Picture threads? MPSIMS. Again, a topic. In addition to moving sports to MPSIMS, one would think food threads would be a perfect fit as well. Where do you see weight-loss threads? Diet threads? MPSIMS. How in the world can you logically put diet threads in a different forum than food threads? It makes no sense whatsoever.
If it were up to me, I’d leave all other forums as-is, but make the following changes to MPSIMS and CS:
MPSIMS gets food.
Cafe Society gets music, (comic) books, movies and scripted television shows.
A New Forum would get reality shows, sports, videogames; any kind of competition or game. This new forum, in effect, gets the dregs of the Cafe, and would be plenty active to merit being its own forum.
Ah, to dream.
ETA: Put all things alcohol in the new forum as well and call it The Pub.
Looks like my guess is off a bit. Including threads that were recently moved out of the forum, here’s the thread count for the Big Six in the last ten days:
468 General Questions
402 Cafe Society
323 MPSIMS
286 IMHO
127 Great Debates
99 The Pit
Even still, a separate Watering Hole forum would probably have similar thread volume as Great Debates, plus the thread nature would be pretty similar. (Long, many pages threads that lasted for months.)
This in turn would ease the Cafe load down to between IMHO and MPSIMS levels. And as a final bonus, the Cafe would be focused on a higher class of entertainment.
A win-win, says I!
Other mods and Admins responses have pointed out that Sports should go in the forum for the type of OP it is.
This is paraphrasing from memory but the examples went like this:
The All Star Game should pull good ratings this year. = Café.
Who is the greatest hitter of all time? = Great Debate
How many Perfect Games have there been? = General Questions
I love Hockey because it shows off so many skills. = MPSIMS
… Barry Bonds or Terrell Owens … = The Pit
What player should make the Hall of Fame this year? = IMHO
Where should a thread about Lacrosse go? = ATMB
I do hope they someday gather all of sports into one place, but if you search through ATMB threads, I think we will find different opinions from the staff and no willingness do resolve this issue except to keep things the way they are.
Jim
No, we wouldn’t.
Not for all of us.
There is, as should be obvious, no hard and fast rule for sports threads. I tend to deal with them by whim. My whim, lately, has been to not do anything with them, where ever they are.
Sports is suppose to have Vim, not Whim. Please try to get this correct.
I shall give this suggestion from a fan of a last place team all the due consideration is deserves. I will also note that had the season ended on Monday, the Orioles would be the wild-card team. I will also note that there is a Humphrey Bogart movie on TCM.
Which one? “To Have And Have Not?” Or “The Harder They Fall?” 
At the time I posted, “The Big Shot” Now, “High Sierra”. Later, “Angels with Dirty Faces”