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How To Grow The Forum

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Ice said:
Please can we have one thread that doesn't degenerate into a slanging match!
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I agree. It's a shame mr_michel decided to degenerate this thread into an opportunity to flame me, but I guess some people have no manners...either that or they can't read the topic title! - side note, maybe the 'topic title' should be displayed in a bolder font to prevent this?

Anyway, all this talk, talk, talk, but does it lead to change? Is there any way we are going to be granted the impossible wish of a political corner of thebookforum.com?
 
I have seen a number of forums of generally polite discussion become very rude over politics. There's a reason that there's that old saying about not discussing politics and religion. Even nice, adult people seem unable to be civil when discussing them. So, no, let's keep it book related around here. :)
 
Ou Be Low hoo said:
I agree. It's a shame mr_michel decided to degenerate this thread into an opportunity to flame me, but I guess some people have no manners...either that or they can't read the topic title! - side note, maybe the 'topic title' should be displayed in a bolder font to prevent this?
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even when you apparently can read, it seems you cant link a couple of posts in you mind, so when you said you didnt understand i simply elaborated.
 
If I'm not mistaken the Mods can also clip out OT posts or move them to another thread. Perhaps if there was a Flameout section they(the Mods) could trim offensive/slanging/flame-oriented posts and stuff them all in that area or, after repeated offenses, just delete the posts altogether. That way all the juveniles could enjoy each others company and leave the rest of the folks to post in peace. It gets kind of tedious reading through two or three pages of yes-you-are/no-I'm-not posts.

It takes quite a bit of enthusiasm and energy to hang in on a heated political/religious discussion. I think if you did set up a separate section for that in the Chat area certain folks would frequent it and everyone else would stay away--so its not too different from any other area you might set up. The problem is carryover. Are the folks who hang out there going to be objective and civilized enough to leave it behind when they leave that forum? Will their discussions stay in one spot or spill over into the other areas? Probably the latter. It would be left up to the Mods (surprise!) to wade in and bust heads when that happens.
 
Politics

With regard to the setting up of a Politics forum, this was done on Palimpsest a few months ago and so far hasn't degenerated into a bear-pit at all. It can be done, but you do need a relatively sensible user base.
 
Toadal said:
With regard to the setting up of a Politics forum, this was done on Palimpsest a few months ago and so far hasn't degenerated into a bear-pit at all. It can be done, but you do need a relatively sensible user base.
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The obvious quesion: Is the user base sensible enough for a political forum? should be answered before anything like this is implemented.
 
I think that the important point is that the rules of the forum state that there is to be no discussion of politics or religion. You may agree with that or you may not but that's totally irrelevant since these are the forum rules and they won't change for you or I. :)

I guess what I am saying is this: We are here, so let's just observe the rules that are there and have a good time :) As stated before, if you REALLY want to discuss politics you can always use the private message system, go to another forum ( there are many ) where you can indulge in that kind of discussion, or leave and make your own book forum where it's allowed :)
 
SillyWabbit said:
I think that the important point is that the rules of the forum state that there is to be no discussion of politics or religion. You may agree with that or you may not but that's totally irrelevant since these are the forum rules and they won't change for you or I.
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The rules also state this:

Membership Agreement said:
3.10 You must not post the same message in multiple forums. We have split the forums into specific areas. If you feel that there should be a new area, please make a suggestion.
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So, I think it is quite obvious what we are doing here...

Also, during my time spent on the bridge of suspension, I noticed MULTIPLE threads that are pretty much exactly the same as others which are already available...

For example:

'One more before you die' = 'Desert Island Books' = '5 Favourite Books' = 'Favorite 3 books of all time' = 'Recommend 1 to the world' = etc, etc...

Then in the General Chat forum we have these:

'What are you craving?', 'What are you snacking on today?', 'Sunday Breakfast', etc, etc...

PLUS about a hundred different threads regarding 'funny' pictures of animals!!

I think at least a political section would allow for some intelligent debate, don't you?
 
Political discussion forums are great imo, they encourage a lot of active participation from members, and also encourage guests to register when they see something they just have to respond to. So 'pulling' them into active membership and contribution.

Of the forums of this type that I use, its only very rarely that they get nasty at all. It all depends on the quality and frequency of moderation. They are though, ultimately, very stimulating.
 
The last semi-political thread that was in General Chat very quicly degenerated and had to be closed. I'm not convinced that the same won't happen if we have politics and/or religion areas.

I've chatted this over with the moderators before and the general opinion is that politics and religion are likely to cause a lot of problems.
 
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