Private Political Discussion Forum?

[Greg]

What is everyone's thoughts on having a private political discussion forum here? All members would be welcome to join the group that would be provided access if they so desire, but those not interested in politics can simply not join and would not even see the forum as a result.

I see a number of benefits. For example, this would cut out the political noise from the Miscellaneous Forum. Any new threads in Miscellaneous that evolve into a political discussion can be moved and instructions on how to join the group to continue the discussion would be posted. Another benefit is these heated political threads would not be indexed by the search engines so we would not see folks registering here just to flame. Finally, from a moderation standpoint, it adds a nice layer whereby problem users can be removed from the group and thus denied access to the political forum, but not banned entirely from the forum proper.

Some may question whether a political forum would be out of place here. Remember, not long ago, we decided to shelve the Mountain Bike Forum idea because it would make AZ 'too broad'. As always, I'm reluctant to add additional forums, but I feel the pros outweigh the cons here especially since this forum will be of an 'opt-in' nature. Again, it won't even be visible to guests and members that don't join the group. Thoughts?

[pizza]

All boards get political discussions, and this board is no different. The question you should ask yourself as the administrator is this: Does a dedicated politics discussion further the purpose of the board? I don't think so, and that's why I voted "no." These political discussions are relatively few and far between here (note I said "relatively") and are easy to avoid by those not interested.

[ChileMass]

I think it's a good idea. As several people have said, all boards get some political action, and if we have a dedicated political "parking lot" we can dump these arguments in there and leave everyone else out of it. Plus, these things can be fun - I think everyone who's been involved the past couple of days would agree. Hell, even dmc and Stephen managed to make up.....

[Jaytrek57]

I vote no.

Why not a Sports forum, Music, or (insert topic here) forum?

I like AZ b/c it is a bit looser than some other sites. I try to stay out of the "political" threads as much as possible, but from time to time I might be drawn in. Being raised Irish Catholic, you learn not to talk religion or politics at social functions . And well I guess this bulletin board in way provides that for me.

Anyone who has spent any time at backpacker.com can tell you that, that BBS is ALL over the freaking place. I would hate to see that happen to AZ.

Save the "politics" for other sites, which I am sure there are plenty. Let's have more hiking, skiing and outdoor related discussions.

JMHO!

[Stephen]

I used to visit AMC all the time, but the M&M sucked me in to so many discussions, that I never had time to visit the rest of the site. I'm sure it's a great resource, but I have no desire to go back after my experiences in the politcal discussions.

I voted yes, as it provides a layer of distance between AZ and what could be construed as "over the top" comments (of which I myself have even been guilty of).

-Stephen

[riverc0il]

i think most of us participating in the political discussions may have gone over the top on comments at times. politics is something so many people feel very passionite about and topics do tend to generate strong responses. AZ's political topics though have been sticking very close to the issues and have not gone south the way mountains and molehills on AMC forums went. i think the community hear has a high level of respect for those that we have disagreements with which is a big difference between flaming matches and AMC M&M style discussions. i do not think a seperate forum would result in that type of M&M issues and there seems to be enough chatter in the Misc forum to warrent it. i also hate seeing a board break down into too many sub-divisions, but i think the number of related posts may warrent it. whereas when the mountain bike forum came up, hardly any mountain bike posts are ever made or if they are, they do not merit a lot of comments and views.

[ALLSKIING]

I think its a win win. Yes for me.

[SilentCal]

I voted yes. I started the thread on gasoline prices and it's subject matter got turned around so completely that after a page or two, you did not know what the orginal post was about. While it's truly amusing to read the banter back and forth, sometimes it just gets a little bit out of whack. It's so amusing to read the apologies to each other when you know dammed well they are saying "that guy is a total !@#$^ moron". I feel the way that some people cut each other up is such outstanding comedy that you should regulate it because of it's venom.

The regular people who come here for basic information on skiing or hiking don't need to be subjected to that kind of banter. Maybe after 15 posts the politcal thread could be unlocked for you if you choose. I'm sure there have been politcal posters who neither hike nor ski but just post to get attention.

[pizza]

How about an "everything else" forum?
This is where you post any message that isn't related to a forum that already exists. That would include politics, music, and pro sports.

It solves the problem without altering the direction of the web site.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by pizza

How about an "everything else" forum?
This is where you post any message that isn't related to a forum that already exists. That would include politics, music, and pro sports.

It solves the problem without altering the direction of the web site.

That was the original intent of the misc forum. However political threads make up more than have of the misc now... and the other half seem to turn politcal at one point or another.

I think what Greg is trying to offer may be an alternative to nixing politcal discussions, as they can be overbearing and hijack an otherwise legitimate discussion (as was pointed out above).

To use the Mtn Bike example, I'm sure if over half the threads in the misc forum were about mountain biking, we'd be pretty quick to channel that into it's own forum.

-Stephen