…but seriously, we need a political forum, so we can have the tri forum for tri stuff, the lavender room for fun/random stuff, and the political forum for those 10-12 posters that enjoy that kind of stuff… seriously, the LR is starting to become a no-enter zone due to the majority of threads being US-politics related.
That or adding an ignore feature (ignore all posts from user X, ignore all posts from user X and all threads they start, ignore all posts from user X and replies to their posts) would go a long way in making things nicer, cmon, it’s not that hard to code.
Don’t click on the political/economic threads.
I don’t care if there is a separate political forum or not, but to be fair…
There are threads here that start off NOT political and someone turns it into one.
There are SO MANY political threads, it’s hard to wade through them to find GOOD threads. It would be one thing if there were just a couple…then the advice to just “change the channel” so to speak would be pretty appropriate…but when (seemingly) the majority of the threads are political (or made to be)…it’s not.
that was workable while there were only a couple, looking at the current LR I’d say at least half the threads on the page are political. Also even without clicking every time I get here I am exposed to a barrage of ‘Obama this’ ‘GOP that’ ‘Stock Market this and it’s all xyz’s fault’ etc. etc. which gets tiring.
I’m not trying to be an ass here, but what exactly would be posted in this “Other” off topic forum?
I think you’re seeing an over abundance of political, policy etc type of posts these days because the majority of people here are in one way or another under a particularly large amount of stress due to exactly these issues.
Yes there are some that pretty much post worthlessness and on every minutia of nothingness they can try to demonize this or that as evil…you’re going to have that in both forums if you make two.
Point is that in the US an even the world we are in a true instant of “Change”. People are going to want to discuss, argue and fight about that and that will invade any “Off topic” thread in any forum. You could probably post about fuzzy bunnies and someone will comment on how the latest policy will kill them.
IIRC, and going by the name, the Lavender Room was originally created to have somewhere for Tibbs and friends to go and troll each other without upsetting the main room.
I agree with the OP, that there should be Lavender and Off-Topic. The topics don’t necessarily have to be different, but the behavior can be. There are plenty of intelligent people on this board (assuming a normal distribution), who would like to have a serious discussion without it degrading into 2nd grade name-calling.
Ultimately, it’s Dan’s board and he can do whatever the hell he wants, but I think an Off-Topic board would be beneficial. I’ve asked before for personal user filters (ignore all comments from specified users), but it’s been ignored.
I’m all for a politics board. I hate that every freakin thread turns into something about politics.
And here’s the thing - I’d wager hardly ANYONE has ever changed their political beliefs because some anonymous rube on a messageboard posted his/her opinion.
I’m not trying to be an ass here, but what exactly would be posted in this “Other” off topic forum?
the LR seemed to work fine during the several years before the last Presidential election, I am not opposed to the occasional political thread (politics is of course interesting for some people more than others) but lately it seems the LR has become mostly about Fear/Uncertainty/Doubt/Trolling more than anything else.
LR about cats/dogs/random nothings ala Seinfeld with a couple of political threads thrown in, sure
LR about political threads with a couple of cats/dogs/random nothings thrown in, not as good
In Reply ToYou could probably post about fuzzy bunnies and someone will comment on how the latest policy will kill them.
this is where having a separate forum and/or a sane ignore function would come in (given that there is very little moderation here)
So where would I post about the weight and yaw angle of Obama’s new Zipp 1080s that he was time trialing with around DC, while he thought about socailizing medicine and his secret desire to have Michelle get an MDot tattoo on her ass. Perhaps a special “Obama Sucks-Zipp-Tatt” forum!
the LR seemed to work fine during the several years before the last Presidential election, I am not opposed to the occasional political thread (politics is of course interesting for some people more than others) but lately it seems the LR has become mostly about Fear/Uncertainty/Doubt/Trolling more than anything else.
So I looked back at a page at a similar time post the last election. That page contained no less that 12 political threads. Considering times were relatively calm and the election was relatively uneventful I’d say that was pretty comparable to what’s going on now.
Again I think we are looking at a situation of uncertain times and massive changes, you can only expect people to get passionate and post about what’s really on their mind. At this point past the election in 2004 people had all but forgot “policy changes” except when something popped up. The current conditions and current adminstration are making sweeping changes and the economy is tanking. You can expect more comment.
this is where having a separate forum and/or a sane ignore function would come in (given that there is very little moderation here)
My point is this, if people wanted to talk about “Cat’s and dogs” they would post about it and do. Most people are very concerned about politics and the economy at this point and the forum reflects that. Separating into another forum will either create two forums talking about the economy or one forum that is dead with an occasional cat story and everyone else still talking about the economy.
The LR is the OT forum. If it’s not tri or endurance sport related, it goes here in the LR. If most of the OT threads are political, then that’s what the forum is. If more people wanted to post OT threads about things not related to politics, then they would do so. The LR doesn’t move nearly as fast as the main forum, so it’s not difficult to keep up with what’s new. If people don’t want to read political threads, then don’t read them. But if you want to read threads about subjects that aren’t currently covered in the LR, you either need to start some of those threads, or find somewhere else to peruse. The simple truth is that the fact that there isn’t another forum isn’t what’s keeping anyone from starting non-political threads. In fact, there are plenty of non-political threads in the LR right now.
I’m not arguing about the content, I’m arguing about the behavior. There are so many prolific trolls in here, it’s hard to have a legitimate debate without those jokers derailing a serious discussion. There’s a small number of people that seem to enjoy trolling that prevent any legitimate discussion about (primarily) political topics, (look at this thread, for example) or turn any discussion into a political one.
I think it’s endemic of our group, somehow. Just try and start a serious Lance discussion in the main forum. Same behavior. Dan seems fine with it (since he and the mods don’t do much to prevent it), so we’ll just have to live with it. I remember Lowtax’s rules for controlling the old Something Awful forums, and lo, did the banhammer fly. And it was good. If he can keep that bunch of kindergartners in line, surely Dan can keep the trolls to a dull roar if he cared to.
There are so many prolific trolls in here, it’s hard to have a legitimate debate without those jokers derailing a serious discussion.
Actually it’s very easy if the people who are trying to have the discussion continue to have the discussion and don’t get caught up in the troll.
Maybe parents are better at this as we’ve learned how to ignore or deal with trolls
Seriously, you don’t HAVE to respond to a post. If you’re having a discussion with someone(s) and a person responds that you believe is responding only to “Derail” the discussion, simply ignore them and respond civilly to the person(s) you’re discussing with. It’s really not that hard at all and I personally don’t see why some people have such a hard time with it.
