Politics Forum: Necessary or Nuisance?

[abby]

Initially, we created the Politics forum here on QLC in order to separate heated, political debates from those threads more relevant to the ultimate goal of this site: to help each other through our qlc's.

Recently, however, it has been brought to our attention that these political postings have gotten out of hand and detract from the cooperative nature of this community.

As always thanks for your feedback!

[kitalyn414]

oh dear! well, i think that the politics forum is essential to the qlc website. as young voters, we are often thought of as unaware and uneducated. the politics forum has brought up lots of interesting & controversial topics, allowing those of us less schooled in the ways of government to learn more and participate without risk. i think the problem lies in the fact that some of the posts become too member specific and lengthy (i.e. the ephphatha vs. cheetah thread).


- kita

[kitalyn414]

oops, sorry! i didn't mean for you guys feel that you are victims of my example! it was just the 1st post that popped into my mind.

IN ADDITION, a second problem with the politics forum is the fact that people copy and paste articles. i think it would be much more effective debate tool if members provided original thoughts and then backed them up by offering links to the articles. either that or summarize and provide your own opinion.

just my $.02.

[lostindc]

I defininately think you should keep the politics forum (most of my posts seem to wind up there . . . and it keeps the political debates/ideologies/news reports etc out of the rest of the forums)

My 3 suggestions are:

1. Post links to articles instead of copying the text of the article (copying the text might violate copyright laws though I am not a lawyer)

2. No "private threads" (as interesting as the debate was e-mail/PM might have been a better venue if you wanted to limit who can respond) BTW this is not limited to the politics forum (just recycling the example WB) - there are threads in other forums that were intended to be "semiprivate conversations" between members.

3. Limit the length of each post- after a certain point no one is going to read the whole post while making it difficult for everyone to follow the thread.

[TranquilSkye]

well i hate the conversations that get out of hand in there, but i don't think the forum should be shut down. i just no longer look at it. those that want to argue should be allowed to argue :)

[coll214]

I agree w/ Tranquil. While i no longer read very much in their b/c of the length and craziness of it, I don't think that it should be shut down. Let those who want to argue, argue. Isn't that part of politics after all??

[Edibleautopsy]

Off topic and political forums on other message boards usually consist of nothing but flame wars and pissing matches. QLC is unique in that we're all here to help each other manage our miserable lives and the political forum just runs contrary to what this site is all about. It's like the red headed step child :razz:

If people want to rant about 9-11, right vs left, etc., let them do it on their blogs, livejournals or other message boards. Not here please.

I say we take off and nuke the politics forum from orbit - it's the only way to be sure.

EDIT: I just looked at the political forum again and it definitely needs stronger moderation, IMO. Without naming names, there appears to be a few in there who are, I guess you could say, a bit too militant? This is QLC.com and not Noam Chompksy.com nor Rush Limbaugh.com - if your only approach to political discussions is in your face "I'm right, you're wrong, now go and eat shit" then you should be banned. Be civilized and not an asshole. If you have an axe to grind then please do us all a favor and leave.

Besides, you're not going to sway anyone's opinion with vitriol even if it's backed up by facts. In all my experience on the net I have never, ever come across a post on a message board or newsgroup where someone replied, "Yes you're absolutely right, you've changed my opinion on this matter. Can we now be friends?"

Luckily we do have the power to add posters to our ignore list.

[Rainster]

I don't read half the threads on the Politics forum (especially the long ones!), and no one's forcing me to. The ones that I do read can get heated, but IMO that doesn't detract from the "community" aspect --people who disagree on a Politics (or Religion!) thread often agree on a Work or a Life thread.

Our age bracket tends to be ignored in the political arena, and older folks often assume 20somethings aren't interested in politics, so I always appreciate any venue that gives young people a space to discuss issues.

lostindc had 3 great suggestions about improving the forum --length, links, etc!

[RedHead1420]

Personally I like having the Politics forum to talk with people about their views, it's especially helpful in an almost-election year.

Sometimes, when the posts get really long winded, I don't read them simply because I don't have the time to read them carefully, but the people who are posting them seem to be having a good time doing so, so let's allow them to continue.

[Crossroads]

I'm with Edible. It seems like the political forums are more just a place to argue rather than share opinions or help people. I was wondering why they were even on this board in the first place.

[paulb]

i came to the website obviously for other reasons but have recently spent a lot of my time on the political issues. it is good to know that other people my age actually care about such issues. dating and career issues are certainly aspects of my life and and contribute to my quarterlife crisis. i am now doing a lot of reading (how i found out about this website to begin with) and become very involved with political issues and you could even say concerned. this concern is certainly part of my quarterlife crisis. i am sure the feeling of not having a great enough impact on society is a feeling that other members share. it is an issue that certainly shouldn't be ignored. my two cents.

[lostindc]

Maybe someone see the polical forum and realize that 20-somethings have political concerns and do vote. Most political issues are not geared toward 20 somethings. How many politcial speech involve overhauling medicare or mitigating the economic burden of prescription drugs for seniors? Not that these aren't important issues but compare that to the number of speeches concerned with mitigating the burden of student loans for today's twenty-somthings or protecting the air which we will be breathing in 40 years.

[jku]

Being in the TV/News business - and forced to write copy that is painfully simplistic and tediously objective - it's nice to have a place to share well-thought out ideas based on the glut of information out there. We live in an unprecedented time politically, and '04 will be pivotal in determining the course of America in the next 30 years.

Of course politics can lead to messy, long-winded discussions - but that is the foundation of this great Nation and the purpose the First Amendment.
Political speech was given the highest level of protection because our Founding Fathers understood how important it is to Democracy.

And this is exactly the kind of discourse we need in a Attention-Deficit Disorder society underpinned by a pseudo-amphetamine driven media culture. TV News is the place the majority of Americans get their information, and it's core values are being destroyed, replaced with soft-propaganda in a quest for ratings above all else.

Seeing how politics impacts our jobs, housing, healthcare, and money - I'm surprised to see that it's importance could even be put into question.

It's nice to find dissenting opinions and debates that can't be explored in polite social conversation. QLC is the only place to do that.
I have been forced to re-think my views on certain issues, and isn't being open to new ideas the hallmark of an educated person?

When posting, I find opinions to be of the utmost importance, but I also wonder how people come to their conclusions? That's why I feel it's important to cite sources and links. The suggestions by LOSTINDC are excellent; but the conversations that seem private are actually debates on issues open to everyone. More people should participate and contribute - the same people with the same predictable responses makes the forum anemic.

I think posting one-word replies and mildly insulting rambling phrases with no clear line of thought is what needs to be moderated. An objective "referee" open to both arguments, that concludes the "debate" - something akin to what WBrake did with the EPH/Cheetah debate - is also something that would help on the Politics forums.

There are many other places to discuss politics and issues, but what sites feature so many well-educated, articulate people under 30? QLC is the only one, and for that it's an oasis.

Thank you!

[haley]

I think the choice to remove the politics forum was right because it's the one thing that divides many of us. It's not like we talk about religion on this site and discuss how different we are in our religious beliefs. So, politics is one of those topics that polarizes us. Certainly being involved and thoughtful of politics is a smart thing to do. But is QLC the place for that? (I don't know)

Discussions are great -- when people know how to discuss. Some of us run over people's opinions and feelings. I think the nature of this site is community. I hardly posted in or read the politics forum (despite the fact that I'm a political science major!) because it seemed often one-sided, rude, and uninformative.

I think the "Current Events" idea is great. It focuses the discussion on certain events or issues; whereas the Politics forum would become a free-for-all and the discussions would be more about ideology.

The people arguing tended to be the guys on the site, so I wonder, can arguing really be avoided? Most members on this site seem to be female, and perhaps generally less argumentative and more supportive. So the overall expectation for the site is to be a supportive environment. But it's going to bring guys like me here too.

But now that the Politics forum is gone, it certainly seems more peaceful.

[cheshrcarol]

I, for one, miss the politics forum. I thought some of the discussions were pretty interesting and actually learned some things. And as someone else said, no one forced me to read it or to agree to anyone's opinions. And the (few) discussions I was involved in may have been heated, but throughout I always had the feeling that while we might disagree, we still have respect for others opinons.

[jku]

I've found a great place to get some intelligent political discourse:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
www.calpundit.com

In re to the politics forum, it was interesting when we were in the middle of them - but it takes time to write back and we do tend to get heated. It also seems that more general issues provide some unity among this scattered group of people all over the country.

If people do have questions, and do want to see both sides of an issue - I think I can make a strong case for the centrist-left position, while CK makes excellent points on the centrist-right.
If the administrators are willing to organize debates, so that QLC people who have questions about politics can see both sides of an issue - then I'm willing to enter that.

But an open forum with no regulation will lead to what it was before - good or bad - political discourse is what it is.