Rant: Caring more about politics than baseball

[lukethedrifter]

I object to jim's characterization that the Cops thread is awful unless he means it's awful that it needs to exist. But he's not.

There are a ton of great links in there that can inform people. Sure, it would be helpful if the I Hate Pigs crowd didn't alway jump in with Kill the Pigs but that doesn't change the content of the threads and the thoughts and ideas that get communicated. Sharing information about corruption is nothing to be ashamed of.

go birds, what's the issue with the gun control thread? If you always get turned away because one or two posters goes over the top, you aren't going to stick around many topics. Besides, you do that on occasion like many of us do.

[go birds]

the whole political nature of it really.

and yea, im guilty of hit and run but i very rarely post in those threads unless im drunk which is a big no-no and something ive tried to refrain from doing more recently!

[TimeForGuinness]

I'm still upset about The Clash vs ZZ Top...

Political discussions, baseball arguments, religious differences...all forgivable.

...but the people that voted for ZZ Top over The Clash in the Music Tournament should be forced to root for the Cubs...for eternity.

[Arthur Dent]

I'm not bothered by the prospect of excessive political talk, so that doesn't seem like a problem. I'm with you in spirit, but if people think that might actually help, then I'm fine with it. I browse the forum by "view active topics" so the specific forums are moot to me.

If people have a problem with the political conversations going on now, it seems strange to me to dedicate a whole forum to it. There are two possible directions: Increased activity on political topics, which takes energy away from everything else, or a ghetto not unlike Fantasy Sports. Neither of these are positive outcomes. Also, keeping political discussion in social, I think, helps improve the tone. If it is banished to a separate forum, the implication is that you can behave however you like. It's like a free speech zone where we put this stuff we don't like so it can be ignored. To the extent that political discussion has functioned better here than other places, a major reason, I think, is that politics is treated as a normal social topic. As a normal social topic, the usual rules governing social behavior should be observed. To the extent they are not, abandoning the effort is not the solution.

Not to be overly critical, but this is muddy to me. If more moderating is good, there has to be some way to know what's bothersome to members, and "tone" is subjective IMO, and hard to moderate.

Personal judgement? Consensus discussion? I could start reporting posts if that's what desired, but again, as a non-mod, this feels inappropriate to me. Isn't the major function of moderating deciding what is an is not appropriate and then guiding discussion with that in mind? Of course it's fuzzy and subjective. That's just the territory.

[jim]

I object to jim's characterization that the Cops thread is awful unless he means it's awful that it needs to exist. But he's not.

There are a ton of great links in there that can inform people. Sure, it would be helpful if the I Hate Pigs crowd didn't alway jump in with Kill the Pigs but that doesn't change the content of the threads and the thoughts and ideas that get communicated. Sharing information about corruption is nothing to be ashamed of.

I meant that the Kill the Pigs comments were not helpful. That is all.

[lukethedrifter]

I think ghost is referring to crowd sourcing the moderation of the forum basically.

Agree with AD on keeping it politics a part of the rest of social. I prefer when they aren't compartmentalized.

[jim]

I'm not bothered by the prospect of excessive political talk, so that doesn't seem like a problem. I'm with you in spirit, but if people think that might actually help, then I'm fine with it. I browse the forum by "view active topics" so the specific forums are moot to me.

If people have a problem with the political conversations going on now, it seems strange to me to dedicate a whole forum to it. There are two possible directions: Increased activity on political topics, which takes energy away from everything else, or a ghetto not unlike Fantasy Sports. Neither of these are positive outcomes. Also, keeping political discussion in social, I think, helps improve the tone. If it is banished to a separate forum, the implication is that you can behave however you like. It's like a free speech zone where we put this stuff we don't like so it can be ignored. To the extent that political discussion has functioned better here than other places, a major reason, I think, is that politics is treated as a normal social topic. As a normal social topic, the usual rules governing social behavior should be observed. To the extent they are not, abandoning the effort is not the solution.

Not to be overly critical, but this is muddy to me. If more moderating is good, there has to be some way to know what's bothersome to members, and "tone" is subjective IMO, and hard to moderate.

Personal judgement? Consensus discussion? I could start reporting posts if that's what desired, but again, as a non-mod, this feels inappropriate to me. Isn't the major function of moderating deciding what is an is not appropriate and then guiding discussion with that in mind? Of course it's fuzzy and subjective. That's just the territory.

I would be in favor of a forum to serious social issues, not just THE political thread. But I've already written that so I'm repeating myself. I do see your point about perhaps making things worse for political stuff with it's own forum.

Maybe nothing needs to change except for some warmer weather.

[lukethedrifter]

I object to jim's characterization that the Cops thread is awful unless he means it's awful that it needs to exist. But he's not.

There are a ton of great links in there that can inform people. Sure, it would be helpful if the I Hate Pigs crowd didn't alway jump in with Kill the Pigs but that doesn't change the content of the threads and the thoughts and ideas that get communicated. Sharing information about corruption is nothing to be ashamed of.

I meant that the Kill the Pigs comments were not helpful. That is all.

They aren't. They do the opposite of help to inform people and in fact become something you have to overlook in order to read on.
I guess I've done enough hanging around people who don't share my views or tastes in much of anything, some who said some pretty ugly stuff, that I have been able to appreciate them for the likable traits and ignore the others.
Same here.

[ghostrunner]

I'm not bothered by the prospect of excessive political talk, so that doesn't seem like a problem. I'm with you in spirit, but if people think that might actually help, then I'm fine with it. I browse the forum by "view active topics" so the specific forums are moot to me.

If people have a problem with the political conversations going on now, it seems strange to me to dedicate a whole forum to it. There are two possible directions: Increased activity on political topics, which takes energy away from everything else, or a ghetto not unlike Fantasy Sports. Neither of these are positive outcomes. Also, keeping political discussion in social, I think, helps improve the tone. If it is banished to a separate forum, the implication is that you can behave however you like. It's like a free speech zone where we put this stuff we don't like so it can be ignored. To the extent that political discussion has functioned better here than other places, a major reason, I think, is that politics is treated as a normal social topic. As a normal social topic, the usual rules governing social behavior should be observed. To the extent they are not, abandoning the effort is not the solution.

Fair points. I'm not married to the idea.

Personal judgement? Consensus discussion? I could start reporting posts if that's what desired, but again, as a non-mod, this feels inappropriate to me. Isn't the major function of moderating deciding what is an is not appropriate and then guiding discussion with that in mind? Of course it's fuzzy and subjective. That's just the territory.

It seems like that's what we do now. Unless someone brings a complaint like this one up, I assume things are largely ok.

We've had complaints periodically on the tone of baseball threads, and particularly game threads. I've brought up those concerns as have a few others, but generally the consensus seems to be that it's a place where people let off steam and most are ok with the tone. I'm not ok with it (as a member, not a mod), and I think they suck. So my approach is frankly to stay out and hopefully another mod will deal with it.

I think the hope is that between the 6-7 of us, we see most everything, but things are going to slip between the cracks. I don't see any way around the report function as part of the moderation.

[Jocephus]

is this one of those weeks michael is in vegas completely oblivious to what is happening here at GRB? haha