Should there be a seperate US election forum?

[goddesscon]

Should we host a seperate forum for the US elections?

[goddesscon]

The reason I started this poll is because some of our world posters are being worn out by US election and candidate topics... pushing the forum further away from World events...
I want to know what our posters truely feel about this..
Thanks to all who read and vote..
Your input is appreciated...

[Zan de Man]

A while ago I would have said no. Now I'm worn out and turned off by it all. I've also noticed that some American posters are beginning to treat the board as if it wasn't international. They simply post American topics and assume that they are universal. Prayer in schools is one example. If the thread title, or the introductory post, had acknowledged that it was purely an American issue, it wouldn't have been so bad.

It's getting like the rest of us are just interlopers with nothing of interest to say if it doesn't have an American slant.

Frankly, I'm sick to death of it.

[ninjalooter1701]

But, but, isn't the US the center of the world????

I'm an American, damn it!

[Zan de Man]

Apparently. In the minds of some of our posters. :/

[Dave]

I'm definately of the opinion that there should be a seperate forum solely for discussion of American Politics.

That way the rest of us and believe it or not the overall majority of posters can carry on unaffected by the Bush Kerry saga if we so wish.

[Francois Cellier]

Zan:

There are many international posters, but there aren't "international interests." There may be Swiss interests, or Taiwanese interests, or Columbian interests, but nothing that binds them together. Thus, even if roughly 50% of the posters on this board are non-Americans, the American interests still represent an overwhelming majority.

Consequently, when I post a story about something happening in Switzerland, or Taiwan, or Columbia, there will invariably be a much smaller echo, than when I post a story with a U.S. focus (which evidently also includes international stories that involve U.S. interests, such as Iraq).

I am afraid, this is simply a reality of the world as it is right now. The web is by and large predominantly U.S. centered, and political events emanating in the U.S. have often implications for the entire world, thus these stories are invariably of interest to all of us.

What may help is to have a U.S. election thread with a sticky, similar to the Iraq thread that we had for some time, so that posts related to the U.S. election can all be posted in the same thread. For this, we don't need a separate forum. A special sticky thread should do the trick.

Separate forums (actually, it should be fora) have a tendency to segragate. On some occasions, this may be desired. For example, I am all in favor of the Anything Goes forum. Its purpose is to amuse. Thus, those who want to be amused should visit that forum, but no discussion bridging politics and jokes is necessary or particularly useful. Similarly, I am in favor of the General Chat forum. It was created to preserve topics of general interest for longer, without having them disappear quickly to page 17. The X Files forum was created to be able to clean up the other fora without censorship, i.e., inappropriate posts no longer bother, but they are still visible for those who want to see them.

Yet, we shouldn't separate American topics from other topics. The effect might be that Americans in the future only visit the American forum, whereas non-Americans only visit the other forum. This would essentially kill the dialogue between Americans and non-Americans, which is one of the high-lights of P&CA. There are lots of fora on the web, where Americans stay pretty much among themselves, because others are too annoyed, or bored stiff, or censored. Let's not create another one of those!

[Zan de Man]

Francois

It isn't just the dominance of US topics that gets to me. It's the assumption of some US posters that their domestic topics are universal. These people don't even take the time to set their posts in a US context. They are so confident that this is a US board now that they simply steam ahead.

None of the other boards I post on have this problem.

Normally I'd agree with you about the ghettoising of posts, but I'm afraid my patience has run out with the arrogance of these nursery school bores. And I'm not advocating a separate American forum: simply a separate election bores' forum for the duration.

[toolman846]

Good God YES!!!!! And then, please take the next logical step, and banish all that sophomoric "my guy's great, your guy sucks" crap to THAT forum. So the rest of us might actually be able to talk about some important things, like how to not have wars any more, or global warming - is it real, and if it is, what should we do - or how best to implement the necessary conservation measures before we're all looking at the bottom of the barrel - the oil barrel. You know, REAL topics like that. The X- Files have worked beautifully as a venting place.

And the, the minute that some nitwit strays back to political comparisons, apply Goddesscon's Law Number One -"Thou Shalt Not Wring In Political Comparisons". :lol

Any violators would have to wear a dunce cap for a month.

[kramsret]

http://www.politicsandcurrentaffairs.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=562

I've known all along that a separate US elections forum was not a matter of IF, but WHEN. :lol :lol

This is my THIRD presidential election online, and I know the score. As bad as we might be normally, it gets worse, and you have people like Silver show up--political spammers--who will disappear after the election.

[Jayne B]

It didn't seem necessary a month or so ago, but I agree the polemics between Americans and time-wasting for non-Americans are only going to get worse between now and November (or possibly longer, if it's again close enough for recounts/electorial college/supreme court intervention). I've seen whole boards disintegrate over the nastiness accompanying an election.

I would suggest, though, that it be listed immediately below 'World Events' on the index page, so it's not a big alteration in anybody's 'clicking' habits.

And that any time a thread in W.E. degenerates into a Dem/Rep, Bush/Kerry US lib/con pissing match, the mods split it over to the election forum immediately.

[lily]

I'd say definately yes. The closer it gets the hotter it's going to be...........BUT how do we keep the "It's Bush's Fault" out of every other conversation :rofl

As long as we're taking requests. I have been catching up on soe threads...........can we have a seperate board for those that respond ot a C&P with another C&P? I thought this board was for opinions :dunno

[jpn of Seattle]

It isn't just the dominance of US topics that gets to me. It's the assumption of some US posters that their domestic topics are universal. These people don't even take the time to set their posts in a US context.

Totally guilty. You know, it really hadn't even occured to me that this was an "international" forum. Although the Internet knows no national boundries, all my posting is always with the US in mind.
Frankly, I haven't seen a great number of postings that have an international flavor. So what are the 50% of you doing, sitting on your hands?
One problem with international topics is that they may require a certain amount of knowledge, such as international trade (outsourcing), foreign affiars other than Iraq, etc. Many people aren't that well educated on these issues.

As far as separate fora, I'm against it. It's just tedious going through a bunch of different topics to find something of interest.

Zan, do you have an international forum to recommend? I'd be interested.

[goddesscon]

jpn...THIS IS an INTERNATIONAL board...Its just strayed more into US politics because of the electin AND Iraq...I am sorry you had not understood that when you signed up...afterall the main forum is called World Events...which means..to me at least...not just the USA but the rest of the world as well.
Now ...I remember the very beginning of this place on EZboard and it was truly International..That was before the war in Iraq and the impending election here in the states...
Anywho...I am tired of the constant fighting about this election and see the board fighting turmoil...so to try and keep the board going..I did not word my question as it should have been...
Should we have a TEMPORARY US Forum?...Just til the election is over in November???
Now mind you key word here is TEMPORARY... I can change the poll if needs be...
So far I would like to thank the participants of this poll and all of your feedback..
We're going to try and find happy medium for this !...

[kramsret]

I think you're thinking it to death. Just do it, for God's sake.

[Dave]

Just done it. Very close in the votes, but hopefully it will be well received.

[goddesscon]

Ahhh shut up krammie...;)
Daavros already did .... :boob
Now Silver has an empty canvass she can spam....

[Zan de Man]

Thank you. Now if I choose to visit it I know what to expect.