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Just an idea...

phragle

phragle

Charter Member
Would it be possible to have a seperate section in the 'lounge' entitled politics? This is afterall a boating site. While it encompasses much more than that as we all enjoy various things, we are experiencing growth as a boating destination on the web. These new people are coming from sites looking for something new and different, while getting away from some of the ugliness of other places. Without taking sides or presenting an opinion to the left right or center, these political posts are for lack of a better term getting 'ugly'. I am not against politcal discussion, I just think if it's going to be here, we should make a place for it so it does not contaminate the rest of the site.
 
phragle said:
Would it be possible to have a seperate section in the 'lounge' entitled politics? This is afterall a boating site. While it encompasses much more than that as we all enjoy various things, we are experiencing growth as a boating destination on the web. These new people are coming from sites looking for something new and different, while getting away from some of the ugliness of other places. Without taking sides or presenting an opinion to the left right or center, these political posts are for lack of a better term getting 'ugly'. I am not against politcal discussion, I just think if it's going to be here, we should make a place for it so it does not contaminate the rest of the site.
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That's what the bar is for. Anything non-boating.
 
Ratickle said:
That's what the bar is for. Anything non-boating.
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True... but I offer for example, smoking. if a great number of people don't smoke and the bar they go to is filled enough smoke to make you choke and your eyes water, that bar is not very hospitable. Now if that bar had a seperate smoking patio or seperate smoking and non smoking sections complete with smokeaters, that bar would be a much more friendly and welcoming place. I'm not trying to ban smoking, just trying to change things so that nonsmokers, smokers and occasional smokers find the bar a comfortable place to hang out.
 
A fine idea it is, thanks for suggesting it. As a matter of fact we have just discussed this topic.

However, we have more or less come to the conclusion that this is precisely for which we have created the bar.. It is the "miscellaneous," and/or "other" section - this encompasses politics.

If we followed the segregation route, we can sub-divide and split that section into dozens of sections ad nauseum, which wouldn't be productive.

It's kind of nice seeing all of the "other" topics in one consolidated location.

Rather that subvert one subset of topics or another, we have taken on the approach that we'd like to see everything and anything out in the open - fair game so to speak - for open and civil discussion. If that doesn't happen, we'll deal with it.

What we have tasked ourselves with is attempting to guide and 'officiate' the conversation instead of burying it. And we encourage all of our valued members to take an active roll in this regard if so so choose. It behooves us all to maintain order.

If this is abused and/or if it becomes a problem for certain individuals, we call in the bar bouncers - and we'd like to deal with that on a one-one basis and not impact the entire membership.
 
The politics threads are pretty apparent. And I don't see any real value in making the site more difficult to navigate to shield people from seeing the titles. Most use the "new posts" button anyway and you see them then.

It's not up to me to tell people what they should be interested in. And judging by the posting counts and views, people find them interesting- or at least entertaining.

That's just one man's viewpoint- if I'm missing something, go ahead and change my thinking on the subject.
 
All of your points are valid and I completely understand your reasoning Nick and Chris. It does suck though. The political threads are def overshadowing the important topics like giant tv's, redneck "hold-my-beer-watch-this" videos and of course MarylandMarks manhood debates :)
 
Dollabill said:
All of your points are valid and I completely understand your reasoning Nick and Chris. It does suck though. The political threads are def overshadowing the important topics like giant tv's, redneck "hold-my-beer-watch-this" videos and of course MarylandMarks manhood debates :)
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You forgot your drinking and strip bar overviews......:sifone:
 
Chris said:
The politics threads are pretty apparent. And I don't see any real value in making the site more difficult to navigate to shield people from seeing the titles.
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The problem is most of the political thread titles are worded in a way that is easily understood bashing. There's people out there who want to actually read and talk about performance boating without having to be reminded of the **** slinging that goes on in the bar forum.

Chris said:
Most use the "new posts" button anyway and you see them then.
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True, and on one of the other sites I frequent, they have it so the off topic forum does not come up in the result when you hit new posts. Uses the same software as this place, I can't imagine it would be very hard to do.
 
ImaPoser said:
True, and on one of the other sites I frequent, they have it so the off topic forum does not come up in the result when you hit new posts. Uses the same software as this place, I can't imagine it would be very hard to do.
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SO you can block sections from coming up in your new posts inquiry? Is it in the setup of your membership?
 
Chris said:
It's not up to me to tell people what they should be interested in. And judging by the posting counts and views, people find them interesting- or at least entertaining.

That's just one man's viewpoint- if I'm missing something, go ahead and change my thinking on the subject.
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Controlling peoples interests was not my intent in the least. My intent was to try and make the site a little more appealing and managable. I don't consider myself much more different than the rest (though most of you would like to see me commited to an institution), but ideally for me if politics were a seperate area,and I could check a box removing that area from th 'new posts" search, I would do it in a heartbeat. I strongly suspect I am not alone.
 
MarylandMark said:
Funny guy...

Politics are hot right now and it is Winter- IMHO those threads will die down sooner than later and we can get back to helping me figure out which closet system is the best.
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MM..as long as stay in the closet, I wil send you 3 rolls of pink flowered contact paper to line the shelves with... :sifone:
 
Ratickle said:
SO you can block sections from coming up in your new posts inquiry? Is it in the setup of your membership?
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No. It's done by the management. We had this same debate over there five years ago. As the site grew, there was no way you could get through all the 'new posts' as the traffic increased. Those that wanted to just see the on topic stuff with a new posts search won out, and they kicked all the off topic stuff out. Eventually, they added a second search button next to the new posts one just for the off topic new posts. Works great.
They have also split up the off topic forum. It started with just the politics and religion, but it worked so well there's now five different off topic sub forums and it works just fine.
That forum has over 120,000 members, and 11 million posts. Having the **** slinging separated from the useful information cause the site to grow exponentially.
 
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