Political Threads -- To Be or Not To Be

[TampaYankee]

Back on topic:

I've tried several times to put together a coherent post you might find helpful, but I keep getting lost in all the variables. ...

Random thoughts:...

Let me provide a general response to your thoughts. You touch on some revelant concerns of Oz and myself. Oz is very convivial and likes convivial environments. He would like to see more engaged interaction in the forums, as I would.

It is an empirical fact that these types of forums, here and elsewhere, attract less participation than in the past, independent of venue. Part of the reason for that, IMO, is the greater number of social network venues available today that didnt exist five to ten years ago. We were a much more closeted community then. It is my impression that during the hayday of Hooboy's board many, maybe even most, of the forum particpants were not really active clients, but gay and curious men looking for discussion about all sorts of topics including sexuality and escorts. Younger people (new blood) today are less closeted, if gay, and more accepting of gay lifetsyle among the straight today. Younger people are much more likely to gravitate to the new venues.

It is also an empirical fact that car wrecks and brawls attract, at a minimum, a crowd of onlookers and rubberneckers, and sometimes secondary accidents or addtional brawlers depending on the metaphor. Conflict attracts attention. Conflict also drives people away. Eventually too much conflict even drives many of the onlookers away. That tension is the fundamental basis of this thread question. The questions are: How much conflict is too much? How to control crossing that line wherever it is drawn.

Unlike adjusting the heat generated at a nuclear power plant pile by insertion and withdrawal of control rods, posters tend to resent control of themselves and some resent the failure to control others. Control rods don't have personalities and don't harbor resentments. That generates another level of conflict between the moderators and the primary actors and onlookers.

Increasing conflict increases traffic. It also drives away contributors. What is the proper balance? How to successfully control the heat generation. Can it be done? I have no problem with a separate politics forum if it is truly separate. Unfortuntately, people don't leave the rancor and insults behind in the politics forum. They bring it with them to other forums.

I appreciate your volunteering Oz for moderator of that forum. He is actually much better suited personalitywise for that. He is truly a nice guy and fun personality. He is unusually gracious even in tense interactions. He exercises discipline with a feather and humor. The Lord didn't see fit to imbue my personality with that style.

[AdamSmith]

I appreciate your volunteering Oz for moderator of that forum. He is actually much better suited personalitywise for that. He is truly a nice guy and fun personality. He is unusually gracious even in tense interactions. He exercises discipline with a feather and humor.

At the same time, good to see in today's "Dear Oz" thread where he draws the line.

[MsGuy]

Well, T.Y., I did notice that you have a decided preference for rolled newspapers over feathers, but, aside from that, the Lord seems to have cut you a fair deal in the personality department. IMO Oz's grace under pressure likely owes more to growing up gay in the deep South than to devine intervention. And down here humor helps keep the murder rate down.

Thanks for your thoughtful reply to my post. You both gave me new data and some insight into how you are going about deciding this. I'm beginning to suspect that I have become more interested in the process than the result. I wish I could offer something useful by way of response, but right now another matter has claimed all my limited capacity for serious thought. Plenty of room for fluff, but not for anything else requiring focus.

[Guest StuCotts]

Forgive me, but you also need more reviewers sending in fresh reviews. That's your life blood.

To my understanding, the situation with reviews isn't that TY doesn't receive enough reviews from new reviewers, it's that most of what he receives doesn't meet his commendably hard-nosed standard of suitability for posting. Hence the high incidence of the kind of reviewers and reviews that you seem to feel are dragging the site down.

Unless you review using a different screen name, you haven't yourself submitted anything that might help liven up the present situation. Just an observation. No reproach implied.

That's a tangent.

As to the topic at issue, the consensus here favors allowing political posts, with all that has come to imply. Vox populi.

One suggestion has been to sweep it all into a corner of its own. I don't see that it would reduce the potential for problems, but it would be tidier. Sadly for TY, I don't see either that it would lighten his work load, given that he'd have to ride herd anyway, lest the new place turn into some version of Edward Rochester's attic.

If that's what it comes to, I have a title that I request be considered alongside Townie's suggestion above. Call it Politics and Sundry Dross. That would leave the door open for topics other than politics that people like to beat each other up over, and maybe keep them out of the Pub.

[AdamSmith]

some version of Edward Rochester's attic.

Call it Politics and Sundry Dross.

How about Poopy-Time Fun Shapes, as above?

[Guest StuCotts]

How about Poopy-Time Fun Shapes, as above?

It definitely deserves to be placed in contention with the other distinguished submisions.