Maybe i'm the only political junkie here, but how about a section for political discussions? I mean, there's a whole section on food... Just a thought...

Not even remotely. And I second that emotion.

It was just a thought. I might be too liberal for all of you though.

Wow. This would be interesting, in this the election year. In the past I have been a hardcore Republican, not taking the time or interest in finding anything about the other candidates. This time around, I am checking things out. I think I will be a-political from now on, concentrating on issues, not party. Not that I don't love a good party.

Hmmm, some of us are pretty liberal. Wouldn't it be fun to see who the most liberal person here is?

gently. ease me gently into the open world of politics, other than Republican. Gently. shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......

Clearly you don't know our beloved SysAdmin very well.

I dunno, I have mixed feelings about this. I mean I really like y'all right now, it'll be a lot harder if I find out you're Republicans!

Seriously, based on my experience on other musically oriented boards, seems to me it would probably be wise to have a separate section dedicated to politics so those who aren't interested in discussing it or who just don't enjoy the inevitable heat of debate can easily avoid those threads.

hehehe... It's true! Your SysAdmin (that'd be ME, folks!) is a through-and-through foodie.

Honestly, the FOOD sections are a vestige from when the forums were hosted on my site. K&L liked the idea of them, so they came over too! I don't recall their original plans for the forums including food sections. Think of it as a bonus!

Personally, I don't feel that a band-related forum is the appropriate place for politics. After all, we come to OtR to get a break from the world. Discussion of politics rarely generates agreement or goodwill; two things this forum specifically seeks to generate!

That being said, I promised that I would ask K&L about adding it, and I will ask them. I'll do whatever they want me to do!

After some consideration, I'd be disinclined to support a call for a Politics forum. Or Humor for that matter. That sort of stuff seems like it has a home in General Chatter, IMHO.

Inviting political threads to the forums could go in one of two major directions: On one hand, you could have some thought-provoking, respectful, open-minded discussions take place among reasonably rational people of diverse opinions, as we unexpectedly saw in the recent same-sex marriages thread. On the other, the result could be a series of flame wars and name-calling, as happened to the Grotto on the diary-x forums. Every third thread there now disintegrates into calls of "Bush is a boobiehead" and broadly negative generalizations about fundamentalist Christians. So far, the group we have here seems likely to follow the first path, but it really only takes one malicious poster to spoil a beautiful community. Whatever the final decision is, I won't be a participant in American political debates.

It was just a thought. I figured if there's food and movies and TV, might as well be politics, especially since it's an election year. OTR fans seem like a pretty mellow bunch, I think it would work.

Besides, my job is so mind-numbingly dull, I need one more place to vent about republicans.

It is hard to imagine civil discourse anywhere--even in this forum--about politics in this election year, which so far has not been marked by reasonable appeals. I imagine a study of the primary season would find more refereces to Dean's "Yeeeaaaaaarrrgh" remark than to policy postions. IMHO the most reasonable of the primary candidates was Lieberman--pragmatism under a yarmulke--and he incited an enthusiasm on the order of a lecture on fungal infections among Amazonian toads. The two major candidates are so different--total absence of nuance vs. all nuance--that discussions have been questions about opposition claims followed by the talking points of the day. And even in this forum (pardon the reference) it has been suggested that the world would be better if W never existed? Perhaps it was just humor too subtle for my mental filters, but humor is most often where the best of us take vacations from our better judgement. Perhaps I fear even what I might post in a moment of weakness, like now.

It's more than a suggestion.

Sorry. I'm embarassed by my country.



Who was essentially a republican in everything but name...

I agree though, this has been the most absurd primary season ever, and we're now going to see the dirtiest campaign ever staged in modern politics, for two reasons. One, Bush has nothing positive to run on except vague themes like "strong leadership" and "stability in times of change" or whatever that ad said. The economy blows, he not only lied about Iraq but completely botched the whole operation, we're trillions in debt, and he just handed a gift to the drug companies so we have to pay more (well, I would if I actually had health insurance ). So he's going to resort to character attacks and unsubstantiated claims to support his re-election bid...and the second reason is that he'll have more money than any candidate in history with which to project those attacks.

Now, I'm not much of a Kerry fan...the guy sits on the fence more a pidgeon (plus I spent a few months heavily campaigning for Dean), but he's what we're stuck with. The media, with the Dean speech, has already shown that they couldn't care less about the issues, so really the only way I've found to have any kind of information and discussion on reality is on the net, sadly enough.

Wow, I really went off on a tangent, sorry guys.

Pardon me. In this season even arguing against discussing politics is a political argument. I guess I'm political in all but name and a little contradictory to boot. (Sorry about that.)

I don't think I've ever seen more people more divided than I have in the last two years.

Maybe during Vietnam, but I wasn't exactly alive then.

I don't have much to say on this, but I will add my two cents worth.

First, I am an independant that falls republican, and I enjoy politics. Already in this thread, there is a clear bent by the responses toward a general direction imo. I think that if a political section would be viable it would need to be about broader political ideas than specific parties and candidates. It is just to easy to have the latter topics disintegrate from both sides.

Secondly, it would really be a shame to disrupt the community with conversations that can be extremely devisive. While I don't think anyone here would intentionally do that. Politics tends to be a topic that can bring out the worst in people. I also think the medium of a forum makes it very difficult to grasp nuances of communication that are provided in face to face interactions. Afterall smilies can only go so far.

For these two reasons, I would be hesitant to support a political section, in spite of the potential for good thought provoking fun.

p.s. As another foodie, I happen to enjoy the food section

Speaking from my memories of the listserv discussions that ventured toward politics, I'd have to say that it might not be a wise idea. Anybdy remember the discussion on Sept. 11? I left the list for a Loooong time after that...

Folks looking for robust political discussion might try The New Pantagruel forums, though you shoudl expect to put yer thinking caps on...

The outbreak that occured over the Sept. 11th thing was provoked by one stupid and uncalled for comment....conversations have been much more civil since then. I would trust the people here to have political discussions.

Just my 2 cents.

We're not going to implement a Politics thread. It's just too potentially un-polite.

Ya know, I was thinking about this yesterday...like...maybe not a "politics" forum, because that can be rather polarizing, but have it be more like a place for current issues, political, religious, social, etc. More serious things that I wouldn't want to put in "general discussion' since that seems to be such a fun and lighthearted area.

On the Ytsejam forum, we have a "Seriosity" section that's for more serious topical discussion, either about current issues or sometimes people post about seroius things that are going on in their lives (since a lot of us over there go way back and are pretty close).

It just seems that there's a lot of cool people here and a lot of friends to be made (and a lot already made) and there are some things which might not fall under "OTR," "entertainment," or "food"...although sometimes I wish all life fell into one of those categories.

OK, end rambling...now.