Too Many Topics About US Election May Alienate Some Users

Wow. Dude. Thats quite the anecdote.

Here's a thumbnail sketch of how most of Canada became Anglicized (with the notable exception of Quebec). As you suggest, Mame, Set could do a far better job of it, but he ain't here so you'll just have to put up with my faulty memory.

Until the conflict which in the US is known as the French and Indian Wars (think Last of the Mohicans) or in the UK as Queen Anne's War, any place that was known as Canada or a part of Canada was a colony of France. This was territory that was a hell of a lot bigger than present-day Canada. It included large parts of what today is the US Midwest. Most of what later came to be known as the Louisiana Purchase was, in the early days, a part of Canada. There are still places in Oklahoma and elsewhere that have the name of Canada in them: Canada Creek, Canadian River etc.

When the French and the English went to war in Europe, the British Colonists in New England took part by attacking French possessions in North America. A very young George Washington made his reputation here by capturing Fort Duquesne (site of present-day Pittsburgh, PA. The final outcome of that war was in favor of the English. As part of the spoils, they took possession of all the Eastern Colonies that France had (essentially present-day Quebec, parts of Ontario, parts of the Maritime provinces). The Francophone Quebecois were given a very limited amount of autonomy, mainly in that His Royal Majesty in London and his minions were willing to accept the fact that these people did not, and would not, speak the King's English. There was trouble from the git-go and it has not abated over the centuries.

Many Quebecois have never given up hope that at some time in the future they might become an independent country. Economically, that would be suicidal. The statistics clearly show that more Canadian Federal tax dollars go to shore up Quebec than go to any other province. Self-supporting they're not. But many feel little or no connection to the Anglophone majority and the dream lives on.

If there are any egregious errors of fact in the above thumbnail sketch, I'm sure I'll stand corrected (and properly excoriated).

There is a basic contradiction here.

1) We are all tired of the election (except for nimh and Soz).
2) We are making too many threads about the election.

((Or are nimh and Sozobe making all of the threads)).

Yeah, I see the paradox. I think the problem is semantic, though. It lies in "our" use of the first person plural pronoun.

I kinda think it's the girls.

Ain't it. And as I was the first relationship the lady undertook after her divorce from this "domestic terrorist", trust was something of an issue. It took eight years to finally convince her that I deserved to be treated differently and dumped for quite other reasons.

Partly psychological I think.

On the old A2k, creating new thread about political stuff for a specific story or element was almost encouraged so that we could keep our threads specific (even though they always derail, lol). Now, we see a story or a event and think new topic instead of going to an older thread and the product ends up not just effecting the politics threads, it effects the entire sites' topic-geography so to speak.

Looking at the home page, it feels like A2K is too political and too specific to the USA in my opinion.

Maybe the main page algorithm should use the topic tags, and exclude reoccurring tags if there is like two (arbitrary) or more?

E.g. - You might see the two US elections threads on the front and perhaps they are the most recently added/updated/posted/popular but you would also see other topics being pushed forward.

I'm giving my 2 cents so often these days, I think I'm down a dollar...

T
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Actually I think TKO has a point. Newbies looking in are likely to see a homepage that is full of insulting or hateful or judgmental political thread titles--unless the author is somebody I especially trust, most of of these I automatically vote down and move on no matter who starts them but the newbie sees them all--and see a scattered hodgepodge of other stuff where the thread title often has nothing to do with the thread theme if there is a thread theme or there is no organization whatsoever. It is confusing. And often, after he or she has explored a bit and tries to return to a thread that did interest him or her, s/he can no longer find it.

If that Newbie is not politically orientated he or unless something else of specific interest stands out--and for that to happen would be a real crap shoot--she will likely shudder and move on.

That probably accounts for why we have so few newbies joining the A2K family these days. Those I have invited have looked and reported no way, Jose.

we have had the new a2k long enough now to see how it changes the culture, but we also should have enough history to see how it changes recruitment of new members. Site managers have the data on newcomer numbers and post production from newbies, the also might even have numbers on things like page views by new unique users. I call on Craven to come clean with how well his new creation is working, or not working. I don't see a lot of new posts from new people myself.

I think we're getting as many new members to sign up as we ever did. And that is Craven's bread and butter and what he has to be most concerned with. The overall population of members and guests is way up and that is a good thing.

What we're not seeing is many new members figuring out how to navigate here and joining the A2K community and we are seeing many old ones throwing up their hands in despair and leaving. So as before, many come in and make one post and leave. But we're not getting our former percentage of first timers who decide to stay.

For those of us who don't want to lose the A2K community, we might have to work harder at providing more orientation for new members and making them feel welcome until all the wrinkles are worked out here.

Deist; I don't think you were here 4 years ago or you'd realize U.S. politics dominating the board during an election year is par for the course. As Nimh said; want to talk about something else? Start a thread about it. Not interested in starting one, and would just like to read something interesting that isn't politics related? I'd recommend you first click on Robert's name and then scroll through his posts. He has started so very many interesting topics in the last month it would keep you busy for a month just reading the stories he's linking. Really interesting stuff to be found that way. Really. The more you comment and/or tag on the stuff that interests you the more the home page will begin to reflect it.

You too Merry. Tagging is your friend. You’ll notice a “My Tags” column at the top which is like the old clicking of “My Topics” + every other topic you’ve found interesting enough to Tag. This allows you to instantly identify threads that may interest you later, even if you don’t have time to read/post and otherwise help keep them on top now. Try it before deciding you don’t like it. You may find out you do.

Correct. As it was eight years ago on Abuzz (and there it was really worse).

The fact that I've been given the suggestion to start other topics is ironic because I have been. If you don't know that I have, it might be because the new system makes it harder for people to find them.

Other than that, even though I wasn't here in 2004, I think the point remains. Back on the old A2K, the politics threads were all together, and other ideas were grouped too. If you didn't come here for politics, you could easily navigate the site to go to the topics you were interested in.

I might add to Fox's point about new users that new users may also be turned off to the site due to how different it is from other BBS/BBL/PHP forums which for the most part are very easy to use. If you know one, you know them all. A new user may come here and get frustrated trying to figure out how to put up an avatar and since they don't know the tagging system yet, they might not be able to find the thread where they learn how to do it. Ultimately in the end, people may opt out of A2K for the assumption that it is only about US politics or the general peripherals are to different.

If you came here, you might not know where to find the

S&R threads
R&M threads
etc

We used to get all sorts of new users just for the R&M threads, and I think the community was doing a great job of offering support. I think that's fallen off.

Yes, yes, some people like tags, but I think that for what they replaced, they don't really offer something so great it was worth the trade.

T
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I am sure that Craven never understood that individuals in subgroups self segregate in order nurture their minority identity. What I mean is that an individual can scout around and find the subgroup that is right for them and then stick with that group, form a bond with those like them ( in this case-care about the same things they do). We are talking about how the old a2k had places to go for those who did not wish to continually be confronted with American political discussion, and now they don't. All sub groups were disbanded when all sub forums were eliminated.

I have tried tagging. A lot. And I still hate it.
I am reconciled to the fact that my preference won't prevail.
I do think Craven understands a lot more than you guys sometimes give him credit for though.

he has shown no understanding of group dynamics, culture or community. He has also shown that he does not value these things.

I think you're getting a tiny bit dramatic there. The word game gang stuck together, the environmental types are still hanging as a group, the ESL helpers still show up in clumps ... there are likely others in niches I'm not aware of, but I wouldn't know cuz I'm likely thumbing their area of interest down.

I disagree that he has shown any of these things. In fact I have found him more than responsive to those who have something to say other than just bitching. I do my share of bitching, yes, but I don't expect people to think as I think or see things the way I see them in order to be acceptable or responsible.

Put yourself in Craven's shoes. He has bet his fortune and well being on the success of this site. How much abuse and how many self-serving complaints can you absorb before you start tuning them out and doing what you have to do? He may have it wrong, but he could have it right too. I don't know him well, but I've observed enough over the past four years to know that he isn't operating in a vacuum either. I've seen gobs of stuff happen at the request of the community as he and the hamsters were able to get to it. We'll see more improvements over time I'm sure.

Will this ever be a site that you or I would have designed? Probably not. But nobody is forcing us to stay here either. I stay because I want to even with the stuff I hate. There's as much to love too.

How about you?

What is so darn difficult about finding them now? How is it any more difficult, in fact?

Look: on the old site, you'd go to the home page, scroll to the forum you're interested in, click it. On the new site, you go to the home page, look for the tag you're interested in, click it.

Meanwhile, the way most regular users used the old site was through the "Your Posts" or "New Posts" page. Craven had a long thread asking people how they navigated the site, and most people said they didnt use the homepage, but those pages instead. Well, the "Your Posts" page then is the "My Posts" page now - just like then, available at one click from wherever. And the "New Posts" page then is the homepage now.

What's the diff?

I'm with Foxfyre on this one.