Why is the Forum...so DEAD?

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[+7] - Mame - 05/29/2021[quote="oralloy"] A lot of the people who left, did so because the quality of the discussion started tending towards childish name-calling. [/quote] I think it's more of the...
[+5] - hightor - 05/26/2021Actually the twenty-year-old message board format has simply been replaced by newer forms of social media. If you look at the topics for discussion on this site you can see that very few of them...

Progressive intolerance has largely ended any possibility of civilized discourse.

2 Replies

@oralloy,

That's what I thought.

1 Reply

@TruthMatters,

Actually the twenty-year-old message board format has simply been replaced by newer forms of social media. If you look at the topics for discussion on this site you can see that very few of them are centered around partisan politics so the first response you got is incomplete – and obviously biased. Political division may explain some drop off in popularity among knuckle-dragging MAGAtards but there are plenty of non-political topics which don't attract that many responses either.

1 Reply

@hightor,

There are a couple message boards out there on the internet that are extremely active, and are nowhere near being replaced by a differing format.

The key to their success is, they don't allow progressives to spout endless name-calling. In order to be allowed to post in those places, progressives have to make actual logical arguments instead.

A healthy messageboard always depends on strict control of progressives.

1 Reply

@oralloy,

Quote:

There are a couple message boards out there on the internet that are extremely active....

What are their url's? I'd like to assess their moderation policies — I have a feeling that they are representing a conservative viewpoint, which could explain why they don't welcome liberals.

I know some other healthy message boards. Some of them simply don't allow political discussion, like Sax on the Web and the Clarinet BBoard. I've been on those for years. Then there are political discussion groups that don't allow people with hostile ideologies. On the left, Democratic Underground is an example of the kind of moderation you're talking about only it's gun nuts and MAGAtards who get booted off. (I never go there but bobsal told me about it.)

A2K is more of general discussion forum where many subjects are raised. If you look at the non-political threads there is none of this "name-calling" that you're so sensitive about. You could kick every liberal off this site and it still wouldn't attract as many people as a site devoted to a specific interest.

1 Reply

@hightor,

hightor wrote:

What are their url's?

http://www.politicalforum.com/index.php

https://debatepolitics.com/

Actually they are so busy that they move too fast for my tastes. I can open a thread that is only a few hours old, see a message that begs for me to respond, then look ahead in the thread and there are already a dozen replies that all say exactly what I was going to say.

What I like about a2k is that it moves at a rate that matches the amount of time I want to spend talking online. It's neither too slow nor too fast.

hightor wrote:

I'd like to assess their moderation policies

Debate Politics has perfect moderation. They're the gold standard. Repeat name-callers get to 30 infraction points (and a lifetime ban) really quickly:

https://debatepolitics.com/threads/moderator-actions-page.96319/

And the "martial law" zone that they've declared for Israel/Palestine debates is extra perfect:

https://debatepolitics.com/threads/me-forum-martial-law-concordance.99774/

hightor wrote:

Then there are political discussion groups that don't allow people with hostile ideologies. On the left, Democratic Underground is an example of the kind of moderation you're talking about only it's gun nuts and MAGAtards who get booted off. (I never go there but bobsal told me about it.)

That's not the sort of moderation I'm talking about. Progressives who are capable of not engaging in personal attacks will survive and thrive on the two boards I linked.

I've never tried to post on DU, but I was once banned from a similar site on my first post. I don't now remember the name of the site; it was about 15 years ago. They were acting like our dropping of justice bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was some sort of atrocity against civilians, and it disturbed their worldview for me to point out that the justice bombs were dropped on military targets.

2 Replies

@oralloy,

Quote:

I can open a thread that is only a few hours old, see a message that begs for me to respond, then look ahead in the thread and there are already a dozen replies that all say exactly what I was going to say.

Thank you for alerting us to these websites.

1 Reply

@Lady Lingiton,

You're welcome. If you like a really busy website I guess they are perfect.

I'd like to see a combination of their stricter moderation policies with a2k's more sedate posting pace.

0 Replies

@oralloy,

Thanks for the links. Interestingly, neither of those sites was particularly well-reviewed in sitejabber.com. A2K wasn't reviewed at all.

https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/politicalforum.com
https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/debatepolitics.com

Here the "martial law" zone that DebatePolitics.com declared for Israel/Palestine debates:

Quote:

ML Prohibited Conduct
A) Accusing anyone of being a terrorist or a terrorist supporter
B) Accusing anyone of being a Zionist
C) The term "apologist" is not allowed
D) Calling for the deaths/deportation of an entire ethnic group
E) Any personal attacks, no matter how light
F) Any off topic comments or thread derailments
G) Any offensive or inflammatory images
H) Holocaust denial
I) Anything considered not conducive and anathema to civil discussion/ambiance
Y) Accusing anyone of being an anti-semite and islamophobe, or anything similar.
Z) Ignoring an in-thread Mod Box Warning

ML Prohibited Terms/Expressions
J) Accusations of genocide, ethnic cleansing, or variations thereof
K) Equating the parties' actions with Nazi Germany/Nazi Germany’s actions/the Holocaust
L) Equating Zionism/Zionists with racism or variations thereof
M) Islam is fascism or variations thereof
N) Israel deliberately attacked the U.S.S. Liberty or variations thereof
O) Israeli or Palestinian or Arab land theft or variations thereof
P) Likud is a terrorist group or variations thereof
Q) Muslims are terrorists or variations thereof
R) The Palestinians do not exist, are not a "true" people or variations thereof
S) The Jewish people are merely a religious group and not a "true" people
T) References to Apartheid/Apartheid analogies

(from your link)

Whoa...I see what you mean. You do realize that under these rules, many posts from either and all sides on A2K would be in violation — including some of yours and some of my own!

And, seriously, I doubt that adopting a similar code would make A2K magically spring to life again — if by "life" we mean the atmosphere that surrounded the forum in earlier days before so many regular posters dropped off. I don't think that many members really want to "debate" serious topics under these imposed restrictions. I don't think that's why people come here. I don't think the absence of these rules is what drives people off.

3 Replies

@hightor,

It's more than just strict rules for what counts as an infraction.

"ML Infractions are accumulative; in regards to the ME forum, each violation will expire in ONE YEAR."

"Six accumulated ML Infractions will result in a permanent ban from posting in the ME Forum"

Rude people are very quickly given a lifetime ban.

0 Replies

@hightor,

I don't have much problem complying with the Martial Law rules. About the only time I'd be inclined to make a post that would violate their rules would be if I was outraged by a post that violates their rules. And anyone who would make such a post has already been given a lifetime ban.

I've never been infracted in the Middle East/Martial Law forum. My only infraction on the entire site was when a character (who thinks that shotguns are a type of rifle) told me that I don't know anything about guns. I replied that I know more about guns than he knows about everything, and both of us were permanently removed from that single thread. I then put him on ignore so that he would never be able to goad me into another infraction.

Although, when I say I'm trouble free, it's not like I am actively posting at these places every day. The pace at these sites is too quick for my tastes. Usually the only time I am at either site is when I am suspended from a2k, although if one of the sites has a "Hiroshima tantrum" thread in August, that will probably draw me.

0 Replies

@hightor,

hightor wrote:

And, seriously, I doubt that adopting a similar code would make A2K magically spring to life again — if by "life" we mean the atmosphere that surrounded the forum in earlier days before so many regular posters dropped off. I don't think that many members really want to "debate" serious topics under these imposed restrictions. I don't think that's why people come here. I don't think the absence of these rules is what drives people off.

A lot of the people who left, did so because the quality of the discussion started tending towards childish name-calling.

2 Replies

@oralloy,

Quote:

A lot of the people who left, did so because the quality of the discussion started tending towards childish name-calling.

Yes, I think you've said that before.

1 Reply

@hightor,

The RELIGIOUS part of the forum.

0 Replies

@oralloy,

oralloy wrote:

A lot of the people who left, did so because the quality of the discussion started tending towards childish name-calling.

I think it's more of the narrow-mindedness of some of the posters, those who refuse logic and reason.

1 Reply

@Mame,

That may be the same thing, as it is the ones who are incapable of logic and reason who do the name-calling.

1 Reply

@oralloy,

Narrow minds are their All-Important Opinions.

0 Replies

@oralloy,

Are people allowed to speak freely here?

2 Replies

@SkippyPeanutButter,

Within reason. You can look at the terms of service, but if you aren't trying to sell something, attacking people personally or repeating the same thing over and over you are likely good. The site is aggressively monitored for advertising so if you want to push a website or tell us your secret for making money from home you will likely be gone quickly.

1 Reply

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