Gen-OT Political Thread Consolidations

[Lochton]

Just make a whole mega-thread for just politics..

[TITAN308]

With Trump we hardly have new threads

lol wut /12345

[Mehrunes]

While that's a valid viewpoint, we have to balance that against two other principles;
1> GenOT isn't all about the American Election, and flooding the first page with threads on that topic pushes other topics out of sight, unfairly, and
2> In many cases, they repeat the same arguments and statements every time for the first 20-30 pages, before dying, without actually providing any real new discussion past the first page or two.

Wouldn't merging some of the smaller threads that end being too similar be a valid solution to at least lower this problem a bit?

[Underverse]

meh, I generally avoid megathreads because it seems like they become derailed or too generalized to accomplish anything.

[Endus]

Wouldn't merging some of the smaller threads that end being too similar be a valid solution to at least lower this problem a bit?

FWIW, merging threads that have more than a half-dozen posts each can get problematic; people tend to freak out when suddenly there's a ton of other posts in the middle of the conversation they were having. It's something we generally avoid, unless the threads are both really short and new, or if Thread A has been dead for a while and B popped up after, so there's no interleaving of posts.

This whole thing isn't a situation where there's a simple feel-good answer that makes everyone happy, unfortunately. We end up weighing which option is likely to make the most people the least unhappy.

[Tennis]

Please don't.
Trust me. We need threads for each separate issue.

[TITAN308]

Please don't.
Trust me. We need threads for each separate issue.

What do you care, you spend like 3 weeks out of the month banned. ;p

[Orange Joe]

Is it that hard for people to not click on a thread if it is something you don't want to read?



People on this site seem to have no self control.

[TITAN308]

Is it that hard for people to not click on a thread if it is something you don't want to read?



People on this site seem to have no self control.

As Endus pointed out as an example, its not about not clicking the threads (I don't) - its about basically shoving other threads off the front page.

I'll take a screenshot next time we hit another 5 donald trump threads on page 1 to provide an example.

[lonely zergling]

We need a trump megathread, too many thread everyday. Trump conquers this site!

Soon:

Don't be that site.

[TITAN308]

lol I was just about to come post a screenshot.

As of 2 minutes ago: (and my front page filter is set to Gen-OT ONLY)

[Deleted]

I think we should get a political sub-forum, like the Roleplay subforum in Lore.

[breadisfunny]

I think we should get a political sub-forum, like the Roleplay subforum in Lore.

this isn't reddit....

[MrExcelion]

I'm not a big OT poster, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but official megathreads aren't Gen OTs thing, works well for the video games forum though of course. OTOH, the more I think about it though, I think Endus has the right idea, megathread is the way to go once the nominations are clear. One for each candidate and a general anything goes. A politics and debate forum is a possibility for the long term, but the Gen OT board is basically the debate board anyway, so there's no point imo. Gen OT is responsible for a lot of forum traffic so I don't want to ruin a good thing.

Tin foil hat theory time...it's quite possible that some of those threads stay floated by users posting on alt accounts, usually agreeing with the OP's viewpoint but sometimes just to stir the pot a bit. That's out of my scope though, and in moderator territory but there's a chance that might be happening at some level. Posters still will be attracted to those threads though since they're low-hanging fruit, easy to find someone to disagree with and post about it

Anyway, I agree with Endus. It's a mess right now, but this will get remedied soon (definitely the sort of thing worth intervening for)

[Tziva]

We try to merge and consolidate into mega threads where it makes sense, likewise we do try to close duplicate threads. If two topics are not sufficiently related (not as in they have an abstract connection, but as in the conversations occurring in them cross), it is preferred to keep them separate. So to use the US election example mentioned here, threads about Trump and Hillary probably have very different discussions inside them right now. However, as the election nears, a single election megathread might make more sense.

GenOT mods will decide this on a case by case basis and make it happen where it needs to. If you see any particular threads you think should be closed and conversation relocated to an existing thread (megathread or otherwise), you're welcome to report that thread so the GenOT mods can review.

Past that, as with anywhere, you'll just have to ignore the threads that don't interest you. If you ignore those threads, they won't get bumped, and they'll get drowned out by other threads.