Time to divide Politics forum?

TomF

I wonder if it isn't well past time to divide this board. The volume of postings about American politics and foreign policy is so large that I think there should be a board entitled "American politics and foreign policy". Let's have the original board be dedicated to Irish politics (no need to include foreign policy ).

I think a large portion of the postings to the present board come from Americans in the U.S. and living here as students anyway, so let's set aside a place where those posters can have at it, hammer and tongs.

Hobbes

Maybe they can go here.. http://www.boards.us/

Villain

Good idea, but would maybe rather than making it just US maybe have Home Politics and Foreign Politics forums, so everything related to Ireland in one forum and everything else in another.

bringitdown

Yes this has been a thought of mine, would the passion and politics that was so obvious and still is obvious with regards to US Politics have a knock on effect of revitalising interest in our own domestic situation....

My arse it will...

Hobbes

I would prefer it didn't. there isn't enough traffic to warrant splitting the forum, and it is easier to skip a thread.

ionapaul

bringitdown wrote:

Yes this has been a thought of mine, would the passion and politics that was so obvious and still is obvious with regards to US Politics have a knock on effect of revitalising interest in our own domestic situation....

My arse it will...

Well, like it or not, more people are much more passionate about both the recent US presidential elections and US politics / foreign policy in general, than they are about our government or our politics. I think you will even find many of them believe that George's actions impacts their lives much more than Bertie, Brian and Mary's actions do. A small but vocal minority believe George is the anti-Christ and the world will end within the next 4 years, as he presses the big red button and nuclear warheads rain down on each and every country, allied nation or not...

bonkey

irish1 wrote:

Good idea, but would maybe rather than making it just US maybe have Home Politics and Foreign Politics forums, so everything related to Ireland in one forum and everything else in another.

Has merit as an idea, but the major flaw that I see is that what tends to happen here is that the single biggest "issue du jour" takes the lion's share fo the threads.

Right now, its changing from the US election (now past) and back to the US in Iraq. A while back, though, you may all recall this wee little referendum thingy which dominated the thread-count.

People tend to discuss one major issue at a time, and whatever that major issue is tends to take the lion's share of threads and posts in this forum....but it changes.

So sure we could split the forum. My guess, though, is that of the sub-forums, only one would be significantly active on any given day....and which one that was would depend on whats happening in Ireland and the world.

jc

bringitdown

ionapaul wrote:

Well, like it or not, more people are much more passionate about both the recent US presidential elections and US politics / foreign policy in general, than they are about our government or our politics.

I completely agree, but I what I was trying to get at was the simple act of getting up and voting and the apathy of many people for this duty, compared to the the passion and conviction of opinion on the US displayed of late.

Whilst we are completely within our rights to complain, harpoon, lampoon, rally etc. however we have little real power to change the situation there. We DO have power over what happens here, but often choose to ignore and dismiss it as a lost cause - nothing will change (to paraphrase). It is so hard to avoid generalisation.

bonkey wrote:

People tend to discuss one major issue at a time, and whatever that major issue is tends to take the lion's share of threads and posts in this forum....but it changes.

Maybe this fact is warping my view a bit so to speak, as I have only really had opportunity to frequent boards.ie / politics very recently. Will see what people are debating come the next election / referendum (European constitution?)

On with the show

bonkey

Renamed thread ("this board" changed to "politics forum"), and moved to feedback.

jc

bringitdown

Yup: sorry for going way OT on this, anyway as politics nearly always ends in division why not buck the trend and leave the board as is.

As bonkey said people have tended to discuss one big thing at a time, and at this time it is a God-fearin monkey in a suit and George W. Bush / US politics.

DadaKopf

Bonkey took the words out of my mouth. This week it's post-US election breakdown. Next week, Yasser Arafat's legacy and Israeli terrorism. Next, a topic on the right to bear knives in Limerick... and on, and on, and on.

Personally, I was even opposed to splitting Humanities into Humanities and Politics. It'll all settle down soon.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

mike65

DadaKopf wrote:

Israeli terrorism....it'll all settle down soon.

As opposed to Arafats peaceful nation building hmmmmm? On the main point though I agree it'll quieten down when the students have got over the shock and awe of 4 more years.

Mike.

gandalf

Well if certain posters were prepared to discuss things rather than post and run I wouldn't mind.

This imho is a bad idea. At any time certain topics, events will take precidence over others at the moment it is the US because of the elections and the current events unfolding in Iraq. We could have a scandel here in the next few weeks and then Irish politics could dominate the agenda.

What I like about politics is the mix of discussions that are there, including topics that you may not have had any interest in initially. Leave it as it is!!!

TomF

I think the point I was trying to make has been missed, widely, or is that spelled "willfully"?

The forum in question is probably being dominated by Americans in the U.S.A. or Americans studying/loafing in Ireland. Meanwhile, Irish politics doesn't get any attention at all.

At least RTE gets excited about Irish: Olympic medal scandals, bad roads, bad hospitals and bad law enforcement. All under the heading of politics.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

aidan_walsh

I think the point I was trying to make has been missed, widely, or is that spelled "willfully"?

And I think you're ignoring what everyone else said. What is discussed in the politics board depends on the major issue of the day, and as it is there hasn't been a major enough issue in Irish politics that takes away from the US election fallout.

Oh, and give over you paranoid little man...

The forum in question is probably being dominated by Americans in the U.S.A. or Americans studying/loafing in Ireland. Meanwhile, Irish politics doesn't get any attention at all.

Say what? Where the hell did you pull this out of?

At least RTE gets excited about Irish: Olympic medal scandals, bad roads, bad hospitals and bad law enforcement. All under the heading of politics.

Medal scandals? Sports issue, not politicial.
Bad roads, bad hospitals, bad law enforcement, all generally tend to get discussed in politics when an issue regarding them arises, or if someone feels the need to speak up about them. However, we don't need to keep beating the same dead horse week in week out.

It sounds to me like you're looking for political conversation on the level of a light chat in the pub.

bonkey

TomF wrote:

The forum in question is probably being dominated by Americans in the U.S.A. or Americans studying/loafing in Ireland.

And I would say you're probably way off the mark there....but I could well be wrong on that. I know I'm Irish, and one of the more regular posters

As mentioned earlier....I suggest we look at periods when there were major Irish political issues ongoing before judging how little attention Irish issues get.

I would also point out that splitting the forum into two won't necessarily make any change to the amount of Irish politics being discussed. It will put it in a seperate place to the non-Irish threads....but that doesn't imply any change in volume.

At least RTE gets excited about Irish:

I believe thats primarily because they have a mandate to spend a minimum of X% of their time covering national issues. They're not excited...they just are required to pretend they are.

Here, we let people discuss what interests them....which brings us back to the makeup of the posters which I've addressed above. Will putting Irish politics in a seperate thread actually make it more interesting and popular? I can't see how, except maybe that it would allow low-volume threads to survive on the "front page" of the forum for longer.....and to be honest....thats what I would see the Subscribe To This Thread functionality as being ideally suited for: it allows anyone to decide what topics interest them.

Olympic medal scandals, bad roads, bad hospitals and bad law enforcement. All under the heading of politics.

Well, I don't really see much political about Olympic medal scandals. All other three issues are pretty frequent fliers on the politics forum I would have said.

Indeed, I would say that the main reason we see so little of them is because nothing is changing, and there is only so much mileage you can get out of a thread where the first post or two will contain a link back to the last time it was discussed with "already done to death" as an accompanying comment.

Well, that and major events (national or international) swamping everything else as the threads clock up....but wouldn't that still be the same...an Irish thread with nothing posted for weeks while everyone hangs around the Foreign Politics one cause of whatever is happening, followed by weeks where everyone floods the Irish forum with posts on Referendum X, or Vote Y, ignoring all other Irish issues....

Anyway...just my 2c.


jc

therecklessone

doodle_sketch wrote:

It sounds to me like you're looking for political conversation on the level of a light chat in the pub.

I somehow doubt TomF is looking for conversation at all. Just another chance to cut and paste then ghost away.

simu

Just to add my voice: Don't split it - there are too many forums to follow already!

ecksor

I think it should stay as one forum for the reasons already mentioned by more than one person here.

TomF

Yes, I am as guilty as any other poster on the Politics board of posting far too many comments on U.S. politics. I hereby resolve to let the U.S. fight its own battles, and only comment on what is actually exciting and meaningful in Irish politics.

Emmm.... .

Victor

I think the post-USA election honeymoon / hangover will happen and things will get back to 'normal', but this shouldn't preclude us from looking at it in a few months.

sceptre

TomF wrote:

The forum in question is probably being dominated by Americans in the U.S.A. or Americans studying/loafing in Ireland.

Ah, it isn't. We've a few American posters, some are based in Ireland (most working rather than loafing or studying btw) and some are based in the US. And there are one or two based elsewhere, some temporarily (I tend to pay attention to the little hints people drop). I could count them all on the palm of two hands, even if I include the small number who dropped in after the US elections that I don't expect to see again (pity as some of them were quite coherent)

Leaving that aside, the forum isn't being dominated by anyone. Except the pinkos if you're of the right-wing variety or the fascists if you're a left-winger. There haven't been all that many complaints about the tone of the forum but they've come from both sides when they've come at all.

On the main suggestion, I'm personally against it. Long-time posters will be aware that there's always been a flavour of the month theme on the forum where the latest big issue or event (particularly an election or referendum) tends to dominate. Sometimes, as was the case last week, it tends to blow everything else off the front page. It's the exception rather than the rule. For long-running things (such as the last election, long before I was a mod there) a subforum was set up for the event. Only worth doing really if it's a guaranteed traffic generator and something that'll last for some time. As Victor said, might be worth looking at in a few months but the situation over there would want to change pretty dramatically before it got my thumbsup.

BEAT

There is also a forum under region titled: abroad.
People can post anything they want on or about america/americans there but it gets overlooked.

Keep it in mind polictics Mods...you can move topics there is need be

sceptre

BEAT wrote:

Keep it in mind polictics Mods...you can move topics there is need be

Thanks BEAT, will keep in mind especially for those threads on the US I'm always tempted to throw over into Humanities.

Essey

Hear Hear!! there are sooooo many things wrong with Irish society, politics, belief systems - sort them out and then come knocking on our door. What a bunch of hypocrites.

sceptre

Essey wrote:

Hear Hear!! there are sooooo many things wrong with Irish society, politics, belief systems - sort them out and then come knocking on our door. What a bunch of hypocrites.

Ah, thanks for that. I assume "our" is "american".

(sorry for dragging this up from the depths of doom)

ecksor

Well of course "our" is "american", isn't America the centre (yes, that is the correct spelling of the word) of the world?

ecksor

Doesn't seem to be any real support for this idea ... thread closed.