Political Posts Go Bye-Bye

[dishking]

I'm certain I'm not the first to say this...but maybe I can create a groundswell of community opinion. I'm tired of political posts dominating DBS Talk. I check "New Posts" about once a day to find out what's buzzing for DBS, DVR's, HDTV, etc. I find that kind of information very useful and many users quite knowledgable.

When you log in now, "New Posts" is overwhelmed by "Swift Boats", "Kerry LIes", "Bush is Evil" etc. I enjoy politics and I know it's an election year. But can't we keep that kind of posting to sites that cater to such? Few minds are going to be changed here and it's barely relevant to the topics that interest most of the registered forum users.

I'm not asking for moderators to step in...I'm asking all of you to reply to this thread if you agree. (of course, if you don't I'm sure you'll post too) I'd like to see the self-regulating potential of the Internet community at work. Let's see if we can send the message that DBS Talk should stay focused on DBS Talk. I look forward to your cordial responses.

[Paladin]

I'm certain I'm not the first to say this...but maybe I can create a groundswell of community opinion. I'm tired of political posts dominating DBS Talk. I check "New Posts" about once a day to find out what's buzzing for DBS, DVR's, HDTV, etc. I find that kind of information very useful and many users quite knowledgable.

When you log in now, "New Posts" is overwhelmed by "Swift Boats", "Kerry LIes", "Bush is Evil" etc. I enjoy politics and I know it's an election year. But can't we keep that kind of posting to sites that cater to such? Few minds are going to be changed here and it's barely relevant to the topics that interest most of the registered forum users.

I'm not asking for moderators to step in...I'm asking all of you to reply to this thread if you agree. (of course, if you don't I'm sure you'll post too) I'd like to see the self-regulating potential of the Internet community at work. Let's see if we can send the message that DBS Talk should stay focused on DBS Talk. I look forward to your cordial responses.

I understand your point of view, but a discussion board is for discussion. All political posts are in the potporri forum. If there are a lot of political posts then that means there is a discussion going on. You could always look at the other forums for the info your looking for. Thanks

[kzosat]

I agree with paladin. The mods have a forum for anything and that is where almost all of them stay. Sometimes I notice politics creep into DBS discussions, but hey, sometimes it's relevant (sometimes not). I don't mind it and it's kinda pointless to modify the "Newest Posts" part of the main page just because all it shows is politics since they are the most recent posts at the time.

But I also agree with DishKing that it does need to stay out of DBS focuses forums as much as possible.

[Geronimo]

I think that it might be a good idea to modify the newest posts area. You are not the first to suggest it and many other forums do something similar. That would I suppose make it easier to track the DBS discussion.

I too think that the political aspect of the forum has gotten out of hand. But I have chosen to handle that by ignoring those posts, participating in the saner threads, and perhaps by introducing others.

But it seems to be an outlet for some and other than dominating the new posts I dont see how anyone is harmed.

[Mark Lamutt]

We may be able to remove the potpourri forum from the New Posts search. Would that solve the problem until the elections are over? Personally, I'm completely sick of it as well, but the Potpourri forum is a place for anyone to talk about just about anything that's on their mind...including politics.

[Cyclone]

I'd just make a "Politics / Current Events" thread and let Potporri be the etc.... forum that its meant to be. Even I've grown weary of the heavy handeness of that forum.

[SimpleSimon]

Mark: That's probably the best solution. Even better if it can be made a user option. :)

Would it be possible for said UserForum to exclude any forum from "New Posts"? For example, if I don't care about FTA, I could exclude that forum.

[kzosat]

I don't think it will bother anyone if the political threads are removed from the "recent posts" area. But honestly I wouldn't go spending alot of time modifying anything, but if it's easy, then go for it. Either way with me, I don't look there anyways so I wouldn't notice if it were missing political stuff.

[Mark Lamutt]

Simon - that's harder to do, unless we redo the menu system like Scott has done. Personally, I don't like that method of searching for new posts nearly as much. Excluding the potpurri forum from the new posts search shouldn't be that big of a deal to do, and it won't be a permanent excludion. We'll talk about it amongst ourselves.

[Redster]

Simon - that's harder to do, unless we redo the menu system like Scott has done. Personally, I don't like that method of searching for new posts nearly as much. Excluding the potpurri forum from the new posts search shouldn't be that big of a deal to do, and it won't be a permanent excludion. We'll talk about it amongst ourselves.

That works for me Mark.

[Capmeister]

We may be able to remove the potpourri forum from the New Posts search. Would that solve the problem until the elections are over? Personally, I'm completely sick of it as well, but the Potpourri forum is a place for anyone to talk about just about anything that's on their mind...including politics.
We ended up banning political talk on our ComicBoards.com/TVShowBoards.com community board, but only because people couldn't keep it from being personal.

We directed people to SnarkBait, where it can get personal. :-)

[Scott Greczkowski]

It's Easy to do. :)

Make a Bookmark to the following URL and you can see all new posts without the Potpouri forum...

http://www.dbstalk.com/search.php?do=getnew&exclude=16

Your welcome. ;)

[Mark Lamutt]

Thanks Scott. :)

[Phil T]

Cool!

[JM Anthony]

Sweet solution! And one all of us ACLU card carrying, Gold Forum contributors can appreciate.

[Nick]

You got the highly-prized ACLU Gold Forum card? :confused:

All I got when I became a Gold Forum member over two years ago was a stinkin' senior citizen discount coupon good for 10% off admission to "The Alamo" - the place, not the movie! Apparently, going by this PICTURE (http://www.pbase.com/image/31172107/large), Richard King got the same stinkin' coupon. :D

[Mark Lamutt]

An update on this - if you look under the "Quick Links" option on the pull down menus at the top of the page, you'll now see 2 New Posts options - one for All Forums and one for All Forums excluding the Potpourri forum.

If I have time tomorrow, I'll try to get to the New Posts link to do something similar with it as well.

[Mark Lamutt]

OK, another update later on... The NEW POSTS menu has been added with the above options as well. :)

[Charise]

Thanks much! I hadn't seen this thread before, but I also disliked wading through all the Potpouri posts to get to DBS subjects. This is a great timesaver for me, so thanks again. The new option is great!

[JM Anthony]

Nice work, Mark. While I enjoy reading the potpourri posts, I'm sure others do not and thanks to your effort, we all now have more choices!!

[Nick]

Here's another idea!

Let's make "Potpourri" a 'members only'
place where each post costs 25¢ and
posters have to be certified nut cases.

This could be a gold mine! :grin:

[Chris Blount]

By the way guys, if you never want to see the potpourri forum again and don't want it as part of the last 5 posts on our home page, let me know. We can remove the forum completely from your account.

E-mail me at administrator@dbstalk.com or send me a PM.

[Geronimo]

So waht is the final outcome?

[Mark Lamutt]

The final outcome of what?

[Geronimo]

the final outcome of the thread----in other words what action 9s) will be taken. I am sorry but I was a little confused by the previous posts. Maybe a bad case of Monday.

[Mark Lamutt]

I modified the New Posts link at the top of each page in the navigation bar to give people an option to search for New Posts in all Forums excluding the Potpourri forum so that all of the politics don't show up in their new posts search. That way people that want to avoid the politics now can more easily.

[Jim Parker]

Politics - from the Latin Poli, meaning many, and Tics, meaning blood sucking parasites. :D

[SimpleSimon]

Chief: There are now "New Post" links that exclude Potpourri, and Chris will exclude Potpourri from any user that asks.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Sounds like I made a good and simple fix. :D

[Mark Lamutt]

Yeah sure...Scott - you provided the link, for which I thanked you. But other than the "&exclude=16" which I did use, it had very little to do with the change.

Thread closed because I really don't feel like dealing with the arguments that will come if I leave it open any longer.