One of the highest priorities when thinking about a new blog platform was an ability to support a forum. The comments section at GOPLifer generated fantastic content. With a better-organized platform those discussions could have room to expand and could continue long after new posts drew attention away from an older comment thread.
We’re off and running in the forum section, titled Off Topic. I’ve posted some music to accompany the Southern Gothic piece along with updates from other platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Mary has already launched a thread on redistricting. Everyone has rights to comment on threads. A lot of the commenters from the old Lifer platform have rights to post new topics. We’ll open that up as things stabilize and interest grows. I’m interested to know what you think.
To state something super obvious but still necessary, don’t be afraid to moderate your forum.
Moderating Internet forums sucks — and politics suck, so it’s a good mix for special flowers whose reaction to the merest pushback against certain behaviors is to declare censorship and fascism and go about trolling for any sort of drama.
It happens to the most innocent of forums, so might as well be ready for it.
Cool new site Chris, I like it.
Still getting a feelfor the site Chris, looking good so far.
Question about the forum: do you envision it of the type where mostly “meaty” posts are made (typically essay type, or opinion with new content?) and more minor content discusses under those (I.e. a link with the newest polls, or the latest outrageous thing Trump says etc)?
Or do you envision any content can be posted as it’s own topic, no matter how big or small?
Or, option C, are you just thinking not trying to plot it out so much and see what happens naturally without too many specific rules?
Just trying to get a better idea if what you’re envisioning here so I can post appropriately.
Re reading that, it may not be clear what I’m asking.
Do you want the main topics to be mostly original content, with more minor news aggregator type stuff down below in the comments of those posts (similar to goplifer)?
Or are topics to be considered fairly casual?
As an example, if I wanted to post the newest surprising poll numbers of Hillary up 9 in Ohio (!), would that kind of thing get its own topic/thread? Or would it be more appropriate in the comments of the most relevant topic/thread?
Mary, I fully intend to. It may be a day or so, however. I have a full plate for the next couple days.
Chris, I like the forum. That will give an opportunity for in depth discussion of a topic. For example, the issues of multi-member congressional districts and redistricting are ones to which I will likely contribute. I have given considerable thought to both.
Tmerritt – Write a post in Off Topic with your thoughts about re-districting. It’s timely and relevant to the political change we’re seeking. My first foray into re-districting was to lead a community effort to re-district our public school district attendance zones (we were under federally-mandated desegregation court order). I have described this in earlier posts, but let me say that it was one of the most rewarding and memorable experiences of my life. My year-long service on a community-nominated, bi-racial committee established guidelines for re-districting and taught me so much about our mutual concerns and how to communicate honestly and work towards a constructive goal. The good news is we were successful (in so many ways) and not only did the children of our district benefit, but we showed our community that people of different races could work together for the good of all. It was a powerful lesson.