It's occurred to me that a first-level forum such as Vintage is rather like a neighborhood tavern in a dry county -- meaning it's really a private club with easy membership rules -- and maybe that analogy can form the basis for the political meta-discussion (by which I mean the discussion about discussing politics, not politics itself).

In such places, groups tend to congregate according to interests and topics on the table. The sports crowd, naturally, would head toward the area where there's a good view of the TV, people interested in dancing might gather 'round the jukebox, and so on. Now and then, an argument might start up, in which case someone, maybe the bartender, would suggest (as forcefully as necessary) that they take it outside. In this day and age, "enlightened" communities (and I

 

This is a constructive suggestion. Any new forum or subforum has to be approved by Erik (cthree). That decision will not be solely up to Chaz and me, although we certainly have input into it. Bill (Legal Bill) has put forward a subforum within the Politics Forum idea to Erik. And even though Chaz and I have not posted publicly about this issue in the past few days, we have been communicating behind the scenes quite a bit. We are trying to work out a compromise, but I don't know what the end result will be yet. There are several ideas on the table, some public, some not. To be continued...but I'm glad to see thoughtful ideas being presented.

 

Yup, Doc, you're right on target. FYI, at issue is whether subtopics really should be under the Vintage umbrella. Debs said it exactly correctly, even if she pulled a "chazmo" and misspelled publically!

 

^ HAHA...you're right! That is so funny, considering I corrected your spelling of that word not long ago. Something subliminal going on.

 

.../Politics/Vintage, or .../Vintage/Politics would seem to be the question, then, at least in this context. And, listening to what others have said publicly, I'm of two minds: in some ways BOTH would seem to be a good idea. HPH

 

[QUOTE=DrCloud,Nov 27 2005, 10:36 AM] It's occurred to me that a first-level forum such as Vintage is rather like a neighborhood tavern in a dry county -- meaning it's really a private club with easy membership rules -- and maybe that analogy can form the basis for the political meta-discussion (by which I mean the discussion about discussing politics, not politics itself).

In such places, groups tend to congregate according to interests and topics on the table. The sports crowd, naturally, would head toward the area where there's a good view of the TV, people interested in dancing might gather 'round the jukebox, and so on. Now and then, an argument might start up, in which case someone, maybe the bartender, would suggest (as forcefully as necessary) that they take it outside. In this day and age, "enlightened" communities (and I

 

Couple of things.

First, I'd prefer to see the political sub-forum in Vintage, but I think I can see which way the tide is moving on that issue and therefore I believe our best chance is to get a Vintage sub-forum in the political forum. PLEASE TELL ME IF I AM WRONG ABOUT THIS!

Second, I have seen many people suggest that the best way to avoid being offended is to avoid looking at the political threads. And clearly, some people seem to be able to do that, god bless them. However, I think most cannot. Even if I already know what a thread is about, I cannot help but take a look at the arguments. I also take a peek to see what the various relationships are between the members and especially to stay abreast of who is having a tussle with who. Lets face it folks, much of what makes up our relationships with each other gets cooked up in the political threads.

So lets not kid ourselves with the "don't look if you don't like it" solution. You can "ignore" nude programming on TV, but if you are cruising through the channels and come upon the naked lovers, you usually stop for a minute to take it in. I guess I see Cloudy's idea as analogous to a pornography channel on my TV. If folks want that, fine. But I'm not sure that is what we have been talking about. We just want to be able to see the R rated movies.

This is my long winded way of saying I don't see the point of the "no moderators" room. If that is what we want, we can just go over to the Political forum now. Even with a moderator, that forum seems to be well in excess of what anybody here is looking for. Again, correct me if I'm wrong. If people here are looking for a forum where they can tell each other to F off, then I guess I've missed the point entirely.

 

It all seems like a lot of over thinking. Because most of the people here are sensible, it would have been just fine it things were left alone.

 

 

too.