Should the Tea Shop have a subsection for politics, like the subsection for helmet discussion?

[Cyril Haearn]

I never read the political posts unless they are mislabelled. For me I think it is pointless discussing politics on a forum, you never change anybody's mind. The only exception would be the politics that directly affect cycling.

I think people may change their minds, allegedly one moves right as one gets older and richer
It would be good if people tried to KISS keep it short and simple, then more people would bother reading the whole text

[Tangled Metal]

If it's hard to distinguish politics threads from other threads then I claim helmet discussions are a form of political threads and so should be returned to the mainstream tea shop section where all political threads have their seemingly happy home.

Or is it only the right kind of political threads that are allowed?

[mercalia]

Bring back Fun and Games out of the ghetto and back into Tea Shop, and put Politics in to a ghetto instead.

Remember this from July 2010?

Remember The Three Word Story Game?
or Alphabetical Villages?
or Cycling Songs?
or Beards?
or Give me Five?
or Charlie the Cat's Trivia Tree?

Where is the fun?

god help us if that pansey stuff comes back again

maybe need a kiddies room while the grownups go for a drink?

[NUKe]

I never read the political posts unless they are mislabelled. For me I think it is pointless discussing politics on a forum, you never change anybody's mind. The only exception would be the politics that directly affect cycling.

I think people may change their minds, allegedly one moves right as one gets older and richer
It would be good if people tried to KISS keep it short and simple, then more people would bother reading the whole text

I am not saying that people don't changes their minds, but the arguments that go on here I doubt changes anybody opinion just that the ranting's that sometimes happen on this forum when it comes to things like Brexit, Do little to affect peoples opinions. I love debating politics, but not on cycle fora.

[Norman H]

Bring back Fun and Games out of the ghetto and back into Tea Shop, and put Politics in to a ghetto instead.

Not a bad idea.

Having a separate helmet section doesn't prevent helmets being discussed, it just means that the campaigning and policy section doesn't become dominated by the same repetitive arguments. Politics divide and polarise opinions in much the same way that helmets do. I'm not suggesting that the discussions are not civilised, nor that they aren't interesting at times, but they often run to several pages of very predictable and repetitive arguments. A bit like a couple of prize fighters exchanging punches each one convinced that the next will land a knock out.

Yes it has been discussed before, and to be honest the only problem I can see to having a back room in the tea shop, where politics can be discussed, is the extra workload for the mods having to decide when a subject has crossed the line.

[mercalia]

there is nothing to stop any one bringing fun and games "back" so all those who want to ghettoise the current affairs threads just do so: what they really want is to stop the current affairs threads I think?

[thirdcrank]

Thinks.....
Speaking about a personal irritation, how about rationing polls?

[661-Pete]

I think the reasons for separating out Fun and Games have been made perfectly clear, by Thirdcrank. It's so that a forum-wide search for a keyword doesn't get cluttered up by all the nonsense in the various 3-word-story threads.

My own reason for segregating and partially hiding politics is different, and I'm not suggesting that people are incapable of ignoring the threads that don't interest them! It was mainly to deter the likes of Daily Fail commenters (we know what they're about!) pitching in! If it were made private, they'd have to join the forum to see what's going on. I doubt if many Fail-ers could stomach that!

Furthermore, it would make those posts unsearchable by Google et al.

But I suppose it doesn't bother the majority, on here.

[KTHSullivan]

Spliters

[Ben@Forest]

A while ago the prevalance of political threads on Tea Shop was raised. But (as l noted then) the thread which was most commented on in 2012 was called 'Thatcher' and that level of interest was not predicated by her death - which was not until 2013.

So perhaps there's always been plenty of interest in politics. And frankly l think an inquiring mind should always be interested in politics - those who express no interest are the dullest of people. And of course, tho there are retrograde political steps or movements the liberties that we do have or are earning come through people who do engage.

[horizon]

I've been asking for an extension of time on the (very interesting) time limited small ads. Why don't we have time-limited political threads - they get automatically deleted if no-one posts for a month or two?

[Cyril Haearn]

I've been asking for an extension of time on the (very interesting) time limited small ads. Why don't we have time-limited political threads - they get automatically deleted if no-one posts for a month or two?

No!
It could be really interesting to read what others (or oneself) wrote a few years ago, I think people DO change or develop their opinions

[Tangled Metal]

Thinks.....
Speaking about a personal irritation, how about rationing polls?

Start a poll to find out opinions on that. Or not.

[Psamathe]

I never read the political posts unless they are mislabelled. For me I think it is pointless discussing politics on a forum, you never change anybody's mind. The only exception would be the politics that directly affect cycling.

I think the idea of "changing somebodies mind" is a difficult one because I agree that people rarely "change their mind" e.g. from supporting Conservative to supporting Labour. But I often find my opinion is modified by points others raise. I might express an opinion with reasons, then somebody else comes along and posts conflicting facts (e.g. with reputable links) and I might find my opinion moves a little or I become more sympathetic to other views or something.

I do feel that opinions are continually formed and refined as we gain more experience and discover more information and it is through discussion (even on forums) that we can refine and adjust our opinions.

Ian

[Psamathe]

....
BTW Psamathe, you don't have to read these threads you know! :wink: :D

Maybe we need a poll about banishing posts about a politics ghetto to their own ghetto? (It's been long challenging day .....)

I agree I don't have to read these threads but I do think that separate ghetto's for all sorts of discussion that could happily be included. Often when I 1st look at a forum I find those with loads and loads of sections are very difficult to get to grips with what is going on there - makes it all a lot more daunting. Every forum has discussions that I'm not interested in and I'm sure that some topics I start (even about cycling) are not of interest to some. It echos life well, like sitting round in a group and when talk turns to something your not interested in you don't join in and when it something you are interested in you do join in.

Ian