Different subforum for left-wing and right-wing politics?

[Arridian Islands]

I think it would be interesting to have different subforums for the different ideologies. Currently people have to restrict their ideology into just one forum post. These posts get cluttered, and hard to read, so having two different subforums would make things easier to understand. Another thing is, some political conflicts could be avoided between opposing parties if they had different forums. I would oppose removing the main political discussion one, though.

[Despoticania]

Yet another factor contributing to people with different opinions hiding in their safe space bubbles?

No thanks.

[Bougainville]

I think it would be interesting to have different subforums for the different ideologies. Currently people have to restrict their ideology into just one forum post. These posts get cluttered, and hard to read, so having two different subforums would make things easier to understand. Another thing is, some political conflicts could be avoided between opposing parties if they had different forums. I would oppose removing the main political discussion one, though.

This is a terrible idea, Society (at least American Society) today is the way it is because people aren’t taught to discuss politics and religion with another and realize that other people will have opposing viewpoints. If you want to retreat into a forum that only conforms to your political ideologue I’m sure you’ll find one on Reddit.

[Gharrow]

Yet another factor contributing to people with different opinions hiding in their safe space bubbles?

No thanks.

The right wing threads are full of leftists, what are you on about?

[USS Monitor]

FUCK NO!

[Frisbeeteria]

FUCK NO!

I politely agree with my esteemed colleague.

[Eglaecia]

this was an april fools about a decade ago.

[Huntpublic]

That's what you have friends for, discuss politics with them whenever you want to. It's good to have disagreements and discuss opposing viewpoints, it opens your eyes to other ideas and whatnot. But the moment things start to get harsh/mean is when the disagreements become bad.

[Jar Wattinree]

There is no way to enforce that, let alone making sure the right people get into echo-chamber. Your best bet is to make a region for right-wingers/left-wingers only. You can do the moderating there.

[The Official United Nations]

'Right-wing' and 'left-wing' are slightly artificial categories. That's without going into the divisions of the 'left,' and the slightly deceptive 'far-right' category (whose members have often drawn on socialism). Hence, people should certainly not be pigeonholed into one side. If you want echo chambers, that might mean vague limits on what viewpoints are represented.

Even a 'socialist' forum can easily fall into retreads of the same arguments.

It makes sense that partisan 'left vs. right' debates could get heated or repetitive. It might also get in the way of more complex discussion, if the thread is caught up in another debate. An attempt at solving this could be useful. You could just allow members a space outside of the argument, for clarifying their position. Boxing them into groups, as suggested, creates divisions and treats them as normal.

[Minoa]

Hi all,

Splitting into left, right and centre would polarise NationStates. However, I recognise that some users like me have at times been overwhelmed by the volume of political discussion.

Therefore, I would like to throw in a few ideas, which are all subject to feedback:

Option 1: Expand Arts & Fiction

1. Rename General to Speakers’ Corner.
2. Rename Arts & Fiction to General.
3. Change the focus of Speakers’ Corner to discussion about politics, ideologies, social issues, current events, and global issues.
4. Expand the scope of the new General sub-forum to include non-political discussions, such as:
   
   • The Eternal Thread series;
   • Sports threads, such as the NBA, NFL, Football/Soccer and the World Cup;
   • The Cooking Corner;
   • The General Car Thread;
   • Non-English threads, such as the Het Nederlandse topic series.

Option 2: Expand Arts & Fiction + International Forum

1. Rename General to Speakers’ Corner.
2. Rename Arts & Fiction to General.
3. Change the focus of Speakers’ Corner to discussion about politics, ideologies, social issues, current events, and global issues.
4. Create new sub-forum for non-English threads, such as the Het Nederlandse topic series;
5. Expand the scope of the new General sub-forum to include non-political discussions, such as:
   
   • The Eternal Thread series;
   • Sports threads, such as the NBA, NFL, Football/Soccer and the World Cup;
   • The Cooking Corner;
   • The General Car Thread.

Option 3: Split General

1. Rename General to Speakers’ Corner.
2. Change the focus of Speakers’ Corner to discussion about politics, ideologies, social issues, current events, and global issues.
3. Leave Arts & Fiction unchanged.
4. Create a new General sub-forum to include non-political discussions, such as:
   
   • The Eternal Thread series;
   • Sports threads, such as the NBA, NFL, Football/Soccer and the World Cup;
   • The Cooking Corner;
   • The General Car Thread;
   • Non-English threads, such as the Het Nederlandse topic series.

[Trotterdam]

Option 3: Split General

1. Rename General to Speakers’ Corner.
2. Change the focus of Speakers’ Corner to discussion about politics, ideologies, social issues, current events, and global issues.
3. Leave Arts & Fiction unchanged.
4. Create a new General sub-forum to include non-political discussions, such as:
   
   • The Eternal Thread series;
   • Sports threads, such as the NBA, NFL, Football/Soccer and the World Cup;
   • The Cooking Corner;
   • The General Car Thread;
   • Non-English threads, such as the Het Nederlandse topic series.

Sounds good to me.

It's funny that a game about politics doesn't even have a dedicated subforum for politics.

[USS Monitor]

I like having the food threads and whatnot dumped in with NSG. They are a much-needed break from how heated the political debates get.

It is acceptable to post food threads in A&F if it is talking about the art of cooking, but people don't actually do that very often.

[Trotterdam]

Food can get heated too.

...I'll show myself the door.

[USS Monitor]

Food can get heated too.

I'm a New Englander. It's not real food unless it comes with ice cream or a milkshake.

[Minoa]

I like having the food threads and whatnot dumped in with NSG. They are a much-needed break from how heated the political debates get.

It is acceptable to post food threads in A&F if it is talking about the art of cooking, but people don't actually do that very often.

At the moment, the non-political threads can get buried under a lot of active and often controversial political discussions, such as Donald Trump, Mid-Terms, amongst others.

I also have to concur with Trotterdam that the fact there is no dedicated sub-forum for real-world politics, for a website about politics, is unusual. So basically my idea is not splitting NSG into sections for each political position, but instead to have a dedicated section for real-world politics and current events, and another for non-political off-topic, as we have done for P2TM already.

How we do this could be for a standalone thread, if it is okay for me to proceed with.

[USS Monitor]

I like having the food threads and whatnot dumped in with NSG. They are a much-needed break from how heated the political debates get.

It is acceptable to post food threads in A&F if it is talking about the art of cooking, but people don't actually do that very often.

At the moment, the non-political threads can get buried under a lot of active and often controversial political discussions, such as Donald Trump, Mid-Terms, amongst others.

I also have to concur with Trotterdam that the fact there is no dedicated sub-forum for real-world politics, for a website about politics, is unusual. So basically my idea is not splitting NSG into sections for each political position, but instead to have a dedicated section for real-world politics and current events, and another for non-political off-topic, as we have done for P2TM already.

How we do this could be for a standalone thread, if it is okay for me to proceed with.

It's OK to make a thread. We're generally reluctant to create new subforums because it makes the site harder to navigate if we have too many, but I don't see any harm in you talking your ideas through and seeing what others think.