Raise length limit in Politics?
 

While I think Politicial discussion is an important thing, I think I'd be preaching to the choir if I said the current state of the Politics forum is very un-Tilted. I stay away any chance I get because its so full of labels from "the left did this" and the "right is hiding this." However, I think many vehement political debaters are too used to labeling and demonizing the opposition for this to every be fully quashed. After reading a few Politics threads this morning, it occured to me what a big part of the problem was. If you look in Sexuality or Living or even General, most posts are at LEAST 5 lines of text. However, in Politics, you get one-liners out the wazoo.. "Apparently you haven't heard of X person or X policy..." or go "read x". These one-liners are inherently insulting -- "You mean you haven't heard about THIS! YOU MUST BE STUPID!" is the message that they convey. Just looking through TWO POlitics posts, I found these to demonstrate the behavior I'm talking about:


..it goes on and on. So then -- would it be possible and feasible to put a higher post length on the Politics forum specifically to deter this type of one-line behavior? When you are forced to EXPLAIN what "Sirhan Sirhan" is or what "Article 3" says.. you'll be a lot less insulting and a lot more informative. That fosters discussion, in my opinion.

While I would tend to agree with the above.....I also understand that politics are very nasty in this country right now. The "one liners" listed are simply part of the reality, and the mentality of debate in this realm. Rather than arbitrarily setting a number on the length of replys, we instead, monitor and guide as needed. My advice to Anyone who is offended by the maturity level in there is simple.....

Dont Go In

The politics board is the exception to the rule at TFP.....and a certain level of disrespect is part of it. We are well aware of the issues in there,

I was under the impression that TFP was in an effort to foster respect.

.. but if we need an abyss of personal attacks and anger, then so be it. :|

Your suggestion is under consideration in staff.....might work....who knows

Woot, I was quoted twice :rolleyes:

JinnKai, you might try posting in the politics forum a bit to get the feel for it before you worry about how we do things there. Perhaps you could try raising the level of discourse to the level you deem appropriate.

There are times when a 'one liner' is enough, and prevents you from going into a multiline rant.

the politics forum scares me.....people dont seem to hold to the same tfp rules there....which is why I mostly stay away from it. I believe I can have an opinion on somehting without quote 1/2 to 3/4's of a page of text to back me up. That forum has taught me....nobody is gonna change anybody's mind pertaining to how they think/feel no matter how much cut and pasting is done.

Succinctness is often a blessing.