Personally, I'd be fine with discussing it in Natter, but I'd been under the impression there was a consensus for keeping war, politics, etc. there to a minimum.

I thought the consensus was to keep the heat down when discussing them. We had a couple conversations that went into the red zone, but that hasn't been happening of late.

I think one problem is that even when the people having the conversation are perfectly friendly towards each other, there are other people around who then feel uncomfortable if they don't take the majority (around here) view.

Frankly, I'd like to keep war/political dicsussion out of Natter. At least, lengthy protracted discussions. FWIW.

Frankly, I'd like to keep war/political dicsussion out of Natter. At least, lengthy protracted discussions. FWIW.

Steph's preference seems (to me) to be the majority vibe I pick up in Natter, toward this topic and other more involved topics. That's what I meant when I mentioned not liking to "interrupt Natter". I understand Wolfram and Burrell's point - that Natter is our everything thread and can't be interrupted as such. But there I've seen more than a couple of posts land like lead balloons, that sometimes I think would get picked up and discussed in a less Natterous thread.

I would be happy to see Natter evolve into a zone where the conversation tends more towards philosophy, love, war, art history, politics, duct tape, etc, and away from "Gee, I like chocolate, too."

I would too, but it seems headed in the other direction - especially when I see people try to introduce more sensitive topics. **

I think one problem is that even when the people having the conversation are perfectly friendly towards each other, there are other people around who then feel uncomfortable if they don't take the majority (around here) view.

I agree.

I don't think I'd be into the idea of a list. I can barely keep up with what I have now. But I do understand if that's the preference.

• *clarity edit

edited again to say HEY - look at my time and my number. That was fricking impressive. I should post whilst drinking wine, all of the time.

After thinking about it overnight and reading the posts here, I think I'd rather not have a war thread. Natter is where we talk about stuff going on in our lives and the world, and this is stuff that will affect our lives and the world. We've done pretty well so far in keeping Natter civil--I can only remember one argument that I thought went over the line--and I think that we can maintain that.

Frankly, I'd like to keep war/political dicsussion out of Natter. At least, lengthy protracted discussions. FWIW.

I'd be OK with having a mailing list for war discussions, but I really don't want to see Natter become a politics-free or war-free zone. I've learned a lot from the discussions there so far; sometimes people said things that reinforced things I already believed, and sometimes people said things that made me reconsider things I thought I knew. As I said, there's only been one time when I thought people went over the line from discussion into flame-throwing. I've got friends in the military, and I'm worried about them, and I'd rather not have something that central to my life be something I'm not allowed to discuss in Natter.

I'd rather not have something that central to my life be something I'm not allowed to discuss in Natter.

Like movies, music and the literature thread, I don't think creating a war-topic thread would make the subject forbidden in Natter. There's really no precedent for that. It would just provide a forum for those who wanted to have more involved discussions. I don't know why I'm going on about this. I'll shut up now.

After thinking and rethinking this, I think I agree with Burrell, Cindy and Hil on this. I'd like us to be able to talk war/politics in Natter. A dedicated thread will attract more spam and trolls than I'm willing to deal with.

[edit: And now I'm confused on where Cindy stands, so I'm not sure if we agree or not.]

There are no rules about what can and cannot be posted in Natter. But Natter has, by dint of its very success, become a difficult place to have deep involved discussions in, because of the speed of the conversation. While people will discuss the war (if we have one) in Natter, it will perforce be interspersed with conversations about which hand you cut your meat with and free-form jazz and the X-Men trailer and the best way to roll out pie crust.

That said, I'm still against creating a new thread, for the reasons I stated upthread. A mailing list would encourage more meaty discussion and would keep down the trollishness.

Maybe we could adopt safe word when a discussion in Natter goes into the Red Zone?

I suggest "bumbershoot." 'Cause it's hard to be serious when thinking of that word.