How about we open the politics thread for a trial period, say 3 months. See how it goes, what the interest level is, etc. At that point, a discussion could be had as to whether or not it's of interest to keep around, or if it was not a popular as once thought, it gets closed.

Not bad idea, Aimee. In the end, it being your proposal, you'll be the one to ultimately write the actual verbage of the ballot item.

Also, though it's tangential to the current item up for discussion...

The current acrimony isn't a result of politics talk, in my opinion.

I agree.

Also, I know that some people say Jen K left because of X or Y, but in the absence of her coming in to explain, can we not continually bring up the reasons she left?

I also very strongly agree with this. Bringing up Jen K, and bringing up other nameless people and how they may or may not feel, really is not a terrihbly effective way to discuss things. Invariably, any interpretation of the viewpoints involved is hopelessly polluted by the interpreter.

Ooh, Empress, a realistic compromise solution! How novel! See, I knew Buffistas were up to the challenge.

Three months would certainly take us through a lot of the run-up to conventions and such (whenever those are), so if things look to be getting really acrimonious and unresolveable, then we'd be in a perfect place to pull the plug.

I don't like the idea of a three month trial run for a thread, any thread. No point in opening a thread if we think there isn't enough steam to keep it running (that was part of my No War Thread position).

We have precendence for opening and closing threads though. We closed the F2F thread last year and the reopened it a few months later.

The goodbye to any given year thread also has a closing date.

But a trial is something different, no?

Yes, it is something different. I think it's a good idea though. Mainly I was making the point that we already have threads that have a limited life span.

I guess I thought the point of a politics would be ongoing discussion. F2F and the end-of-year threads are kinda event driven.

A trial run would be a new twist on the idea Burrell.

How about instead of a general politics thread we test this as an Election Year thread. It closes after the election. It would also narrow the focus which might be a good test.

Actually, that may be the best plan, if it passes.

My general sense is that, whatever else happens, this thread is facing an uphill battle. But it always has.

I think a narrow focus of of the election year stuff would allow us to see if the dynamics of a political discussion as the sole purpose of a thread gets too acidic, while also serving to not totally pull politics out of the other threads. There would be a finite life to the thread with the opportunity to discuss the option of a broader purpose politics thread once the election is over.