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.

I do remember from the TT that politics was the most flame-baity acrimonious, troll-filled section of the board.

That was the case on Time Online as well. (IMO, it was worse than on TT, but that's neither here nor there.)

At this moment, I would vote no. My reasons: I do think that having a dedicated politics thread, without any diluting factors, raises the risk of arguments turning ugly. Not that I expect meltdown, but I do think there could be a fair amount of acrimony (even within accepted standards of behaviour here). And while I don't think debates themselves would necessarily spill over to other boards, I think there's a risk of bad feeling doing so.

This is largely speculation. It's based primarily on my observation that in other fora with a Politics thread/board, it's always the most heated. While I think the Phoenix board is more civil than the others I've attended, I still think a Poilitcs board would raise the relative level of heat here too. Not to the same lofty reaches, but more than we have now.

There's a lot of uncertainty in the above prediction, but it remains my best guess. Still, I'm open to a compelling argument in favour. If we do wind up voting in favour, I would like the proposal to include a probation period, as has been suggested, requiring another positive vote in 3 months or so. Not to see if it has enough steam, but to see if the fears of spillover etc come to pass.

You know what would immeasurably increase the odds for the thread to work? A MARCIE FILTER. You can cool off any time if you don't have to keep reading the person who provokes you. We have so much money, we could take up a collection and hire somebody to code it. It's valuable.

From my new lurker's perspective, a politics thread would make a great subscription -- links, perspectives, it's like a blog with good commenters. I don't even know what the Buffistas think about Kerry anymore.

We have so much money, we could take up a collection and hire somebody to code it. It's valuable.

We do? Really?

If we need it, I'm of a mind to give it after the events of this week. How much do you think it would cost, ita?

I have absolutely no idea, and am wary of the effort it would take on our (read my, probably) part to have the code commented and specced out for an outsider.

I wish my system hadn't crashed with PaulJ's code, or that he'd replied to my anguished appeal for a resend.

Ah, well.

Oops. Well, if logistics problems and making extra work for you are involved, that's another matter entirely. But if we should reach a point where the major stumbling block is in an area that I can contribute to (being about a 1.5 on the 1 to 10 computer savvyness scale), please let me know.

Having lurked the TT politics threads the way some people lurk the Rules girls (i.e. in horrified fascination), all I can say is YEEEEEAGGGGHHHH!!!! If you ever want to disabuse yourself of the notion that liberals (or, somehow worse, MOR Dems) are as capable of being intolerant asshats as conservatives and reactionaries (and I do make a BIG distinction there), I can suggest at least a dozen threads to look at.

That said, given the enforcements we have in place against obvious trollery, I don't know how I'd vote. But a politics thread is definitely not the place to bring out the best in a person, IMO.

We do? Really?

New server. Magazine ads. Plane tickets. Of course we have a lot of money, collectively. It's really about the will, not the resources. If people want something enough, the PayPal account will fill up, because we have a lot of money. If I wanted it enough, I could do it myself with my forklift-driving earnings. Whether I or we want it that much is a question (edit: see Matt's post for a partial answer), but we definitely have enough money for it.