This is adressed mostly to Pundit - but others can answer if they want to...

 Why do you want to start this political panel thing ??
 Are you bored  and just want to argue politics?

 We got mostly a good thing going on the forum here.
 It really is two thirds to 80% gaming talk.

 Which is really great.(!!!)

 Why muddy it up with politcal shit talk and arguments??

 Most of the frequent posters on here have figured out what they "think" the politics are of the other pretty frequent posters. (Tho, some of you have me pegged wrong on a few topics probably)

Do we really need MORE Politics talk on here?
Or less of it ?

You run the risk of sliding into that Tangency kind of stuff. Tho, I think the mix of people is a more balanced mix of viewpoints.

Hell, If I looked up how to do it - I would have made that a poll question.

Whats everyone else think?

- Ed C.

Maybe they're reaching that time of year when their campaigns are winding down for the Christmas-New Year break, or the summer holidays, so...

Fuck if I know.

It's harmless. We've talked politics and religion here before and nobody died.

Quote from: beejazzIt's harmless. We've talked politics and religion here before and nobody died.

Yeah I know its harmless - but do we really need it?


- Ed C.

I've done a lot of stuff that has contributed to the main forum, and my own forum, and the amber forum, and even the theory forum. I figured it was about time I did something that contributed to the "off topic" forum, and I thought this kind of a "Panel" idea might be cool.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditI've done a lot of stuff that has contributed to the main forum, and my own forum, and the amber forum, and even the theory forum. I figured it was about time I did something that contributed to the "off topic" forum, and I thought this kind of a "Panel" idea might be cool.

Panels are silly because few real people fit into any pigeonhole 100% of the time so either you wind up with a panel that agrees on certain things and does a poor job of representing different viewpoints (one of the reasons why This Week With George Stephanopoulos has such a boring political round-table) or you wind up with panelists that always feel obliged to defend the party line and wind up sounding like shills (one of the reasons why the panelists on The McLaughlin Group often say such outrageously stupid things).  Much better to just toss out issues and ask for pros and cons and facts and so on instead of trying to come up with an all-purpose panel to take opposing sides.  I, for one, have no interest in being the George Will or Tony Blankley of TheRPGSite.

I admit to getting sucked in and reading the political stuff. But I'd really rather it was left to other sites.

Quote from: John MorrowPanels are silly because few real people fit into any pigeonhole 100% of the time so either you wind up with a panel that agrees on certain things and does a poor job of representing different viewpoints (one of the reasons why This Week With George Stephanopoulos has such a boring political round-table) or you wind up with panelists that always feel obliged to defend the party line and wind up sounding like shills (one of the reasons why the panelists on The McLaughlin Group often say such outrageously stupid things).  Much better to just toss out issues and ask for pros and cons and facts and so on instead of trying to come up with an all-purpose panel to take opposing sides.  I, for one, have no interest in being the George Will or Tony Blankley of TheRPGSite.

On an Internet forum you don't have the kinds of format limitations that you do on TV or radio that really contribute to problems above. Agreement is more boring than disagreement, but here there's no requirement to fill airtime and moving on to the next topic is pretty straight-forward ("start a new thread").

And there's no reward/penalty for towing a party line -- finding areas of agreement across an ideological spectrum might actually be possible without an artificial/external imperative to fight (c.f. I agreed with something droog posted a few threads back...)

For what it's worth, I think political threads are interesting -- I admit that I'm not really familiar with forums dedicated to politics (the one's I've read are highly partisan, and even when I agree I don't always trust them).

Any suggestions for sites where this kind of thing is the mission?

Cheers,
-E.

Quote from: -E.For what it's worth, I think political threads are interesting -- I admit that I'm not really familiar with forums dedicated to politics (the one's I've read are highly partisan, and even when I agree I don't always trust them).

Any suggestions for sites where this kind of thing is the mission?

The forums at poe-news.com tend to have a lot of heated debate. There's a similarly low-moderation policy to this place (although Chet, the site owner, is more willing to ban people than the Pundit is). The discussion is split almost evenly between serious debates and dumb jokes, and while it's fairly left-leaning people respect you if you can hold your own in a debate and don't descend into ridiculous frothing.

Are there any sites that aren't either left-leaning or right-leaning  - but maybe more middle of the plane?...eating popcorn while watching the in-flight movie?

- Ed C.

I'm thinking less like "George Snuffleupagus'" klnd of panel, and more like Bill Maher's.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditI'm thinking less like "George Snuffleupagus'" klnd of panel, and more like Bill Maher's.

Bill Maher isn't the most even-handed host, either, though I'll agree he's better than many (I did watch his ABC show from time to time).  Unless he's gotten better on HBO (which I don't get), he had an annoying tendency to derail conversations that weren't going his way by changing the subject or introducing tangents and red herrings.  As I mentioned elsewhere, the most blatant example was when Christopher Hitchens kept calling Bill Clinton "The Rapist", which made Maher visibly squirm in his seat, they came back from a commercial break discussing something completely different and inane like celebrity news just to keep Hitchens away from that line of discussion.

I think the ideal model is the Fred Friendly debates.  Take a look at them if you want to see it done right.

I think this isn't really a bad idea. I have no problem with people here or at TBP because of their leanings - Hell, had a great time hanging out with a guy at D*C who was a card-carrying commie. My mom's comment to him " I didn't think there were any of you left!"

As long as people here can discuss without bringing out name-calling or the other puerile shit that causes flamewars, this will be great to read.