Job Discussion Forums

[struelle]

I know this has been posted many times before, but by looking at the evidence of the threads on this board over the last half-year or so, the political posts aren't going away. Not only that, but I must admit, most of them are engaging and interesting to read.

That said, I also enjoy discussion about teaching, and find similar engaging and interesting posts on that. Furthermore, this is a website for teachers, and is the primary reason I come here. However, politics does play a central role in our lives as most of us 'expats' find that living and working overseas has significant political overtones.

How difficult, then, would it be to seperate the forums and/or create a niche board for general political discussion? It seems incredibly simple, and it is what the people want. So why is nothing being doing about it?

The current dissatisfaction isn't with the political posts themselves, but the fact that the discussion board gets cluttered up when both teaching and politics are mixed together.

Steve

[Nauczyciel]

I hope I'm not the only person who has written to Dave about it. Although I'm also worried for the very same reason. I remember reading one post where a person says he/she has written a post appealing for creating a political forum and Dave promised to think about resolving the matter, but nothing has been done so far. The poll results are clear:

[Roger]

I guess if this idea is implemented care will have to be taken to ensure that Americans have their own forum where they can debate what's dear to them, and the rest of us have our own forums where Americans are equal among other equals.

[Lynn]

I just took a look at my mailbox and realized I have a bad memory. I posted this way back in October! I thought I had posted it more recently. Anyhow, he did respond pretty much saying that he'd consider it. He seems pretty busy.


From: Lynn
To: sperling
Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2004 9:30 am
Subject: Political Forum
Hello Mr. Sperling,
I have been reading your website since the 90s. It is a great resource. Thank you so much. Recently it has been brought up to open a new forum for political discussion. I think it is a great idea and hope you will consider it.
Yours,
Lynn

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

Actually the best solution is also the simplest. Credit to shmooj (from another related thread) for this good idea:

General Forum: Teaching

General Forum: Off-Topic

By calling the new forum 'Off-Topic', we keep it as broad as possible and open it up for all kinds of entertaining and stimulating non-teaching threads; humour, tech questions, politics & current events, music & cultural stuff, travel stories, what I ate for lunch, etc.

It seems to be working on the China Forum, so why not here?

Interesting to note: On the China Off-Topic Forum there are currently 3,021 topics composed of 39,738 posts; on the China Teaching Forum there are 2,491 topics composed of 21,206 posts. As some people have suggested, the Off-Topic Forum might actually prove to be the more popular of the 2.

As I've said before (and I think everyone agrees) there's room for both.



PS: This is what I ate for lunch.

[lagerlout2006]

Good idea but just one thing. There are not many threads about teaching strictly speaking-so it would be like it is now. That works on China, which is actually Job Related and Off Topic. Job related tends to be about visas or actually finding work. (And of course there are Teaching forums--remember those?)

As someone said maybe make it Current Affairs...People must enjoy these since there are so many and they go on endlessly. For me it's the opposite. I don't want to read IS BUSH WORSE THAN SADDAM or whatever . So put them all in one place where I can ignore them.

[Lynn]

I agree with lagerout. I want a separate political/current events forum so I can just not go there. However, I do not want to miss out on the cultural/humours/share stories living abroad topics that would be forced into the "off topic" forum.

[Gordon]

Perhaps Dave could post his own poll to us. I know this is his website, but if people didn't post here, advertisers wouldn't buy space and employers wouldn't advertise here.
He can still do what he wants, but at least he would find out what the most popular view is.

I agree with Lynn and lagerlout, off-topic is too general and I think a separate politics forum is best. It would still generate enough posts to be worthwhile, more than Cambodia or Kuwait or North America.

[leeroy]

...

[homersimpson]

I agree in principle to the idea of a General Discussion-Off Topic Forum, but I think Dave may be thinking if he creates another forum, he may well have to create another and then another and so on. (i.e. "Can't we have a U.S. s*cks forum?" "Can't we have a U.S. didn't s*ck forum? "What about a forum on dating?" etc.)

There are plenty of trashy Websites and blogs out there to discuss such issues already, why create another one?

Another factor, and perhaps most important, is to keep in mind new memberships. Look back at this forum in 2003 and you'll find little political debate. Maybe we should question the motives of certain members who have joined after.

[moonraven]

homersimpson wrote:

"Look back at this forum in 2003 and you'll find little political debate. Maybe we should question the motives of certain members who have joined after."

Right--nothing with POLITICAL implications has happened since 2003, only:

The invasion of Iraq

The prison scandal which resulted in the conviction of some lowlevel US soldiers

The WMD farce which caused at least one highlevel suicide in the UK and the decapitation of the BBC

The first ever referendum on a sitting democratically elected president

The escalation of Palestinian/Israeli conflict (including the condemnation of the wall)

The election brouhaha in the Ukraine

The massacre in Chechenia

The US presidential election

The tsunami in Asia

and a few THOUSAND others....

THE INCREASED NUMBER OF POLITICALLY ORIENTED POSTS REFLECTS THE INCREASING POLITIZATION IN THE WORLD WE LIVE IN.