Non Aligned Room

[sirbenjamin]

Apologies if the question has already been asked or answered: Is there an inbuilt 1-1 relationship between poster and room? Or can this potentially be more nuanced?

I ask because there might well be a strong case for ideology- rather than party-based 'room's.

For example:

- a socially conservative room
- an Atheist room
- a Libertarian/Classical Liberal room
- a gay room
- a TERF-sympathetic room

And so on.

[greatkingrat]

I don't think there is any technical reason why people can't be in multiple groups. However I'm not sure there is much point creating a load of echo chambers consisting only of people who agree with each other.

[gwynthegriff]

Sept 1, 2023 17:28:59 GMT sirbenjamin said:

Apologies if the question has already been asked or answered: Is there an inbuilt 1-1 relationship between poster and room? Or can this potentially be more nuanced?

I ask because there might well be a strong case for ideology- rather than party-based 'room's.

For example:

- a socially conservative room
- an Atheist room
- a Libertarian/Classical Liberal room
- a gay room
- a TERF-sympathetic room

And so on.

Stadium?

[finsobruce]

Sept 1, 2023 18:17:01 GMT greatkingrat said:

I don't think there is any technical reason why people can't be in multiple groups. However I'm not sure there is much point creating a load of echo chambers consisting only of people who agree with each other.

Or person, in certain cases.

[sirbenjamin]

Sept 1, 2023 18:17:01 GMT greatkingrat said:

I don't think there is any technical reason why people can't be in multiple groups. However I'm not sure there is much point creating a load of echo chambers consisting only of people who agree with each other.

But they'd be non-overlapping. Right now any healthy disagreement is sanitised through the prism of 'broad church', creating situations where the enemy within is inescapable, but external friends are forcibly distant.

[Strontium Dog]

Sept 1, 2023 18:17:01 GMT greatkingrat said:

However I'm not sure there is much point creating a load of echo chambers consisting only of people who agree with each other.

I think that's what Reddit is for.

[No Offence Alan]

Sept 1, 2023 18:17:01 GMT greatkingrat said:

I don't think there is any technical reason why people can't be in multiple groups.

However I'm not sure there is much point creating a load of echo chambers consisting only of people who agree with each other.

Even the Party rooms don't achieve that.

[Forfarshire Conservative]

Certainly not the Blue Room. Best thing about it is that we often disagree, but do so from a position of respect and cordiality. I don't think any of us on this forum are in complete agreement with anyone else.

[froome]

Sept 1, 2023 19:55:17 GMT Forfarshire Conservative said:

Certainly not the Blue Room. Best thing about it is that we often disagree, but do so from a position of respect and cordiality. I don't think any of us on this forum are in complete agreement with anyone else.

...or with ourselves.

[AdminSTB]

Sept 1, 2023 17:28:59 GMT sirbenjamin said:

Apologies if the question has already been asked or answered: Is there an inbuilt 1-1 relationship between poster and room? Or can this potentially be more nuanced?

I ask because there might well be a strong case for ideology- rather than party-based 'room's.

For example:

- a socially conservative room
- an Atheist room
- a Libertarian/Classical Liberal room
- a gay room
- a TERF-sympathetic room

And so on.

As mentioned above, it can be as nuanced as we want. Some people are in two rooms (although this is limited to people in the blue room and people who are also in the Brexit/Reform room).

I'm happy to create rooms if people want them and will add a poll. I wouldn't be averse to a 'trade union members' room but that's my personal view. There is activity in each room, with the blue room the most active. I've no idea what the red, yellow, green or nationalist rooms talk about but I assume there is the same breadth of opinions or random discussion (the one time I ventured into the red room I saw a thread about theatrical adverts which isn't what I expected!) and at the moment this seems to satisfy needs.

[AdminSTB]

Poll added. Open for one month.

[finsobruce]

I think this is at least the second time we've had this discussion, possibly more than that.

[Forfarshire Conservative]

Voted for the last option. If people want a specific topical area that's fine by me. It's no business of me to stop them.

[Forfarshire Conservative]

Sept 2, 2023 10:17:27 GMT Forfarshire Conservative said:

Voted for the last option. If people want a specific topical area that's fine by me. It's no business of me to stop them.

To add to this, it also might make sense in some circumstances to create them. Theology debates often derail random threads for days, having a specific area for theological debate and discussion would prevent this.

[carlton43]

This is a Political Forum and rather well structured, and it has a leaning towards Psephology and is obsessive abount Maps, Tables, Results, Graphs, as it should be. I think we were all drawn in by that.

The political rooms are a good idea and permit closed sounding off areas for those of each of the major tendencies. The Right are less formalist and far less tribalist so despite being a distinct minority they have a very active Blue Room with a lot of traffic that seems to be increasing over a multitude of threads.

All the other 'requirements' can be served through the huge 'Off-Topic' section and this should serve all requitrements in an Open Forum Environment. I have morphed over the years from being very much psephology based to very much more rooted in Off-Topic based. I see Off-Topic as a particular strength that has no bad effects as it can be avoided completely at will. Much of what is mooted here should easily be contained in Off-Topic.

So New Rooms would be for those feeling shy, neglected, oppressed or in need of security of the like-minded in a form of echo-chamber. That is not ale, trains, films, books or such like; but might be gender related, mental health/autism/Asperger's related, Woke related, Climate/Warming/Environment related, or Religion/Atheism related; as those are all areas generating heat, cyclical, repetitive argument, nastiness and discord. Moderation and entry qualification may pose problems but should be easy to deal with. I don't need any such new room myself but then I am the sort that doesn't need it and others well might?

If we had some new rooms based on the paragraph above, then Admin could move thread blockers and off-topic cloggers straight away to a 'protected zone' none of the rest of need ever see!  And all the gender, climate change, atheism  circular arguments can be promptly excised and dumped into these rooms for 'consenting adults' to argue away together without scaring we children!

[WJ]

Threads often get derailed for a time by Topics like theology, lgbt, Israel/Palestine. I don't think having separate subfora will have any impact on containing these often tedious debates.

[johnhemming]

Sept 2, 2023 9:21:33 GMT AdminSTB said:

I wouldn't be averse to a 'trade union members' room but that's my personal view.

Oddly enough I have been a member of Labour Party affiliated trade union for a number of years. When I was a Lib Dem MP I even got a ballot for Labour leadership elections.

To what extent there is a need for a trades union members room, however, I don't know.

[carlton43]

Sept 2, 2023 19:56:51 GMT WJ said:

Threads often get derailed for a time by Topics like theology, lgbt, Israel/Palestine. I don't think having separate subfora will have any impact on containing these often tedious debates.

I think that it will if the Admin team are quite ruthless in immediately removing all off-topic and cloggers posts out of any thread and placing them in the most appropriate sub-forum without recourse.

[Forfarshire Conservative]

Sept 2, 2023 20:39:31 GMT carlton43 said:

Sept 2, 2023 19:56:51 GMT WJ said:

Threads often get derailed for a time by Topics like theology, lgbt, Israel/Palestine. I don't think having separate subfora will have any impact on containing these often tedious debates.

I think that it will if the Admin team are quite ruthless in immediately removing all off-topic and cloggers posts out of any thread and placing them in the most appropriate sub-forum without recourse.

That's what I was going to say too. At the moment it's hard to justify removing posts that derail threads, but if you have your own subfora with innumerable ways to discuss an area of interest, then there's no excuse.

[stb12]

All threads can and do drift to some extent so that’s not something that we’re ultra strict on I’d say, but certainly when they’re going on for pages in relation to particular hot button debates then things need to be looked at