I think the Politics quarantine thread has been useful but has taken on too much "black hole" ness. While I agree taking threads off topic warrants some moderator activity, there are legitimate topics worthy of discussion.
One of them was the discussion about the SOTU speech last night. What looked like an interesting discussion was very quickly banished to the Quarantine thread.
Perhaps we're due for a Politics subforum (of the Energy forum?) with a(t least 2) moderators that are interested in such discussion. I suggest multiple moderators to hopefully address the natural bias that any individual moderator will likely have w/r/t to political leanings.
Just a thought.
So let me get more concrete on the proposal:
1. create a Politics subforum (PS) somewhere
2. move the Quarantine thread to the PS
3. move the 2014 SOTU discussion from the Quarantine thread to its own thread in PS
4. (consider) move the Unions discussion to PS
5. designate moderators for PS
6. (recommend) moderators of PS have a designation in their profile and/or signature that indicates this deputized role
7. for a period of 1 month, anything remotely off-topic in designated threads of PS is briskly moved to the Quarantine thread
8. after 1 month, normal "off-topic" moderation applies to moving posts out of designated threads into the Quarantine thread
I think we're missing out on some useful discussions because of the current model. This is just one proposal to try out.
Sidenote: I'm sure there are several threads of discussion embedded in the Quarantine thread. If the new PS moderators are willing, it would be an interesting (though likely time consuming) exercise to attempt to tease out threads of discussion from Quarantine into designated threads. It could be a great way to "warm up" to the moderation role.
One of them was the discussion about the SOTU speech last night. What looked like an interesting discussion was very quickly banished to the Quarantine thread.
Perhaps we're due for a Politics subforum (of the Energy forum?) with a(t least 2) moderators that are interested in such discussion. I suggest multiple moderators to hopefully address the natural bias that any individual moderator will likely have w/r/t to political leanings.
Just a thought.
So let me get more concrete on the proposal:
1. create a Politics subforum (PS) somewhere
2. move the Quarantine thread to the PS
3. move the 2014 SOTU discussion from the Quarantine thread to its own thread in PS
4. (consider) move the Unions discussion to PS
5. designate moderators for PS
6. (recommend) moderators of PS have a designation in their profile and/or signature that indicates this deputized role
7. for a period of 1 month, anything remotely off-topic in designated threads of PS is briskly moved to the Quarantine thread
8. after 1 month, normal "off-topic" moderation applies to moving posts out of designated threads into the Quarantine thread
I think we're missing out on some useful discussions because of the current model. This is just one proposal to try out.
Sidenote: I'm sure there are several threads of discussion embedded in the Quarantine thread. If the new PS moderators are willing, it would be an interesting (though likely time consuming) exercise to attempt to tease out threads of discussion from Quarantine into designated threads. It could be a great way to "warm up" to the moderation role.