I don't know how you guys do it...

[LLR]

Tbh what I don't understand is why people take the time and effort required to write these long rants about how awful the forum is. I don't disagree, but what's the point? What will it accomplish?

Attention.

I mean it's really to encourage discussion about the forum and I think that's worked well so far but sure it's because I'm an attention whore because that's what I'm always like right? I miss the old David before you became a troll and all...

[Mr. Morden]

I definitely agree that the forum is worse than it was years ago, though IMHO that’s largely because many of the best people left many year ago, like Lunar and Gabu.  And then you have other high quality posters who are still here but don’t post all that much anymore, like Alcon.

I actually do agree that the moderation team is in some ways dysfunctional, though I don’t agree with the particular criticisms in this thread.  I could go through the criticisms one by one, but I don’t really have the energy for a page long rebuttal on this today, and I’m not sure it would make much difference.  I think there’s a disagreement both on philosophy and on what is reasonable and feasible that I’m not sure is ever going to be bridged.  I think the root cause of the dysfunction that does exist in the mod team is the complete lack of a relationship between Dave and the mods, and that has a number of ripple effects that again would take about a page of writing to explore fully.

Regarding both the 2020 presidential board and the gubernatorial/congressional boards…I’m not really sure what people want.  There are some people who are offended that the 2020 presidential board even exists.  See, e.g., this thread, which is a protest against the fact that the 2020 board was created.

Of course, if you don’t think it’s worthwhile to even talk about the 2020 race yet, then it’s easy enough to avoid that board.  But it sounds like you wish there would be more news there and less speculation.  I mean, there *is* news on the 2020 front.  Martin O’Malley is visiting Iowa and Kirsten Gillibrand is calling donors and so forth, and all of that is covered in the Tea Leaves thread.  Do you wish that more of those stories were split off from the Tea Leaves thread into their own threads, so that we could discuss them in more depth?  Because for most of that stuff, there’s only so much to comment on.  It’s not like October 2015, when the primary race was in full bloom.  We only have a proto-campaign at the moment, so only so much is going on.  Or do you want more threads like this about what the potential candidates are doing now, in their current jobs?  Because I think some of that stuff is already covered, but on other boards.

So yes, there’s some news, and we do talk about it, but there’s only so much of it at this early stage of the campaign cycle, and so yes, most of the talk is speculation.  I’m not really sure if the suggestion is that there’s a bunch of additional news out there that we’re missing?  Similarly for the gubernatorial and congressional boards, we have various megathreads that cover news about who is running and who isn’t and so forth, but yeah, there’s also plenty of threads about speculation since the midterms are over a year and half away.

[they don't love you like i love you]

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=239635.msg5232618#msg5232618

LOL

[Devout Centrist]

This is all just a part of Dave's plan to purge the site of the forum so maps can reclaim their rightful glory.

[Frodo]

I manage. 

[RINO Tom]

This is all just a part of Dave's plan to purge the site of the forum so maps can reclaim their rightful glory.

Agreed, we need to make the maps great again.

[Cassius]

I don't really get what the big deal is. This forum has dozens of great contributors, both American and foreign, who make a lot of good posts and, from my point of view, have been very informative on even the most minor of things. I mean, you know, to take a couple of minor examples, my German has improved immeasurably (I'm far from fluent, but I can now read it and listen to it to a reasonable extent) just from perusing some of the German news articles posted in the Austrian and German election threads, whilst I've lost track of the number of new books I've heard about through the 'What Book Are You Currently Reading' thread. Moreover I have this forum to thank (at least partially) for not having an ability to understand elections and politics that has been informed primarily by the trash analysis usually found in the mainstream press and media.

I mean, yeah, the moral pontificating and emotional grandstanding that goes on here can be very irritating ('DISGUSTING', 'DESPICABLE', 'TERRIFYING' etc), but not much more so than in real life. Ultimately, I've learned a fair amount from this forum, often from posters who don't have that high an opinion of me (ie most the forum probably), and have, on occasion, tried to make a useful comment here or there (emphasis on the 'on occasion' as I'm a pretty lazy and syntactically challenger poster with a lot to learn). Best bet is to just let the comments of people who irritate you wash over you, as they will have no real life impact.

[Tender Branson]

Politicians come and go ...

Posters come and go ...

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

[White Trash]

I haven't really noticed this problem. Since I only stick to a handful of boards and topics. It's a big forum, pretty easy to avoid certain posters and ideas.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I definitely see that things have gotten worse, but I wouldn't point to the 2020 board as proof of this. The Presidential Election boards have long been well below the forum average in terms of quality, and the problem is even worse on boards for elections far into the future. The 2016 board was also terrible at this stage in the game. So was the 2012 board.

[Badger]

What percentage of active posters would need to be banned, in order to make this site a shining city on a hill? And what are the odds that there would ever be a consensus as to whether of not that esteemed state has been effected after the mass bannings have been completed?

It kinds of reminds me of Iraq. Don't make a regime change until you have a high level of knowledge and confidence as to what will replace it over time, and for that matter elsewhere, and what the ensuing body count will be as one moves from A to B.

Torie, that's frankly groundless. No one is shooting for "a shining city on a hill"; most posters are just tired of this place rapidly and unapologetically turning into Stormfront 2.0.

The mods supported freedom of speech while balancing that Nazism wasn't welcome on a private website. It seems that rampant unapologetic bigotry that would've quickly earned someone the door a couple years ago is tolerated, even coddled.

This is NOT a step forward for free speech, but rather a big step backwards for civility in the entire Forum Community.

Racism and xenophobic nativism has sadly grown close to mainstream on the right. That's not particularly debatable. Ergo it's invaded our political discussions on Atlas as well. Apparently the mods believe that because just hateful attitudes and speech are more common in the real world, it should be more accepted within Atlas. Now exorcising hate posts has shifted to being an attack on conservatives and their values, because conservatives have elected a cartel of folks who flirt heavily with the swastika tattoos crowd.

That's a loss for our community, and your lot have allowed it on their watch. Only your lot can change course and reinstitute basic values of civility and race-blind discourse here.

If a handful of white power enthusiasts complain about "liberal censorship" and a couple Eharding types wind up banned, trust me: The vast majority of posters--including conservatives--will be grateful.

[(Still) muted by Kalwejt until March 31]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

-I've never noticed myself having a distinctive tone. What do you find to be its characteristics?

[Leinad]

"Boring" is a state of mind endured by teenagers who have not had sex yet.

And why is that important

You cannot criticize others for being boring.

It is a "state of mind" that you endure or perceive.

I think by "that" he was referring to sex.

I see no reason that sex has anything to do with it, unless you are saying that sex is so boring that everything else pales in comparison for those people who have gotten around to engaging in it?