What additional forums/sections would you like to see?

I would like a Politics/Religion/Philosophy lounge though it would have to be highly moderated. Not in the sense of what people may or may not say, I stronly believe in free speech, but some sort of set of rules to make sure that these discussion do not get out of hand and do not endanger relations between certain members.

I definitely think it is worth the moderative effort though, even more so because this is a writers forum. I expect eloquently written debates!

 

I am strongly opposed to a politics/religion/philosophy forum. Such threads always degenerate into harsh words, personal attacks, and shouting matches. There are plenty of other sites to rant and argue. Such threads also attract outsiders with soapboxes.

I also believe contest and open market listings are an open invitation for scams and other spam. Nearly every such announcement thread that has found its way here in the last five years has appeared quite questionable. Now, it may be that the legitimate ones have seen and respected our no-advertising policy, but there are a lot of predatory (or very suspicious) contest schemes and calls for writing.

 

I love the idea of a politics/religion/philosophy forum. I think most people are capable of being civil and respectable. And of course, there's always the Report Post button if things get out of hand.

 

I think that a Politics/Religion/Philosophy Lounge would be interesting, but I see the point Cog made about it easily degenerating into shouting matches. But, at the same time, a good debate is sometimes a good way to sharpen one's mind and broaden your horizons...

I think that a Movies/Tv/ Entertainment Lounge would be awesome though. It's so hard to have a focused discussion about a specific Movie/Show/Game in the massive threads that exist for them currently. I think a lot of people would really like another lounge where you could talk about that kind of thing more freely.

 

A politics, philosophy, religion section could be interesting. Has it never been tried before?

I will say that of all the choices I would only use that. I love talking about philosophy. But, and for me this is a big one, it might be just another distraction.

 

I forgot to say this in my last post, but I don't feel the need for a separate e-pub/self-pub forum. Threads about these topics are fairly uncommon and are probably better suited for the Publishing forum.

 

I've moderated a freethought/atheist forum previously. It's difficult, but doable, to have members with differing beliefs interacting constructively. Such requires members who are willing to listen as well as speak, and moderators who are willing to ban when the first requirement isn't met.

I also voted for e-publishing and freelance writing forums, not because I have much experience to contribute, but because I'd certainly follow them.

 

I'm with Cogito on the politics/religion section. I know I'm new around here, but I'd really hate to see the crowd that comes with that sort of territory. I know I wouldn't have to even look at the section, but I also know I'd see some fanatics posting around the forum

 

The moderation rules in a controversial topics section would have to be strict. No sarcasm, no ad hominem attacks are a minimum. There would also have be rules to keep one or two members from monopolizing a thread with a back and forth argument going nowhere (e.g. post limits per page per thread, strictly enforced).

It is guaranteed to be a pain in the ass to keep in check. It is also guaranteed to result in many infractions and bans. Not an impossible task, but I do think the end result will not be pretty. My opinion, of course, but I reserve the right to say, "I told you so,"

 

I am highly in favour of a of politics, religion, philosophy lounge. The type of people who are interested in making an account on this site and participating regularly are obviously people who like to read and expose themselves to new ideas. They are not going to stoop to shouting matches as easily as the members on any other regular forum you may be thinking about (or even the comment section of a newspaper). There will be a few people with no self control and they can be quickly weeded out by staff within one month of the forum's being set up. Debating with cogently formed arguments would be the general mantra of most users who would seek to convince their opposers through reason rather than brawn. You can also reference the other writing forum. the .com version of this one. It allows such debates and I've never seen them hit the gutter there.

 

I'm on another writing forum that is going to get rid of their debate forum (which generally meant politics and religion). It just took too much time and effort by the mods to keep it civil. As others have said, there are plenty of other places for these types of discussions. I could see some of these topics coming up in writing, but as a forum in and of itself... not a good idea, IMO. But it really depends on whether the mods want to devote that much time to it.

As to the self-pub and e-pub forums, I'd only like to make sure they maintain their separate identities, and we not allow confusion between the two (SP questions being posted in e-pub, e-pub questions being answered as if they pertained only to SP, etc); that can be difficult.

 

I wouldn't like a politic, religion or philosophy lounge - I voted against it. A lot of previous threads that only hinted at such things stirred up a lot
of strife and hurt feelings. I've seen some of these things on other sites - they turn into free-for-alls. One persons opinion could quickly get
squashed, even bullied which would make things uncomfortable later on in the workshop. For me this is a writing workshop to better everyones
writing. Not really to 'chit chat' about things that would start off pretending to be nice - only to spiral into a huge argument. Let your
beliefs come out in your writing.

 

As much as I know I could handle a debate-style forum, I agree that the 'mob mentality' is very hard to overcome. And yes, it would need to be strictly moderated. Honestly, Cogito was the most active moderator we had and he stepped down so the last thing we need is a forum that will require MORE moderation.

Honestly, I don't feel the need to add anything to the forums. Any threads on movies or TV shows go in The Lounge. That's why it's there, as a catch-all.

Bottom line:

We all love to write. It's the one thing that brings us all together and it's the one thing that makes us all friends, without even knowing each other.​

~ J. J.

 

I'm against political and religious forums because flame wars all ways come up in them. Mixing politic forums, religous forums with writing is not a good mix. The writing will suffer. I have never seen a political realm ever calm. Religious , especially mixed religions coming together is guaranteed flaming. There are some things you can't mix.

 

Daniel, have you thought about starting a completely new forum for politics and philosophy? This would help keep writing and politics/philosophy separate, and I'm sure a good number of the members here would join that forum.

 

^ That is actually a pretty good idea in my opinion. I actually agree with the criticism that a debate forum like that might lead to unwanted conflicts but on the other hand, I have high hopes and expectations when it comes to the reasonability and politeness of this forum's members.

I am already happy to see that there are both religious and non-religious people here willing to have a forum like that. It would be nice to have a place for it. For what it is worth, I would be happy to moderate such a forum though I would completely understand it if you'd rather not.

 

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I voted for politics, religion and philosophy thread. While I still think a philosophy subforum might work the more I think about it the more wrong I was about politics and religion.

 

What about topics like political philosophy or philosophy of religion? I don't like the idea of having a philosophy subforum and ignoring such topics.

 

There is more to philosophy than just political philosophy; there are things like discussing individual philosophers, ethics, epistemology, metaphysics and literary criticism.

 

True, but I'd still like to discuss everything philosophy has to offer. But I guess I'd rather discuss a limited number of topics than not discuss it at all.

 

I agree that it's best to keep politics/religion debate topics off the forum. They never seem to go anywhere productive. This site has been a good escape from all of that and there's plenty to debate about when it comes to writing. I'm a passionate believer in my religious convictions and my political positions, but sometimes endless debate just becomes pointless squabbling.