This thread won't be open forever, but I realize there may be questions about what the hell is going on, what the goals are, what the rules are, and so on. So this thread is to allow some discussion about the forum mission and how it's going to work.

Please do read the sticky first, but you may ask questions or make suggestions here.

Off-topic posts will be purged at my convenience :P

Did I get the last post in the old forum?

Close, but no cigar IMO.

Can we place bets on when the good faith humanity respecters start a thread about the JQ?

I don't actually know what this is but I'll suggest you place those bets over on the other forum, if you like. Please don't respond to this :P

So, I didn't want to move too many threads here from the old forum for various reasons, but I'd guess we'll eventually want some threads that are similar to ones which existed there. For example I'm sure we're going to have a thread about the 2020 candidates and election at some point. Any enterprising person who wants to write a good OP for something like that should feel free.

I actually didn't want my threads moved because my posting here will be from a different angle. but you're the boss.

Oh, I'm sorry. I made a bad assumption. Do you mind terribly if we keep them? I think they are interesting enough.

I'd hope these two threads from DS are NOT the expected standard of OPs for this forum.

We'll try to improve as we find our footing. :P

I wanted to have something here besides just an empty space, and I (erroneously, as it turns out) figured he would want to be able to keep them, so I grandfathered them in, as it were. I also think they both at least lead to interesting conversations, even where (as I did in the discrimination thread) I might criticize the OP.

My whole philosophy is lets have an interesting conversation. We don't have to have absolute perfection as a starting point, but we need some material to work with; something which will generate interest. If an OP has some promise we can try to fix it up and do something useful with it. That's more or less going to be my approach.

Good luck well named. Sincerely. I think you're gonna need it but I think you deserve it. Many disagree.

Thank you sir. I appreciate that.

I get the feeling conversations will be interesting but not for the reasons you’re hoping.

Unless I'm missing something after squinting really hard, it doesn't appear that this subforum is getting linked in the sidebar in the "Other Topics" section even though it appears at the top of the page that it's supposed to be under that umbrella.

If I'm right that it's not showing up for anyone, something to fix IMO.

It's on the todo list, it should get taken care of fairly quickly. It requires editing an HTML template that's not part of the forum software. Obviously once I talk them into giving me root server access I will just sort these things out myself

"Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely."

This reminds of that R&M episode on the purge planet and what happened after they got rid of the purge.

So why was the old politics forum nuked? Is the new one supposed to be for deeper things than "Let's talk about what headlines are dominating the news today" and "Who is currently up in the polls for the Democratic nominee?"

Edit: One of the mods says they will be starting threads that will cover those very topics so then what was the point of creating a new forum on the site and having other people create another new forum off the site?

It's the same **** but with a different modding philosophy. The other one was locked for reasons.

Honestly I purposefully avoided saying anything about the reasons why because I feel like there's zero chance any summary I could give wouldn't greatly aggravate some party or other. Let's just say there are creative differences between the old community and the 2+2 admins.

As far as the goals of the new forum, they are explained in the sticky. Whether or not those are really different from the old forum is something I'll allow you to decide for yourself, or ask specific questions about.

I do hope to have some threads about political philosophy or issues that go beyond horse-race stuff, although I also enjoyed keeping up on stuff in the more day-to-day events threads in the old forum, and continue to browse them at the new site.

Without commenting on why this change was made, the way it went down is utter bull**** and extremely disrespectful to many long-time 2+2 members, and I’m not talking only about Mat temporarily closing the old forum on short notice.

+1. I've been a long time lurker of that forum and it was the first forum I checked every time I got on 2+2. I have grown more distant from the other aspects of 2+2. While I'll still be popping in on 2+2 from time to time it will definitely be at a lower frequency.

I have been keeping tabs on all these forum shenanigans because the above is so spot on I thought it would be clear to the admins once some cooling off time was given.

Props to well named for taking this on. It's a reasonable compromise and we will see what happens.

Well that was one way to end the Brexit argument.

One of the major developments I've noticed since the Politics forum was closed is that posters like Autozone (who should have eaten a permaban months ago btw) feel empowered to start terrible threads. well named has done an admirable job of nuking the threads immediately, but he isn't going to be on line 24/7.