MetaTalk

Every few days, I look over at the US politics sidebar on the front page, and see ""Let me tell you this right now, Donald J. Trump ain't going anywhere." On one hand, I feel a certain amount of glee looking at that headline and thinking "well, that was WRONG" - on the other hand, I think "I could have gone all day without even thinking about him if I hadn't looked over there." [more inside]
posted by jordemort on Apr 25, 2021 - 8 comments

I'd argue that maintaining separate single-topic threads for the impeachment discussion and the whistleblower discussion doesn't make sense and isn't working very well. Thoughts?
posted by diogenes on Sep 25, 2019 - 88 comments

I remember that somebody in the megathreads was keeping a website that compiled and organized all the little bits of information that came out in the news about Trump's collusion with Russia (and maybe also other Trump stuff), but I can't remember the name and haven't been able to search for it successfully. Does somebody have a link?
posted by coolname on Sep 12, 2019 - 1 comment

The megathreads have been decommissioned, and many members of the subcommunity that has grown up around them have expressed that the return to normal Metafilter-style threads for political discussions will not fill the same role that the megathreads did. Let's discuss our options for finding a new space for this subcommunity to continue. [more inside]
posted by biogeo on Jul 25, 2019 - 180 comments

During the 2016 US election cycle, we experimented with moving US politics discussion to a catch-all megathread model: focusing almost all discussion of the topic to large omnibus threads posted every week or two. The resulting megathreads have been a valued thing for many people, and a lot of work and care has gone into them from posters and commenters to try and help them be a functional part of the MeFi posting mix. But the threads have always posed significant challenges, and the time has come when we need to make a fundamental change. [more inside]
posted by cortex on Jul 23, 2019 - 617 comments

I was hoping we could make a place to talk about the humanitarian crisis at the U.S. border and private prison facilities, help each other with the best information and resources, and maybe talk about if people are going to the MoveOn Protest/Rally July 2 or the Indivisible one on July 13 (or is that just Chicago)? Or know of other plans? [more inside]
posted by Glinn on Jul 1, 2019 - 28 comments

It's experiment time! We're going to try to have a parallel thread to the Fucking Fuck series, where people can post their politics jokes, one-liners, favorite Twitter snark, etc. [more inside]
posted by restless_nomad on Jan 17, 2019 - 913 comments

Title says it all. Dude has been heroic in keeping the community fully informed during this intense campaign season (as he has many times before), and I couldn't find an appreciation post for him, so this is it. Thank you, Chrysostom! You are truly doing all of us a service every day.
posted by GrammarMoses on Nov 3, 2018 - 68 comments

Can we discuss doing another reset of expectations for the POTUS45/politics megathreads? I have been following the megathreads more or less obsessively ever since the election, and, like many others, have found them an extremely valuable resource for information regarding Trump-related stuff. I still do; however, these days I skim/sift through them pretty quickly, looking for the scarce wheat amongst the abundant chaff. While doing so, I get frustrated and find myself going into fits of flagging (Hi Mods!). [more inside]
posted by littlecatfeet on Sep 17, 2018 - 87 comments

From M-x shell on the most current megathread: "Request to admins to just have weekly or even daily resets of the megathread. Not wait for a user to make them, just make them automatically and close previous ones. I don't need another recap of links every time. Each thread should just have a link to previous one at the top and link to next one at the bottom." [more inside]
posted by jenfullmoon on Jul 28, 2018 - 176 comments

I love the unique titles MeFites comes up with for posts. I live for a well-constructed description full of links and clever word play. But, that makes it hard, sometimes, to differentiate a thread about some current event and the latest political catch-all. Can we have an above-the-fold notice that this, for whatever the value of 'this' is, is the current political megathread? [more inside]
posted by hanov3r on Jul 5, 2018 - 40 comments

Initially envisioned as an Ask post about sign slogans, I'm switching to a MetaTalk post to encompass anyone's need for ideas around signs, organizing, strategies, post-rally experiences, etc. for this weekend's (June 30, 2018) Families Belong Together rally.
posted by achrise on Jun 25, 2018 - 113 comments

Can either the titles of political posts include a marker that they are political or have the hovertext or some other indicator in the Contact Activity feed say it is political (#potus45) to save me a click and instant click away? [more inside]
posted by jillithd on Jan 5, 2018 - 6 comments

The last year-plus has been a tumultuous time in the world. As announced last week, we're changing the norms of the USPolitics megathreads, and that includes less space for parody songs and similar stuff. Instead, folks can put that stuff here. Have you made some art, music, etc. (silly or serious), inspired by current events (from anywhere in the world, not just the US)? Show us!
posted by LobsterMitten on Dec 4, 2017 - 7 comments

Hey folks, big discussion time. We're going to be making some changes on how U.S. political discussion plays out on MetaFilter, to try and make sure it remains available as a useful resource in a way that isn't as unsustainable as the current approach has been. I’ll lay out some concrete steps we’re taking, and some general thoughts, below. This is detailed but important and I appreciate you taking the time to read through it. [more inside]
posted by cortex on Nov 28, 2017 - 466 comments

In potus45 threads, moderators seem to be ratcheting up their opposition to discussing topics that have been previously discussed, even if those topics are evolving, and even when participants in those discussions find the continued discussion valuable. Previous MeTas seemed to lean in the direction of spinoff threads for certain aspects of US politics, and folks are asking for a spinoff thread now for the Al Franken situation, but the mods seem to be against that, based on the idea that we're rehashing/retreading previous discussions. This same logic has been applied to other sub-topics in the past, e.g. anything that touches on the 2016 primaries, and it makes a certain amount of sense. Still, I find it unsatisfying when these discussions are closed off when (a) the underlying story is evolving, (b) other community members are making compelling points, and (c) the discussion isn't terribly shouty/fighty -- criteria I think all apply to the discussion so far re: Franken. What say you, MeFites? [more inside]
posted by tonycpsu on Nov 20, 2017 - 260 comments

Okay, someone made a (possibly throwaway) comment in one of the POTUS45 threads that it would be interesting to see how the comments/content of the threads had changed since the election. I got my teeth into that, and after some playing with the HTML of the threads with VBA and Access, I now have a headache. As well as that I've got a database with 48 threads, 139,882 comments (including the posts themselves as a comment), 9,230,306 words, 2,193,898 favourites and 46,692 links. Some charts and stats inside. Let me know if there's other stuff you're interested in. [more inside]
posted by MattWPBS on Sep 1, 2017 - 103 comments

It's been a rough couple of days. Time for another thread. A space for us to breathe. Let's take a moment.
posted by Fizz on Aug 15, 2017 - 344 comments

Taking advantage of what actually appears to be a slow news day (?!), I re-vamped the Election Thread Guide on the MeFi wiki to be a new "U.S. Politics Thread Reference" guide. I've enjoyed (as much as one can enjoy) the politics megathreads, but there certainly is a learning curve. Please feel free to add your own content directly or, if you'd like, add info/suggestions here and I can work it in. [more inside]
posted by whitewall on Aug 7, 2017 - 41 comments

There's a small discussion at the end of the May 30th U.S. politics thread (starting here) about when the megathreads should be "rolled over" into a new thread. Let's talk about that, and whatever else folks want to talk about with respect to the megathreads. [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Jun 6, 2017 - 260 comments

In the interest of not cluttering up the massive political thread with expressions of disbelief, let's have a Metatalk thread about how unbelievable all this shit is. [more inside]
posted by bq on May 26, 2017 - 347 comments

The biggest change in the way that mefites participate on the blue in years has been the rise of US politics megathreads. We have had several discussions of the qualitative impact of them, but it occurred to me that it might be useful to dig into the infodump and see what quantitative picture might emerge. I think my findings are worth sharing - while a quantitative analysis on its own can't tell us whether the megathreads are a good thing or not, there are several negative trends regarding community engagement and participation that are happening in close concurrency with the rise of the megathreads. [more inside]
posted by strangely stunted trees on Mar 27, 2017 - 435 comments

In one of the December election threads, someone made a passing reference to a Pogues song, and I can't find it. If memory serves, the comment didn't mention them by name, but said something to the effect of "I never thought I'd be singing xxxxx, but it's relevant again." The only things I can recall were that it was from one of the 1980s albums and it wasn't "Fairytale of New York". If anyone can help jog my memory, I'd be much obliged. Thanks!
posted by pxe2000 on Feb 20, 2017 - 18 comments

We've gone back and forth in the election threads for over a year now. And plenty MeTa ink has already been spilled alternately bemoaning and re-litigating names for his Trumpiness, how annoying nicknames are, why some people want them, etc. etc. It's been recently argued that his name is already pretty silly for the English. From Lord Dampnut to [], this topic seems done to death. Can we just settle this and put it in the damn wiki? Has it already been? Isn't this a better place than the unwieldy election threads?
posted by aspersioncast on Feb 18, 2017 - 117 comments

Based on a lot of discussion over the last year and especially the last couple months about how the site handles the visibility and organization of posts about contemporary US politics, we've put together a new sidebar tool that you can test out starting today. [more inside]
posted by cortex on Feb 6, 2017 - 118 comments