Is MetaFilter the right place to promote a personal political agenda?

October 29, 2000 6:49 AM

Is MetaFilter the right place to promote a personal political agenda? I don't want to name any names, but I've noticed several highly charged issues being brought up repeatedly by the same people. It's not that these threads focus on the same topic - it's that they all approach the subject with the same slant on the story. It seems to me (and maybe it's just me) that the people posting these articles are trying to advance their own political goals. Is this appropriate?
posted by Aaaugh! to Etiquette/Policy at 6:49 AM (6 comments total)

I don't see why not. It's a community filter; the reason I come here is to hear the opinions of the Metafilter community. I don't find a political agenda any more or less appropriate than a pro- or anti- Microsoft agenda or a "revive the Amiga" agenda.
posted by mrmorgan at 9:05 AM on October 29, 2000

Yeah, I'm getting sick of all those Nader articles too ;-j
posted by lagado at 4:30 AM on October 31, 2000

I think some people have been using the links to make points that could have been handled better inside existing threads. Ralph Nader is running around 4-5 percent nationally in the polls, and sometimes it feels like all 4-5 percent is posting links on MetaFilter.

In any case, we're less than 100 hours from the opening of the polls, so most of the politicized stuff will probably go away, leaving us more time to argue about important things like Jakob Nielsen.
posted by rcade at 10:26 PM on November 2, 2000

That is, unless Jacob Nielsen runs for president. heh.
posted by tiaka at 11:10 AM on November 3, 2000

Haha! So much for the election hullaballoo being over after the 7th.
posted by veruca at 9:24 PM on November 12, 2000

Nader's campaign was ignored by the so-called mainstream media -- so it was covered on Metafilter. A community blog like Metafilter is just the kind of forum to explore third-rail issues that corporate-controlled media won't touch. That's why I read Metafilter every day, rather than MSNBC.

Would rcade prefer that we only see Gore-related stories on Metafilter? Or perhaps only stories of interest to PERL coders? Some of the most hotly debated threads in recent memory were Nader-related. The diversity of discourse here is metafilter's strong point. I think it would be tragic to sacrifice that diversity, and in turn reduce Metafilter into Meta-McNews.

posted by snakey at 12:34 PM on November 20, 2000