MetaTalk

In addition to the ~biweekly megathreads, the 2016 DNC saw four daily threads with 12,536 total comments, plus a 1,598-comment VP thread for literal potato Tim Kaine. This cycle there are no megathreads, and a grand total of *checks notes* zero posts or comments on either the DNC or VP nominee Kamala Harris, a charismatic woman of color with a complex record who may potentially lead the nation for a dozen years if everything breaks her way. I know the megathreads were a burden, but this seems sub-optimal, especially given the desire on the site and in society generally to spotlight women leaders, black voters, and the push for criminal justice reform. [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi on Aug 18, 2020 - 295 comments

It seems to me that the change has been a positive good for Metafilter. Change being the doing away with the Megathreads. Even the sidebar has stopped moving. What are your thoughts?
posted by Mrs Potato on Dec 16, 2019 - 92 comments

Over in the Hyucking Hyuck thread, MysticMCJ proposed the idea of a US politics megathread challenge coin as a physical symbol of, er, whatever this all is. People got into the idea, and a quick straw poll having shown sufficient interest to potentially make production worthwhile, here's a space for those interested in the idea to talk about it. [more inside]
posted by zachlipton on Jan 29, 2019 - 130 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 - 893 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

There's an intriguing post up on the main page about a young fly fisher, but it's NYT, and anyone who spends more than an hour or so (not to mention weeks on end) on the Trump megathreads has safely exhausted their NYT article alotment. Those same threads are not very supportive of the idea of giving NYT money: what are we to do?
posted by not_that_epiphanius on Aug 22, 2018 - 60 comments

Very quickly: somewhere back in the megathreads, I remember a bunch of y'all mentioning a group mobilizing to preserve women's access to reproductive healthcare services, including abortion, no matter what happens with the law of the land. [more inside]
posted by adamgreenfield on Jun 28, 2018 - 17 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 - 464 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 - 259 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 - 101 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 - 244 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

The Hurricane Sandy thread is crashing my browser on my home computer. [more inside]
posted by Curious Artificer on Oct 29, 2012 - 61 comments

There should be a comment limit per thread in MetaTalk. There are people who made 50+ comments in the Alex Reynolds thread. That is just wrong. No one should be allowed to make more than a fixed number of comments per MetaTalk thread. I say five. Pile ons are not cathartic releases, mob psychology is not self-policing. This place has gone from Harrison Bergeron meets Lord of the Flies to The Jerry Springer Show meets the Married With Children studio audience. It's a waste of bandwidth, creates nothing but ill feeling and a collective sense of entitlement to say shitty things. We might as well be bearbaiting or throwing cats into bonfires.
posted by y2karl on Jan 6, 2005 - 242 comments