199 posts tagged with politics.
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🔊 ⛑️ 🔊 MetaFilter Events: Week 3 🔊 ⛑️ 🔊
Week 3 of Metafilter Events is here!
Following Week 2, we’re moving on to a week that probes themes and topics around social justice, government, policy and research.
You’ll learn more about advocacy and activism - and how you can have your voice heard on issues that matter to you. Find out more about Big Tech content moderation policies and how this affects you, get some perspective on the situation in Iran, and learn about the environmental impact of manufacturing. For those in the U.S, get the lowdown on current developments in redistricting policy and affordable housing policy - and what this means for the future. Complete your weekend with a creative doodling workshop, and hear about the gamification of everyday life from Metafilter’s own Adrian Hon.
Come inside to find out more. [more inside]
Everybody v. That One Guy
As is not uncommon for threads regarding U.S. politics, the Dispatches from the Upside Down thread involves a debate between a leftist majority and a liberal minority. The thread seems fairly typical to me, in that about 10% of the comments are from a liberal perspective and about 90% are from a leftist perspective. [more inside]
Please make him go somewhere?
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]
How to access Politics Slack
What it says on the tin. Am trying to access the unofficial, not actually affiliated with MetaFilter Politics slack. Have emailed the person linked in the MeFi wiki about the issue but haven't heard back. Can anyone let me know? [more inside]
"Talk... less."
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]
How about an update conversation on the post megathread era?
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?
Mefite's website of evidence of Trump's collusion
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?
Decommissioning the US politics megathreads
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]
Fucking Fuck v.66.0.4
It's time for a new venting thread! When concise and witty just won't do, this is the place to say fuck all to this fucking fuckery!!!
"See if you can start a filibuster"
"Life is like politics: 10% getting things done. 90% exploiting loopholes." That's the summary of a classic Peanuts strip, now colorized. This is the latest hyucking hyuck thread.
Politics Chat Pony?
In the recent thread about post lengths, the question tangentially came up asking why more people don’t use Chat for politics stuff. For me, at least, it’s because it seems like when something big happens and we head over to Chat to talk about it, we’re barging in and taking over whatever people were talking about before. Could there be a separate chat room just for the politics stuff so we don’t have to bother the Chat regulars? [more inside]
How long is too long?
While catching up with the latest politics megathread, I was surprised to see this mod note from LobsterMitten: [Note about post drafts - putting here so people will see it, but happy to talk it over more in email, will email some of the recent posters. Please keep the posts on the shorter side, maybe 1000 words or that neighborhood. Thanks.]
As a longtime crafter of megaposts, I don't think I've ever seen official mod guidance to cut them (relatively) short in this way. Posts have been edited for leaving too much above the fold, but I can think of only a handful of incidents where the post body itself got official pushback for being Too Long -- and those largely involved novella-sized posts with length-induced display errors (really) or blanket copy-pasting a website's contents.
Is LobsterMitten's advice targeted at the political megathreads only -- perhaps for performance reasons -- or should it be construed more broadly? I happen to think a well-organized megapost is the best of MeFi and a feature few vid- and listicle-driven sites can match, and in the case of the politics threads specifically they're a fine example of community collaboration that provide a valuable curated record of this chaotic era. But what do you think?
Disambiguating 45 from 46
For the sake of our tender political psyches as well as the mods' I propose either:
A )Dem primary candidates' posts are not included on the current US politics side bar or
B) there be a separate Demprimary side bar, with the same opt in/out button. [more inside]
Political Humorizing Thread
I saw this cartoon today and needed a place for it. Laughing at politicians, as opposed to laughing with them, is a much needed function of democracy; I mean, really we can't all hang out at the bank, all the time. Any way,
Pat Bagley does it again!
2 Hyuck 2 Hyucking
So our first experimental Hyucking Hyuck thread worked out pretty well, and then a month went by and it closed. So: here we are with round two! This is a dedicated space for riffing and jokes, designed in particular to take some strain of the overcrowded US politics catch-all threads. [more inside]
There is no coin cabal
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]
Hyucking Hyuck
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]
Keeping arguing about the US primaries in check
The US political cycle is creeping into the beginning of the 2020 primary season, and that means we need to talk about avoiding the stuff that has gone badly on MetaFilter in previous election cycles. That means folks making a collective effort to avoid the worse discussion dynamics we've seen in the past, and it means the mod team pushing hard when folks aren't succeeding at that effort. [more inside]
MetaGetOutTheVote
I thought that it might be good to have a place for people to share links/contact information/registration/locations etc. related to voting. The 2018 U.S. Midterm elections are just around the corner (Tuesday November 6, 2018). This isn't the place to talk about #potus45, we have our mega-threads for that. But this is a good reminder to remember to vote, to make sure you're registered, and to get out there and let your voice be heard.
What are you doing?
Aka the anti–fucking fuck thread. I remember we had some threads soon after the 2016 election where Mefites shared their efforts toward making the world a better place, and I would love to do it again, especially since I could use some inspiration to get my butt moving as midterms approach! [more inside]
Request to admins to just have weekly or even daily resets of the megath
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]
Facebook as viewed by people who don't share your opinions
This is find-that-post filter: I'm pretty sure I read about this here, but searching is coming up dry.
During the run-up to the 2016 election, a website appeared that showed, side-by-side, (then-)live news posts from "conservative Facebook" and from "liberal Facebook." It may have been built by or hosted by a major newspaper, like the Washington Post. Searching the web for "filter bubbles" isn't bringing up anything promising, and other search terms about Facebook and bias and the sitting US President are poisoned by the nonstop news stream over the past two years, and also the last two weeks. [more inside]
GOTV = GTFO
Please help me track down the various links people have posted in the MeFi politics megathread that argue that general, across-the-board voter turnout is the key to defeating Republicans in elections. [more inside]
Responding to current events with art
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!
Resetting expectations about U.S. political discussion on MetaFilter
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]
potus45 spinoff threads and "rehashing/retreading"
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]
Looking back on ten years of FPPs
I've joined many web communities in my life, but none for as long or as wholeheartedly as MetaFilter. I've learned a lot, grown as a person, and taken direction from the thousands of smart, funny, and caring people who write here. And I've been inspired to write, too, putting more time and effort into researching worthwhile posts than I have at any other creative hobby. Sadly, what with work and the news chaos and competing interests it feels like there's less and less time to focus lately, and seeing linkrot erode what I do post is a drag. So when showbiz_liz's lovely celebration of ten years on the blue made me realize my own 10th Mefiversary was approaching, I was moved to do something about it. Nothing on the web lasts forever, but armed with old notes files, the Wayback Machine, and a drive to rediscover my own personal Best of the Web, I plowed through all 149 posts (and a few comments) to recover lost links, check on what had happened since, and organize it all into a single FPP omnibus for your reading pleasure. [more inside]
POTUS45 on Metafilter - I may have got a bit nerdy
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]
Everything is fine?
Every so often someone proposes we avoid discussion of unhappy outcomes in general but more specifically the unlikelihood of an impeachment in the Trump threads, which now appears to be becoming de facto policy. It seems like it's worth talking over before it does.
let's talk about the U.S. politics megathreads
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]
What the fucking fuck
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]
Flagged as Fake
Should there be a flag category for false or misleading information? [more inside]
Visualizing the impact of US politics megaposts on the blue
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]
Testing out a new US Politics sidebar widget
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]
Moral Metafilter: What have you done this week?
Politics have gotten scary. The US election has terrified many of us about the foundations of democracy, but the US isn't the only country facing down aggressive and organized right-wing threats. What have you done this week to resist, in large ways or small ones? What are you planning to do, and what have you found success with? [more inside]
2016 Election Prediction Contest results
Back in January, on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, I set up an election prediction contest for you fine folks, and got 74 ballots in response. Nearly ten months (and ten million comments) later, the results are in: congratulations to Cash4Lead, for his remarkably far-sighted prediction of the winners of Iowa, New Hampshire, Super Tuesday, the nominations, the House majority, and even Clinton's VP pick! A $50 donation to the charity of your choice is yours. Oodles more analysis of the collective wisdom inside [more inside]
What are YOU doing?
There have been a flurry of asks and comments addressing political actions members are taking in the wake of the election. This post is a place for members to discuss what actions they are taking and to invite other members to join them when appropriate. Please include specific instructions.
It's a big snowball
I think we need a political sub-site, dudes, the election threads must be a nightmare to mod, at least if all this stuff was sequestered into one area you could have a new thread every day and break out discussions of specific topics.
I was waiting for the current thread to load and thinking about hey, after tuesday all this will slow down, and then I thought....what if it doesn't?
Can we stop attacking left-of-Clinton/anti-establishment folks on here?
There is no problem with individuals expressing views critical of Sanders, Stein, Snowden, Greenwald etc. The problem is when an echo chamber develops making pro-establishment-ism the only acceptable position and vehemently jumping on views to the contrary with more emotion than reason.
It seems to me that MeFi 2016 has become such an echo chamber. This is no doubt due to the very real threat posed by Donald Trump and the Republican Party, and the consequent necessity of a Clinton win, but has developed to the point where it has the effect of recursively self-amplifying a pro-establishment position and silencing more radical/anarchist/antifa or otherwise anti-establishment views.
So, who all is in the MetaFilter Caucus?
We're your top prime cut of MeFi, We're your choice!
Who here has run for office, and/or been elected, or is running for office on Metafilter? How has Metafilter affected or influenced your campaign platform, if at all? [more inside]
Should Debates (and other unique events) be diverted to Fanfare?
Currently things like political debates (and similar unique events, such as Apple announcements) tend to play out in related threads on the Blue. Since that just adds to (usually) already-long threads, wouldn't it make sense to require that dedicated posts be made on the Purple? (I'm not alone in thinking so.)
MetaFilter 2016 Election Prediction Demolition Derby
It's been an unbelievably unpredictable primary season this year, and the Iowa caucuses are less than 30 hours away. So why not get ahead of the curve with a TRUMP-SIZED election prediction contest? I'm thinking Iowa (Dem/GOP), New Hampshire (Dem/GOP), Super Tuesday (Dem/GOP), final nominee (Dem/GOP), and general election winner, with ties broken by House/Senate control, Veepstakes speculation, and as much analysis/rationalization/weeping as you feel appropriate. Prize: One (1) $50 ($fifty) donation to the charity of your choice (split equally if necessary), and eternal bragging rights over the ruins of the punditocracy. Deadline is 8:00 PM Eastern time Monday, when the caucuses start. (Feel free to enter after Iowa or New Hampshire vote, but be advised that your prediction for those states will not count!) See inside for entry form. [more inside]
Blue turning red
I think it might be worth nothing here as well as in Rhaomi's amazing post that we now have mefi's own baggymp aka Tom Watson as Deputy Leader of the UK's Labour Party. I don't think anyone else has reached as high a political office?
Wait What?
My first FPP post ever, and I'm accused of a political agenda. Did I do it wrong? [more inside]
What does it mean to say "Don't make this the _____ show"?
Over in this post, Artw was taking a stand that no one else in the thread was. And he did it by providing close readings, links, and cogent arguments.
He was told "don't turn this into the Artw show." I'm wondering what that means. [more inside]
2012 Presidential Prediction Contest Winner
Now that Florida has finished counting votes (always a challenge for us), the 2012 presidential election results are 332 electoral votes for Obama and 206 for Romney -- barring faithless electors. The popular vote is 50.6% Obama, 47.9% Romney and 1.5% other. The Nate Silver Medal for Political Prognostication goes to JKevinKing. J. Kevin was one of 15 people to tie for first in the electoral half of the contest with a perfect prediction. He finished third in the popular vote half, ahead of I am the Walrus and UrineSoakedRube who tied for ninth. The $50 Threadless gift certificate and life-size cardboard Joe Biden are on the way to JKevinKing as soon as I send them. Please keep Joe in the lifestyle to which he has become accustomed. [more inside]
Thanks, y'all.
I want to thank the mods for their stewardship of the site during this U.S. election season. [more inside]
Election 2012: Domo Arigato, Larry Sabato
The pundits and psychics have already weighed in. Now it's your turn in MetaFilter's (mostly) quadrennial presidential prediction contest. The winner will receive a $50 Threadless gift certificate and a life-size cardboard Joe Biden. To enter, predict the percentage of the vote that President Obama, Mitt Romney and Everybody Else will receive and the number of electoral votes that Obama, Romney and Everybody Else will receive. Entries must be submitted before Dixville Notch, N.H., reports its vote early Tuesday morning. [more inside]
Deadpan links to satire sites considered harmful
The politics threads contain lots of comments that are single links to news articles. Also people post links to satirical sites like The Onion, which is fine by me. It seems to have become a thing to post the latter links as if they were real, though, with no prefatory "Satire:" or "Onion:" or what have you. I personally find this irritating, so I was wondering what the community consensus was. [more inside]
My job is not to worry about those threads
The Sarah Palin thread has been surpassed. this is now Metafilter's longest thread. Happy Election Season everyone!