L&P folks: help me brainstorm

[Derek Zeanah]

Should have been immediate.

Did you check your junk folder?

(Just tried it and had the e-mail @ my gmail account immediately...)

 

[RealGun]

It still misses that abortion, women voters, black American politics, Church and State, and now illegal immigrants, especially anchor babies, are very controlling factors in US politics. I didn't see a place for any of those. If discussion of any one of those topics is prohibited or otherwise unwelcome by way of charter, people will be just nibbling around the edges of what voters and legislators really care about. Talk about rights all you want to, and they will be secondary to all this other stuff. I think the premise should be to question America as we know it, and in the process be straightforward about what the trump card issues really are.

Some of those topics can only be discussed if either aggressively moderated or tolerant of what people really want to say, whether or not it might be dumber'n dirt.

You can host what you like, but try not to be effectively irrelevant.

 

[cosine]

It's not in my junk/spam email folder...

I also tried the "send new password" function about an hour ago, no response for that yet either.

Edit: Just tried it again. No response. Should I PM you the information with which I tried to register?

 

[Derek Zeanah]

I see your info. Just PM me your desired password.

 

[cosine]

PM sent. Thanks.

 

[Hazzard]

I may be a bit late in suggesting a topic, but maybe a forum simply titled "common sense" dealing with simple solutions to what are considered complex problems in society, government, etc. Perhaps it would have to be moderated a bit.

I seem to remember that a gentleman made a big splash a couple hundred years ago with a pamphlet called common sense.

 

[Derek Zeanah]

Not a terrible idea.

I'm still mulling this over. My big interest is privacy, with a focus on digital privacy and anonymity. After thinking about this I thought "you know, there are a lot of topics that aren't THR appropriate that I could take to a new forum, and we'd both be better for it."

Then I thought further, and came to the conclusion that it'd be possible to build an actual community of like-minded people out there, and that what was needed was a balance in topics -- enough to cover some of the most critical issues, but not so broad that there was no possible chance of getting everyone into some kind of agreement. Abortion and the like - ain't something most folks can discuss rationally, and nothing anyone's gonna change their mind on. Same with women's rights, and minority rights, and gay marriage. Personally, I have no problems with any of the above, but I don't see the need to build a forum to advance those topics.

Right now, as I consider bedtime, I'm thinking that I might should start small - privacy matters, in that like the 2nd amendment it's sort of a requirement for meaningful change in this country (though not as extreme as the 2nd amendment solution), so that'll be there. Especially since I can contribute some meaningful articles and guides on the subject.

Property rights should probably be there (think asset forfeiture and emminent domain) -- big issues that no-one talks about. Victimless crimes are kind of borderline -- yeah, prohibitions like these are stupid, but I wonder if that's not more divisive than I'm looking for at the moment.

Taxation? Kind of getting off-topic, but it ties into the whole "big government" thing. Immigration, Iraq, and the rest? It's kind of like drug legalization -- you can make rational arguments for and against (most here know where I stand, I'm sure) but I kind of sense that these topics will require a lot of effort to keep under control, will cause division in the membership, and there's really nothing that can be done about them other than gripe.

Militia contacts and such? Nope - ain't gonna touch it. Read the site and you'll get ideas on how to build your own forum with that goal. Constitutional issues? I'm all for that discussion, but it tends to get into discussions of minutae that just don't matter -- I mean, we all know ex-post-facto laws are strictly verbotten, but that didn't help us with the Lautenberg amendment, did it? Same with discussing judicial issues -- I think it's time to grow up and realize the supreme court isn't going to be a savior on these sorts of issues. Minority rights and abortion? Sure. Property rights and limititation of federal powers? Keep dreaming, pal.

I'm not sure how to classify real-id, the loss of federalism, this whole feeling that we're in a rickety cart flying downhill at a faster and faster rate, ...

Maybe I'll be more clear in the morning. Love the ideas though -- if you'd rather contribute on the new site, that's fine too. Can't guarantee I'll keep your comments long, but I can guarantee this thread'll be locked once it's served its purpose.

If you've got something you think you can contribute, PM or e-mail me. If I've got someone to write articles on a subject and it seems in-line with what I'm trying to do, I'd love to have the help.

 

[taliv]

would electronic voting merit its own forum?

i mean, it's not privacy and it sure as heck shouldn't be anonymity, but it is an interesting topic

 

[Derek Zeanah]

It is, but Jim March has that covered at blackboxvoting.org, and he's doing a helluva job.

(He's a member here, too.)

But yes, I consider it important. Just not enough to be a primary foccus.

 

[taliv]

ahh, well, jim was actually the reason i suggested it. i didn't realize blackboxvoting had forums; i thought it was mostly just articles and info.

 

[DerringerUser]

Great idea. Tell me the domain and ill be there.

I think Vbulliten is the best idea for a forum. Its my favorite so far, and im guessing its pretty reliable. Just my suggestion though.

 

[DRZinn]

Just a thought - what about letting users, or perhaps users with more than x number of posts, create sub-forums the same way they post new threads - then that sub-forum acts ike a thread, ie disappears after so long without a new thread. That way original threads might stay on-topic, and tangentially-related topics stay close by in that sub-sub-forum, but not cluttering up the thread.