About the US Politics Forum

As you've probably heard by now, ATS is making an effort to keep politics on PTS.
Hopefully this will mean new traffic here on PTS and more attention for you who take the time to share your ideas here.

In anticipation of the fame and fortune that awaits us all, as we will certainly all be household names by this time next month, (yes, I skipped my meds today) I thought it might be nice to have a little welcome here to acquaint those who don't usually post in PTS with certain details.

• The big one, obviously enough, is that you're allowed to talk about politics here. In fact you're encouraged to talk about any and all politics from any and all angles. In case you haven't heard, that's frowned upon on ATS these days.
  
  With this liberty comes one basic responsibility- to let others excercise it too.
  
  Most of us have specific ideas and beliefs to talk about and we can judge things for ourselves, but from time to time you may think somebody is a partisan hack, and oh well- that's allowed. If you get on somebody's case here saying "You're always posting this stuff, you're just saying it because you hate Bush...", I'm going to give you a really funny "no duh" look and ask what your point is.
  
  
• The ATS T&C are 100% in effect here.
  
  This is worth mentioning for a couple of reasons:
  
  1. Because ATS does not allow "recruiting" or advertising. You can't use PTS for networking or recruitment in a political effort. For example if you posted a thread asking for PTSers in your area to have a protest rally, your thread would probably be trashed. You can probably talk about one that happened or even is happening, but you can't RECRUIT for it. For example, a thread about those bikers who have been running interference at soldier's funerals so that protestors can't disrupt would be FINE. A thread recruiting PTSers to join that same group would probably not be cool.
  
  2. Because even though YOU ARE allowed to argue about politics here, and you could probably even call your least favorite politician a dummy and get away with it, you ARE NOT allowed to be obscene or attack other members. You can rip IDEAS apart here, but you can't rip MEMBERS apart here.
  
  
• Topic relevance can be a trickier issue on political subjects than on others.
  On PTS things connect easily, and the line is subtle. A discussion about Iraq might bring up a Vietnam analogy and thats OK, but then if we get sidetracked and start actually talking about Vietnam as more than an analogy, and we start pointing fingers at Johnson and saying "See, Democrats start wars too," that isn't cool.
  
  So there is a line you've got to find a way to walk here where you should be able to say everything you have to say to make your on-topic point, but especially when using analogies you've got to be specific and not get into playing "two wrongs make a right". That's a rule that I can sort of envision as tripping up some members, but we'll make it work.
  
  
• I really saved the best for last, and that is that there isn't any litmus test or any real criteria for being "right" for PTS. You can really talk about virtually anything in a forum as broad as US Politics (within certain obvious bounds).
  
  There are forums on ATS where it can be kind of intimidating- even I really don't go to Aircraft Projects much because the only thing I know about airplanes is that everyone else knows more.
  But US Politics isn't like that. You could be failing 8th grade social studies right now and be a perfectly worthwhile contributor here. You've got a mind of your own and common sense, and that gives you an automatic advantage over pretty much anyone in Washington, D.C. so you can jump in here and share your views without being intimidated.

So anyway, hopefully this place will be picking up in the days to come. Along with that, you may notice that the applause policy is getting kind of liberal right now because we're making sure that those who do the right thing and bring the politics over here and contribute thought-provoking content are rewarded. So let's go. I'd like to see this forum become just as big as War on Terror over on ATS, since most of that particular forum is politics at the moment.

Oh and one last thing... I have political ambitions for the future and I've always got my eye out for prospective cabinet members, so try to be impressive.

[edit on 12-7-2006 by The Vagabond]

[edit on 12-7-2006 by The Vagabond]

I started this thread by basically stating the obvious, and some of you may think I'm a little on the slow side if I thought that all actually had to be said. It just so happens that I prefer to be underestimated, so that if I have any enemies here that I don't know about they won't put too much effort into their attempts to undo me.

In the spirit of stating the obvious and making you all think I'm some kind of idiot, I would like to add just one more thing.

It's about starting threads. There have been a couple of threads started recently that seem very compelling and which, if I had the money to indulge in gambling, I would bet will be very long-lived and thought provoking.

BUT- (ah, the infamous "but" after a compliment. But is the perfect word, albiet mispelled, because it tells you that the part that smells funny is coming up) BUT- there is something worth mentioning about certain kinds of threads which are unlikely to take off and become productive.

On ATSNN, when you post external content, the rule is that you use 2-3 news paragraphs (a news paragraph is often a bit shorter than others) and then at least one paragraph of your own insight.

I think that is an outstanding rule and it would be best if that were observed when outside content is used to start threads here. Many of the blogs/op/ed sites from which we will sometimes be shown content allow members to respond to the material there. Therefore, if you make a post which is almost entirely external source, don't add any of your own insight, and ask "what do you think", what you're really doing is stealing from the site which you liked enough to share with us. Ironic, isn't it?

So please, do bring us outside material that inspired/challenged/informed you, but please, say something about it of your own too. One would assume you have something to say about the content, since you thought it was worth posting. So please say anything you have to say about it. A one liner with a big external quote is still a one liner.

(/the obvious)

Oh, one more thing, since I'm a little digusted with my own thread here; it feels rigid and boring. I'm not "in charge". I was asked to help make this a worthwhile place for us all. Feel free to use this thread to vent concerns/tear me a new one if you can think of something that would make US Politics more worthwhile.