[John U. Smith]

i understand why the politics lounge was created, but i don't understand why MacNN needs this type of forum. would anyone care to explain why a website that specializes in objective Mac-related news needs a place where people can attack each other over politics?

[Spliffdaddy]

it's temporary.

we've been assured of that.

[Zimphire]

Yeah.. assured a year ago. Heh

It was started because the anti-Bush zealots weren't happy with just 10 bash Bush threads on the front page.. they needed 20!

It was getting ridiculous.

And a year later, nothing much has changed.

[Millennium]

First, understand that there is no such thing as objective news, even in the Mac community. If nothing else, we're biased towards the Mac itself.

Second, to explain the existence of the PoliWar Lounge: it was created at a time when political flamewars were dominating the regular MacNN Lounge. Take the entire PoliWar Lounge and dump the contents into the regular Lounge, and you'll get an idea of what it was like. It got so bad that people were leaving simply after getting tired of all the political discussion.

There was an attempt at simply banning political and war-related discussion, but as you can imagine this did not go over too well. Therefore, it was decided to give politics its own forum, and state that all political discussion must go there. This method worked like a charm: the regular Lounge became significantly cleaner, but the members could still discuss politics to their hearts' content.

The idea of adding religion as a topic for the PoliWar Lounge is not new, but it was only recently made official. Every couple of months, a massive conflict between atheists and non-atheists (who we've taken to calling "theists") begins. When this happens, the Lounge gets almost as bad as it did during the worst of the political discussions, and every time it happens we lose members. People have been clamoring for an outright religious forum, but this seems to be the compromise solution.

So why do we have a political/religious Lounge here? Simple: to keep it from being anywhere else.

[villalobos]

It was started because the war apologists were constantly bashing France and Germany for questioning the arguments that maybe somehow the fact that no WMDs were found during the inspections meant that Iraq did not have any WMDs, at the same time they came up with bright smart one-liners (actually they did not even come up with them, they were jut repeating them as if it was the Bible Word) such as 'freedom fries' and 'cheese eating surrenedering monkeys'. That annoyed everybody and the moderators decided to move all that non sense to a separate isolated (hopefully) political lounge.

Ps but keep reading, there are some seriously funny people here.

[Spliffdaddy]

The liberals kept losing debates in front of everyone in the Lounge forum, so the liberal staff created a place to hide the *SMACKDOWNS*.

It was easier for them to make another forum than it was to win debates.

[Atomic Rooster]

They should get rid of it actually. Politics, religion and sexual orientation are just too divisive for a mac forum and it was never intended for these topics. The experiment should end.

You want to vent and get involved in a flame fest I've been to some doozies on other forums. Debates just don't happen. People pick sides and there they sit, stuck.

[villalobos]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
The liberals kept losing debates in front of everyone in the Lounge forum, so the liberal staff created a place to hide the *SMACKDOWNS*.

It was easier for them to make another forum than it was to win debates.

You and you imaginary Smackdowns. You are funny.

[John R. Smith]

Originally posted by Millennium:

There was an attempt at simply banning political and war-related discussion, but as you can imagine this did not go over too well.

why didn't the ban work?

edit- nevermind, dumb question

[Atomic Rooster]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
The liberals kept losing debates in front of everyone in the Lounge forum, so the liberal staff created a place to hide the *SMACKDOWNS*.

You know that's not true so why do you say it?

This is an example of why there cannot be debate and that's why it was created and should be put to rest.

[Spliffdaddy]

Nowadays the Lounge is full of wholesome topics that are unmarred by stupid political threads.

For example, there's a thread about girls that want to freebag. There's a dozen threads relating to how much Windows sucks. And there's a thread about playing a Britney Spears song backwards.

How else will we know when Ca$h buys another $800 "sports car"? And what about cleavage? How does cleavage fit into the politics category? It doesn't. That's what makes the Lounge forum so damned great - the content!

Yep, it's a good thing they got rid of the crap in the Lounge.

[Spliffdaddy]

Originally posted by Atomic Rooster:
You know that's not true so why do you say it?

This is an example of why there cannot be debate and that's why it was created and should be put to rest.

I absolutely believe it's true. So I'll say it again.

This forum was created primarily to hide the conservative viewpoint.

To deny that fact is to be a liberal.

[Millennium]

Originally posted by Zimphire:
Yeah.. assured a year ago. Heh

It was started because the anti-Bush zealots weren't happy with just 10 bash Bush threads on the front page.. they needed 20!

It was getting ridiculous.

And a year later, nothing much has changed.

Originally posted by villalobos:
It was started because the war apologists were constantly bashing France and Germany for questioning the arguments that maybe somehow the fact that no WMDs were found during the inspections meant that Iraq did not have any WMDs, at the same time they came up with bright smart one-liners (actually they did not even come up with them, they were jut repeating them as if it was the Bible Word) such as 'freedom fries' and 'cheese eating surrenedering monkeys'. That annoyed everybody and the moderators decided to move all that non sense to a separate isolated (hopefully) political lounge.

Ps but keep reading, there are some seriously funny people here.

These two quotes pretty much sum it up. Both are caricatures of what really happened, of course. But the caricaturing itself happened incessantly, over long periods of time. Most of the posts were about as intelligent and rational as these two which I have quoted, which is to say not at all. Worse still, both sides insist on having the last word, so the only time any discussion really dies is if the thread is forgotten.

Even this long after the creation of the PoliWar Lounge, threads like this still dominate it. That, in and of itself, is proof that the PoliWar Lounge is still needed.

As for why the ban didn't go over well, more people complained about the ban than about the discussions themselves, and they complained more loudly and more vigorously. certainly it was within our rights to simply ignore the complaints, but we didn't consider that to be worth the hassle when it was easier to simply create another forum to contain the mess.

[Millennium]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
I absolutely believe it's true. So I'll say it again.

This forum was created primarily to hide the conservative viewpoint.

To deny that fact is to be a liberal.

I have never moderated the PoliWar Lounge, by my own request. But I remember the discussions which led to its creation, and I can say for certain that the forum was not created for that reason. Are you prepared to call me a liberal?

It wouldn't make sense, anyway, because such a forum hides the liberal viewpoint just as well as it hides the conservative one. Exactly as well, in fact, because every time one side steps outside the boundaries the other side cannot help but pursue it. If we had wanted to hide the conservative viewpoint, we would have chosen a more effective method, of which there are many.

[villalobos]

Originally posted by Millennium:
These two quotes pretty much sum it up. Both are caricatures of what really happened, of course. But the caricaturing itself happened incessantly, over long periods of time. Most of the posts were about as intelligent and rational as these two which I have quoted, which is to say not at all. Worse still, both sides insist on having the last word, so the only time any discussion really dies is if the thread is forgotten.

My post is no caricature. I am absolutely 100% right.

[Luca Rescigno]

Yep. It's all the liberals' fault, Spliffdaddy.

[greenamp]

Originally posted by John U. Smith:
i understand why the politics lounge was created, but i don't understand why MacNN needs this type of forum. would anyone care to explain why a website that specializes in objective Mac-related news needs a place where people can attack each other over politics?

For the same reason teenage boys need to masturbate.

[andi*pandi]

I think we should impose some standards for rating SMACKDOWNS. Seems they're just being bandied about, hither-thither, with no real judgement applied.

Or maybe I'm just grumpy because I totally SMACKED someone and no one noticed.

Hmm.

[Luca Rescigno]

Originally posted by andi*pandi:
I think we should impose some standards for rating SMACKDOWNS. Seems they're just being bandied about, hither-thither, with no real judgement applied.

Or maybe I'm just grumpy because I totally SMACKED someone and no one noticed.

Hmm.

***SMACKDOWN***

erm... wait...

[LoganCharles]

I just assumed this forum was created for those of us that have too much pent up rage but are just sane enough not to kill someone.

[alphasubzero949]

[Millennium]

Originally posted by villalobos:
My post is no caricature. I am absolutely 100% right.

No, you're not; you're 50% right at best and frankly not even that. Your language is technically truthful but loaded with connotation to the point of being deceptive. Last I checked, quite a few people -yourself included- have been accusing Bush of doing this very thing, to falsely accuse Iraq of being involved in the 9/11 attacks. You also fail to take into account the fact that the conservatives were not the only ones picking fights.

The same is true of Zimphire's post, of course. I do not intend to single out the liberal viewpoint, but you're the one who insists on continuing with this charade of pseudo-objectivity. It's not right when it comes from O'Reilly, it's not right when it comes from Moore, and it's certainly not right when it comes from you.

[djohnson]

We need this forum so that some of us can have something to do all day! Fighting on here with people you will never meet is much better than fighting with co-workers.

[spauldingg]

Seriously, I love the Politics Lounge. Buried within the sometimes humorous taunts and the flailing apologists are nuggets of common sense, thoughtfulness, and intelligence. I have learned about international law, political policy, national processes beyond my own border, and have had links brought to my attention that I would never have found on my own. I hope it never goes away.

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by villalobos:
It was started because the war apologists were constantly bashing France and Germany for questioning the arguments that maybe somehow the fact that no WMDs were found during the inspections meant that Iraq did not have any WMDs, at the same time they came up with bright smart one-liners (actually they did not even come up with them, they were jut repeating them as if it was the Bible Word) such as 'freedom fries' and 'cheese eating surrenedering monkeys'. That annoyed everybody and the moderators decided to move all that non sense to a separate isolated (hopefully) political lounge.

Ps but keep reading, there are some seriously funny people here.

You must be thinking about another forum

[CreepingDeth]

Because if we didn't kittens would die.
Then Zimp would have nowhere to go, and Lerk would be forced to attempt an assassination on an alien in a neocon conspiracy, only to be arrested.
See, MacNN makes the world safer�.
Where do you guys get these smilies? Zimph?

[Zimphire]

On the internet.

[CreepingDeth]

Like, is there one site dedicated to the lil monsters?

Oh yeah, if there was no MacNN, then I'd hate to be the leader of a church or synagogue.