Running a Non-Partisan Political Forum?

cptnHaddock asks: "The internet was supposed to give a new breath to democracy. While there has been some interesting initiatives, I feel a lot more could be done. Do you have any experience, tips to share, about running a non-partisan political forum? How to encourage well-thought postings and filter out the cynical ramblings, and how to moderate without censoring? Is there any good software that you would recommend for that task? Are there other solutions even better suited to running a policy-oriented discussion board?"

Comments

A Few Tips:

[Eightyford]

I started a religion forum about six months ago, and I too was worried about flamewars and intolerance. Suprisingly, we have had very little name calling at all on our forum. Most of our members have came from slashdot through my sig link, so I guess that helped us get members that were above average in terms of writing and discussion skills.

We use phpbb with a few mods, like quick reply and a captcha system that doesn't really work. Most of our top posters have mod abilities, so that really helps us control the spam posts. Amazingly, for a religious forum, we haven't censored any posts in six months. Basically, just encourage rational debate and I don't think you will have any need to censor.

Re:A Few Tips:

[Eightyford]

More tips:

1. Start small. There's no need to create all of your forum topics at once. Start with a few and create more as they are needed.

2. Welcome new members. It can be tough joining an established forum. New members don't always know the forum etiquette and they don't know any of the "in jokes". Welcome them and thank them for contributing.

3. Don't censor. If someone steps out of line, just ask them nicely to "tone down" their posts. When the subject is politics, you have to be very careful to ensure that the poster doesn't feel like their view is being unfairly silenced.

4. Allow guests to post. You will need a good captcha system, but allowing guest posting really helps to get the "lurkers" involved in the discussion.

5. Start the discussions. Write a few posts everyday that you know will generate discussion. Start a poll that asks if abortion should be legal, and before you can say flamewar you'll have a hundred new posts. I also spam my own forum with "in the news" links. It can really help get the ball rolling.

6. Forum games and offtopic posts. Create a lounge section for members to discuss issues that don't relate to politics. Forums should be about discussing issues with friends. Solve an online puzzle like www.antiriddle.com together, and the members will set aside their political differences and have fun together. Also, little games like word association and photoshop tennis can help strengthen the community.

7. No ads! Don't put google ads between every post. That is annoying, and people don't want to join an online community created strictly for profit.

Re:Impossible

[Anonymous Coward]

It certainly is a curious question. How do you have a political debate without people debating with their individual political ideologies. Impossible? Probably. Difficult? Certainly.

My recommendation would be to limit debates to only between two people or two groups which have an equal amount of people. Otherwise the common forum habit of teaming up against an opponent occurs.

Additionally, I would only allow information in a debate that qualifies as a highly verifiable source. Noone should be able to say "Fact" unless they have solid information to back it up with. Once the conspiracy theory debates start then the entire forum is trash.

Finally, I would only moderate comments based on spam, harassment, or an opponent in a debate conceding. Additionally, debates should be of finite length. This will prevent topic drift.

2 simple rules

[wfberg]

1. allow only discussion on events that happened atleast 120 years ago in rural Sweden
2. no Swedes

Re:Restrict access to only those people you like..

[LetterRip]

We have had an excellent forum that has a reasonable sized user base, an extremely diverse set of viewpoints (Your standard variety of mild to hard core democrats, republicans, libertarians, but also views from communists, fascists, etc.), and consitently high quality posts.

There are rules that people are expected to follow regarding respecting those you are discussing with. While there are occasional flame wars (and people are suspended from posting for a brief period of time when it gets out of hand), it doesn't require anything particular draconian. Requiring respect in a public discussion is not censorship.

ornery.org for those interested.

LetterRip

NON-partisian != BI-partisian

[NevarMore]

Assuming you're American, you need to remember that a NON-partisian organization needs to include ALL political parties and ALL voters. This includes independents, Libertarians, Greens, Socialists, Communists, and all the other 'minor' ideas. Non-partisian doesn't mean just democrats and republicans, do you hear me League of Women Voters?

As for the moderation issue, make it clear and make your users agree to a 'debate not argue' concept. By example, I was at a political rally for PeirceForOhio.com last week. A Green supporter, a Blackwell supporter, and I were having a discussion about poltics. We disagreed, but we were amiable and making points all around. Another rally-er came over and started ranting while we were having a nice conversation, irritated all of us.

Your users need to be reminded that a discussion forum is for DISCUSSION and is not a pulpit.

See also issues arising from Godwins Law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

A strategy that I use on a non-political board is NEVER to delete posts. I move, split, and edit and every time I have to moderate I make it clear why the thread was moderated. I and the other admins also listen to and respond to issues with moderation, but not in the moderated thread.