Brexit threads - politics free please

HornetSaver

The irony of starting a thread on this is noted, but it seems appropriate.

Just wanted a bit of a stock take on what sort of approach various people think should be taken to the creation and deletion/merging of new Brexit threads.

My personal view - completely accept that too many threads get created (and that it dominates the board more than it should), completely accept that the motivations for the creation of many are nakedly partisan. But some of them do provide for relatively original discussion which can cross the political divide in terms of opinions expressed (such as what if Brexit is reversed?), and that therefore what appears to be a blanket policy of "there is one Brexit thread" seems overblown.

Relax

That within the freedoms allowed us on this site ~ Each individual can start or post what they want .

Let others decide whether it fills the front page day after day or falls into 2nd page oblivion.

To coin a phrase " Let the people decide "

WillimS

New threads should be started on current important topics, personally I tend not to post on a thread that has many responses, I prefer to respond to a new thread even if there is also a similar thread still trending.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Brexit is the utterly dominant subject in the UK at the moment and for the foreseeable future.

The biggest challenge this country has faced since WW2.

There are numerous aspects to it - that are for discussion purposes completely different.

People wanting to find support and resources about how to continue challenging Brexit (one of the threads merged) are not going to find them in a partisan Brexit feelgood thread (another of the threads merged), and neither of those are relevant to the current public opinion and political trend towards a softer Brexit and how this relates to the main parties (yet another thread merged).

This is a complex subject that covers numerous aspects of British life - it can't possibly be discussed in one thread.

Marisco

For once I agree with you Hamish. Merging them all was ridiculous and some good points (on either side) will be lost

Relax

I would like to add that I have often found the use of forum administrative tools to either stop discussion progressing or even dare I say it ~ Censorship of topics that whilst giving the veneer of allowing that subject to be discussed makes sure that any reasoned debate of opposing views becomes impossible, as rather odd, in that it is well known by users , must be known by administrators and site owners but is allowed to continue.

There has always been that problem with well meaning people with a pinch of power who seek to tweek reasoned debate to point it in the direction they feel it should be heading.

HornetSaver

Relax wrote: »

That within the freedoms allowed us on this site ~ Each individual can start or post what they want .

Let others decide whether it fills the front page day after day or falls into 2nd page oblivion.

To coin a phrase " Let the people decide "

This thread was created in response to a decision appearing to be in place that all Brexit threads should be merged into one "super thread". Whether one agrees or disagrees with this approach is irrelevant as it's the prerogative of the site to choose whether one issue should dominate this board.

My intention is not to in any way criticise the mods, but if anything to try to give the mods a stronger hand going forwards, through having a consensus with which to back them.

For me, the question when deciding whether to merge a thread into an over-arching Brexit thread, is whether said thread could have been created by someone on either side of the debate?

It's perfectly reasonable to argue that a thread entitled "what if Brexit is reversed?" could have been created by either an ardently pro-Leave or pro-Remain person, and could lead to a mish-mash of views in which some remainers and leavers "cross the floor", so to speak. A thread entitled "further proof that the EU is dying" backed up by... oh let's say the Daily Mail or "right wing want to impose poverty on Britain through hard Brexit" backed up by... oh let's say The Guardian (both made up titles but not a million miles away from threads I have seen in the relatively distant past) clearly were probably posted by someone choosing to POV-push in a visible manner.

WillimS

Its not gone unnoticed that whoever deletes or combines threads has a bias towards certain thread topics.

HornetSaver

WillimS wrote: »

Its not gone unnoticed that whoever deletes or combines threads has a bias towards certain thread topics.

I haven't noticed it. And while I do my best not to use twitterface, in true youngster fashion I will add this:

#innocence

I get what they're trying to do, I genuinely do. They want one thread where if people who have already made their minds up about where they stand on the EU want to bicker ad-infinitum, they just go to the Brexit thread. It's worked very well for Scotland on another board.

But as Hamish says (by the way, please come online Conrad, a love-in between the two of you on Brexit would make everyone's day), there are plenty of elements of and hypotheticals to Brexit, where it's perfectly possible to have original debate and where people will not fall neatly into one of two camps. A strict one-thread policy seems too far, but it's a question of how to go about something in between.

If we can't broadly agree on this, I'm in no doubt whatsoever that a strict one-thread policy is what we're going to get, as plenty of people truly do want this board to move on from being the unofficial Brexit board, and back to a place where we discuss life, the universe and everything.

tommix

Peronally I can't understand why there is so much interest in such a boring and complicated subject..

The whole debacle has turned into a kind of Trump v Clinton presidential campaign. Remainers think all brexiteers are bigots, and brexiteers think all remainers are snowflake SJWs.

When it comes down to it nobody has a clue !!!!!! is going on, and that includes the tory buffoons currently making a dogs dinner out of the whole process.

Just let 'em get on with it..Then come back and talk about it!

It will be a far more interesing subject when our departure from Europe results in the UK becoming a nation of starving bigots having to rely on foodbanks run by snowflakes..:cool:

AElene

If they merge all the Brexit threads into one huge thread it will get too large to manage and people won't be able to follow the posts that have come before.