PTS: What can we do to get you?

Since I won the election for PTS Councillor, I have began to wonder what ways can we improve PTS and this is where you the ‘members’ fit in.

I pointed out in this thread[check second page as well], what problems I think existed and what needs to be done now it is up to you guys and girls.

Do you agree with my assessment on what needs to change?
What would get you to involve yourself in PTS?
What are the problems?
The good parts of it?
What would you like to see?
Anything else?

Thank you,
Peter J. Sanford.

I personally became much more involved in PTS (and BTS) when I was able to bookmark the new All New Posts page. I think that when that page becomes linked in the regular header menu, PTS interest will increase rapidly.

Zip

General Political Discussion
North American Politics
South American Politics
European Politics
Middle Eastern Politics
Asian Politics
African Politics
World Politics and Organisations. [2]

United States Politics
-Laws [3]
United Kingdom Politics
-Laws [3]

Political Figures
-Interviews [4]

I really think that this would be a step up from the way things are now. It would be much more organized and it would feel better posting about Canadian Politics on the North American Politics board rather than the Other Global Politics board.

PTS: What can we do to get you?

You had me at "PTS".

Cut the number of forums down!

The ideological and issues sub-sections need to go. An ideology forum and a political issues forum would suffice, in my opinion. Between ATS, BTS, and PTS, there's a lot for a person to wade through! I mean the moderate ideology forum has 5 topics in it - a lot threads in those forums get very few replies as well.

I don't have much free time any more so I rarely open forums - I rely on the recent posts on the main page and by searching for the posts of my favorite members. I'm not real likely to catch something languishing in the environmental issues forum.

That's my two-cents.

Whatever is done I believe you'll do a fine job as councilor, Odium.

PistolPete, I would disagree that it has to do with those forums themselves but rather the lack of members visiting PTS and people not posting subjects in the right area.

The whole 'General Ideological Topics' forum, is filled with hundreds of threads and many of these are in the wrong areas. This again happens all over PTS.

I myself love PTS
I would also welcome more posters posting to it.

The only way to significantly increase the participation at PTS would be to convince all of the members of this conspiracy discussion board that debating and discussing the pantomime politics of puppet governments actually has a point.

Either that or offer free beer at the door.

did someone say 'free beer'??

aw shucks!

the only threads i ever ventured into in PTS were pages and pages of arguing, name calling and ignoring to address the topic whilst taking personal jabs at anyone that posted a differing opinion... i haven't encountered as much of that in ATS/BTS (maybe i've been fortunate?)... eventually i made one little post someplace in PTS and never came back (sowwy).

i got the impression PTS was a wild, unmoderated, scary place where anything goes and i'd be eaten alive, chewed up, spit out, nibbled on for a snack and likely spit out again...

the hard part would be in convincing me that having that happen on a regular basis for the sake of 'politics' would be FUN!

i like umbrax's idea for organization of the forum... hard to keep up with u.s. laws, and folks could alert us on new one's in the making to watch out for without it getting lost in such a big place...

~am

The nature of PTS is the conundrum.
Politics is certainly a popular subject, but with it comes the fervor, only matched
by religion (and Brands of Beer). All of which cause the reptilian brain to kick in..

I love discussing politics, But there's nothing worse than spending a short time
discussing it, and a much LONGER time arguing it..

Then, I don't know if this pertains to others, but I'm usually not in the best of moods, after some of these discussions. My solution to the mood change?
I avoid PTS for a while, popping in only occaisionally.
Plus the fact, that no matter how long the post, or even how accurate, I rarely see anyone's "take" on the subject shift to the other side of things..

That didn't really help now..did it? LOL

I'll think about it a bit more, and post something else later..

[edit on 25-11-2005 by spacedoubt]

Originally posted by amithyzt
i like umbrax's idea for organization of the forum... hard to keep up with u.s. laws, and folks could alert us on new one's in the making to watch out for without it getting lost in such a big place...

~am

I just wanted to clarify that it was actually Odium's idea. I was only quoting from the link that he had in the first post.

Originally posted by Umbrax
I just wanted to clarify that it was actually Odium's idea.

oops! see that now, i had forgotten by the time i got down to the 'post' button...
regardless, the list seemed great.... i hope our opinions will be of some useful assistance in the upcoming changes...

~am

2 me, ATS mods should scrutinized more carefully for any content that is PTS themed in ATS ans BTS. All posts should then be moved or deleted if similar post already exists. I have regretted starting threads in PTS because of lack of traffic, only to see my idea rehashed in someone elses identical thread in ATS, where it drew significant attention.

This is my main criticism.

Originally posted by Umbrax

General Political Discussion
North American Politics
South American Politics
European Politics
Middle Eastern Politics
Asian Politics
African Politics
World Politics and Organisations. [2]

United States Politics
-Laws [3]
United Kingdom Politics
-Laws [3]

Political Figures
-Interviews [4]

I really think that this would be a step up from the way things are now. It would be much more organized and it would feel better posting about Canadian Politics on the North American Politics board rather than the Other Global Politics board.

I like this idea, and yes, I can agree to Umbrax also

Originally posted by spacedoubt
The nature of PTS is the conundrum.

You hit that one square on, spacedoubt.
There is a significant conundrum with PTS.

In my critical and honest opinion, if PTS is looking to thrive and have a significant increase in participation, then two things must conceivably happen:

1) The War on Terrorism forum will have to be moved to PTS.
Why?
Because the vast majority of political discussion within the ATS sphere of influence and control [ie: the main ATS site], revolves around the war in Iraq [ie: war on terrorism].
If one thinks that what I mention concerning the War on Terrorism forum is not accurate, consider the political warning that was placed in that forum back in August of this year. To be perfectly objective here, most topics started/created in the War on Terrorism forum have political agenda undertones and intentions. Furthermore, the quicker that we all move from denial/denying that the War on Terrorism forum is not a broad and general overview and discussion of the actual war on terrorism, or Iraq, or Iran, or Syria, etc. but more a political overview and discussion, the quicker the reality of what I mention will seem more realistic or plausible.

2) The Political Conspiracies forum will likewise need to be moved to PTS.
Why?
Because the second most active amount of political discussion within the ATS sphere of influence and control [ie: the main ATS site] takes place and happens in this particular forum.


Having said that, one can easily see the actual conundrum. Though both above mentioned forums are very politically oriented in nature and intent, they also have conspiratorial components. As such, this political versus conspiratorial will have to be weighed.

In my opinion, if you want PTS to become significantly increased in member participation, then petition the Council and Staff to review these two forums for possible removal or transfer to PTS. I am quite sure this set of suggestions will be met with great apprehension, but sometimes one must weigh what is better for the greater good.






seekerof

[edit on 26-11-2005 by Seekerof]

Okay, I just had a thought after my last Podcast, that was in response to the CDC Proposal as submitted by Loam - who did a stunning job by the way and everyone should check it out.

I don't know how it is in other countries, but here in the US we still do have input into legislation and proposals for new policy. We sit here at ATS and discuss and debate the possible conspiracies behind every new proposal, almost forgetting we still do have input.

Why not a citizen alert section to barrage our lawmakers and other agencies when things that concern us are still in the stages of public comment and input - a thing most people don't even know exists or miss if they do.

I spent a few years on a local Town Board in NY. I made it my business to "alert" the public (the meetings were televised on local cable" when these things were going on. I know it worked in my area at the time, because as time went on people asked me about issues if it had not come up.

So what I am saying is, let's make a difference. If things such as Loam's topic come up and there is still time for public comment, we could have a section where a member alerts the rest of us with links to submit our thoughts. There are a lot of us and and we all have a lot of friends. Let's stop talking and do something.

IMO, there are simply too many separate forums here.

A message board community is sort of like an online bar/pub. It's a place where people come to hang out, take a load off, see their friends, chat a bit, argue a bit, slap each other on the back a bit-- a place where everybody knows your name.

Bars are almost always put together in a specific way, and for a specific reason. They generally have one main room, and the larger ones then have side rooms, booths, little out of the way corners... That's because most people, most of the time that they go to such places, want to be surrounded by other people. There are certainly times that one wants to do something specific, or talk to somebody specific, and that's what the out of the way corners and rooms and booths are for. Then, when they're done with that, they once again go into the general hubbub of the main room.

If one were to walk into a bar that was NOTHING BUT separate rooms and booths and odd corners, and each of them had one or two, or no, people in them, it would appear to be a dull place indeed. Some people prefer this sort of thing, but not many.

That's exactly the way that ATS is set up. There are dozens and dozens of separate rooms, and most of them, most of the time, have nobody in them. Then maybe one or two people will wander into one, hang around for a while, then wander away again. There are rarely enough people in any one place at any one time for it to actually feel like anything other than an empty room.

I think that ATS should have one main forum in each section (ATS, PTS and BTS). It would exist as the primary meeting room, and would come to be the place where the main body of the community could congregate, swap stories, gladhand each other, maybe pick a fight or do a bit of flirting-- just be with people. That really is the main purpose of any forum, regardless of subject matter-- it's a place to hang out with other people.

I'm sure that there would still be a demand for smaller sub-forums-- the side rooms and booths and out-of-the-way corners that most people prefer sometimes, and some people prefer most times, but right now that's ALL there is.

And the sub-forums should only exist if they really are used. An empty room just makes the place look unused, hence dull. Any existing forum that hasn't had a post in it for over a month probably shouldn't be there at all.


That's just sort of a scattershot overview of my point. I'm not sure how well I've expressed it, but I know that if I go back and reread it, I'll start rewriting it, and the odds are that I'll never get it posted, so...

Originally posted by Odium

The whole 'General Ideological Topics' forum, is filled with hundreds of threads and many of these are in the wrong areas. This again happens all over PTS.

The "general ideological" forum on PTS used to be the "mud-pit", then the "General Ideological" forum on ATS - then moved to PTS and withered. Take away the former ATSness of that forum and you drop the number of topics down by hundreds.

There's almost the same number of ATSer's from Canada as there are from the UK - yet the UK has a forum and Canada doesn't. Even though there's a EU forum, which the UK is in. Put the UK in the EU forum, and a frequenter of the UK forum is more likely to click on a topic about, say, the German economy. Same with the America's. An American that mostly visits the US forum is more likely to click on a link to a Canadian political thread if it were in a "North American" forum than if it was lumped in with the politics of Sub-Saharan Africa in the "international issues" forum.

No one wants to do some great work to start a thread and stick it in a rarely looked at fora of PTS when you can put it in a similar forum on ATS, or a less specific one on PTS, and get several dozen replies.

The simple fact is that the less buttons you have to click, the more likely you'll see traffic - consolidation is key.

ATS and PTS are very different. PTS frequenters are largely the same people. The forums on ATS are filled with people that want to mostly speak about specific things. There's members that only post on the UFO forum, or the cryptozoology forum, or the NWO forum. PTS isn't like that. The more forums, the less likely someone that's interested in politics is going to visit them.

The pub/tavern/bar comparison to internet message boards that Bob brings up is a very good one. You don't open a gay bar in rural West Virginia just because you can. Although I disagree with him in that there are too many ATS forums - because of the number of people that visit specific fora there.

Again, this is just my feedback, and what I believe is the reason for the lower amount of activity in PTS.

You can't lure me there. For a couple reasons:

In my opinion, you can either be all about the story behind the news, or you can be all about the politics. If you get caught up in politics, you will miss the real stories; the stories that people can't totally prove but we feel comes closer to the truth than what Fox, CNN and the BBC tells us.

The other reason is that I am on the staff. Ever since I've elected to serve this community, my opinion and my humor that seems to be a bit too dry in the written form has made me the target of those who prefer to yell, "Oppression by the insane moderator!", rather than, "Crap, this guy will spot a stupid statement and drag it to the purging light in a New York second!" so it is best I don't wander in very often.

I would like a T-shirt, though, if you hand them out!

Originally posted by Seekerof

1) The War on Terrorism forum will have to be moved to PTS.

.........

2) The Political Conspiracies forum will likewise need to be moved to PTS.

Yep, that about covers it. Why post on PTS where your only response is crickets when you can post it in Political Conspiracies and be heard.

Why have PTS at all if there is going to be political discusion on ATS?