UK General Election Forum

Please this is business etc, try and not have debates here which have nothing to do with the topic, open a separate thread, then we can all discuss it.

Back on topic, I for one would like this, the same way the done the US Elections of the US, great IDEA to the OP, If I could I would give you a wittle star!

Why don't we just make this the General Election thread and move it to another area of the site?

reply to post by CRB86


Because I think it will grow far too large to be useful as there will be so much information available, not to mention the opinions on such information which will confuse, muddy and take up more space than the information itself.

So here's my vote for a dedicated (non-permanent) subforum, there are many users from the UK here and it will provide invaluable knowledge to others outside or those who are ignorant of the process.



[edit on 20-11-2009 by Goathief]

Got my vote

Maybe we can even entice a few election hopefulls onto the site so we can cheese grill their asses

A great idea and this has got my vote.

And Homer and I would look to get candidates on The Above Politics Show

Gets my vote. I've never voted, nor will I unless we get a half decent party or political movement worth the effort of voting.

If one party advocated scrapping the BoE though......ohhh I would be straight down that polling booth.

Definitely count me in!

Count me in aswell. Would be good to have an area for us brits and others to discuss the general elections, the british empire never died...we still control much of the world, very important when discussing the world as it is today. Hope it comes to pass!

Originally posted by DataWraith
AS a Brit I'll vote for a UK Election or in the next case it'll be more like a UK EVICTION of politians.

They're all as useless as the next guy, but the trouble is I don't want to vote Green as they're all tree hugging do gooders who will run riot over the people and just worry about shrubs instead.

That's a very ignorant statement.

Labour too gutless. and power crazed
Conservative too greedy. and power crazed
LibDems too stupid. and power crazed
BNP too racist. and getting power crazed

Agreed.

It's a good idea as we surely have a great deal of UK members, though to be fair, they'd also have to create an Australian/Canadian when the time comes.

I hope you guys get it, alternatively there's always the Regional Politics forum.

[edit on 21 Nov 2009 by schrodingers dog]

reply to post by schrodingers dog


Just look at the focus given on this site to the US Presidential elections, I would hope that management would recognise the benefit of a forum for major elections around the world.

The big issue with The Regional Politics forum is that you would have to search for threads and that would require members to be more clear with the title of the thread, and I am not sure that everyone understands the difference between The Regional Politics and Above Politics forums, and which forum to use for what subject.

Since the UK election cycle is so much shorter than that of the US, can someone explain why the Regional Politics forum wouldn't be sufficient? (It's an international politics forum that already has a UK focus.) Perhaps rename the forum to be more obvious?


When we add new forums, it tends to be as a result of logical and long-term demand... especially since we're not your average discussion board any more, and it's a rather involved task. But more importantly, I'm not convinced (yet) the demand for a forum separate from Regional Politics is sufficient, nor that the forum will be used in nine months.

But if you can convince me... we'll see.

Anyone?



Edit to add...


Also... when we had the dedicated "AbovePolitics.com" site that segregated most politics out of ATS, the "International Politics" and "UK Politics" forums had the fewest threads. So past-experiences have shown us that the demand for those topics is not consistent. Our current "Regional Politics" forum contains the combined threads from the AbovePolitics.com International, UK, and Local (US) forums.


[edit on 22-11-2009 by SkepticOverlord]

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


But no less important on the world stage, Bill.

I guess that many people are not sure what to post in regional and above politics forums and with a single forum for elections, this could reduce the workload on the mods and admin as there would be a single forum and this forum could be used for other elections around the world.

And just looking at the passions already seen in this thread about a forum for the UK general elections, there are many members not only in the UK but around the world, who want to discuss and debate in detail, the issues that the British people will have to vote on.

With a single forum, members and those that find this site via a search engine, will have a focus for discussions on the UK elections and if the forum is reused, for elections around the world.

[edit on 22-11-2009 by Freedom ERP]

[edit on 22-11-2009 by Freedom ERP]

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Since one had to put up with the US Presidential elections, and now one is hit with as soon as she comes on to the board: re: US POLITICAL MADENSS.

Is it not two faced for you to say what inerest it would bring since , there is alot of UK members on your site, or unless are you saying if it oes not have anything, to do with the US the it needs no merit.

reply to post by Laurauk


SkepticOverlord is out of the office so I'll answer that one for you.

It has nothing to do with what we (the owners) think is important or worthy at all, it never has. It's all about what the guests and members deem important or worthy by virtue of them clicking on it and reading it.

The only issue here is whether or not there is enough demand make the fairly huge effort worthwhile.

S.O. should be back in the office tomorrow and I'll point him here to expound.

Springer...

Originally posted by Laurauk
Is it not two faced for you to say what inerest it would bring since , there is alot of UK members on your site, or unless are you saying if it oes not have anything, to do with the US the it needs no merit.

As Springer mentioned, it's a function of demand.

The "Decision 2008" forum was the result of the obvious demand brought on by the long cycle of America presidential politics. As that cycle ended, and the "madness" continued, the forum was renamed in response to the nature of the discussions.


About one-third of all our traffic is non-US... and according to our Google Analytics stats from the past six months, the UK is our second-most popular source of visits among those international visitors. We have a dedicated forum for international politics, and even a "stickied" thread in that forum specific to UK politics... but thus far, we're not seeing a lot of threads discussing the UK election.

We always see lots of requests for new forums, some of them (like this one) seem logical, but not always necessary. We'll keep an eye to determine of a new forum really is needed for this.

Guys, I can see SO's point. The US election cycle takes place over a matter of almost a year, if not more, starting with the selection of the candidates, the campaigning, right the way though to the elction itself and then onto the inaugauration.

The UK election has to be within 4 weeks of it being called. Granted, there might be a flurry of activity for that 4 weeks, but afterwards, it's dead. Not really worth the huge effort by the staff to setup a specific forum.

Maybe a workaround could be a stickied thread for the UK election that contains links to threads started in the politics forum that specifically relate to the election itself. I see the same thought of thing on forums for games that have player made mods. There will be a master thread with an updated list of all available mods with links to the specific thread detailing them.

Takes a little bit of work to do, but far less than making an entire new forum and would only require one person to maintain it, perhaps a UK based Mod who can add links to pertenent threads as they are created.