European Union forum (under Politics)

Eliot Rosewater

I'm going to be direct: I think the EU forum should be merged with the main Politics forum.

In the last few months it has become very quiet. There are currently only 3 threads on the main forum page.

In my opinion, having a separate EU forum is bad for discussion. It seems that most Politics posters don't venture into the forum, even if they would contribute otherwise. I myself am guilty of this. It's not as if the discussions there are uninteresting; there's one in there about Israel and we all know the attention those threads usually get!

Obviously having the sub-forum was nearly essential during the Lisbon debates, but I think it's run it's course, it no longer has much use, and discussion about the EU would be better served if it was performed on the main Politics forum.


(Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this, or if this kind of discussion should be conducted via PM.)

demonspawn

Agreed. (the first time I've ever agreed with Eliot I think )

It's pointless having a separate EU section with only three threads. Merge those with politics or whatever is suitable and just close that section.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Scofflaw

I have to agree, and I've suggested it before now too. Any EU issue of wide enough interest to generate discussion usually has sufficient relevance elsewhere anyway.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Overheal

as i recall the only reason it exists was because of the lisbon revote, which sparked more debate than you can shake a stick at without bleeding.

Eliot Rosewater

Cheers for the comments, all. So are there any objections to the removal of the EU forum?

Darragh

If the mods could discuss and get back to me, I'd appreciate it. I have a couple of ideas too. No objection here though.

mike65

We could do with a Presidental elections forum I think, there must be 6 threads on the topic started in the last 10 days or so.

Eliot Rosewater

A bit early, I'd say. The country seems to be going through a phase of talking about it at the moment, perhaps because interested individuals (like Finley) became eager to declare their interest in the job when some of their potential opponents (ex Norris) declared. I imagine it'll die down soon enough, and re-emerge next summer in the run up to the vote.

Eliot Rosewater

I'm bumping this for a specific reason: over the past two days we've had 3 duplicate threads in the main Politics forum of a thread already in the EU forum. That EU thread is titled "EU referendum in prospect?" and has been visible on Politics main page (as most active thread in a sub-forum) for most of the past week, but still people didn't notice it.

I think it's proof that the EU forum isn't really considered by posters.

K-9

Maybe moving it is valuing noise over quality?

Just playing Devil's advocate. Barring Referenda or regional elections, probably no need as quality should over come Noise.

Victor

I've noticed at times that we have:

American politics - busy enough
EU politics - comes and goes
General Politics - Irish politics and rest of world politics

The rest of world politics feels really lost amongst all the Irish politics stuff.

dlofnep

Agreed with Eliot.

Scofflaw

Victor wrote: »

I've noticed at times that we have:

American politics - busy enough
EU politics - comes and goes
General Politics - Irish politics and rest of world politics

The rest of world politics feels really lost amongst all the Irish politics stuff.

The problem is that EU politics is important to Ireland, and should, in that sense, have its own dedicated space. To be fair, though, EU politics rarely gets debated from anything other than a Hiberno-centric viewpoint, and my earlier remark about anything EU of sufficient importance to Ireland deserving a place in the more general forums remains true - I can hardly inist that all discussion involving the ECB be moved to the EU forum.

A Foreign Affairs sub-forum might be worthwhile, apart from the outrage that would be generated every time someone started a Northern Ireland thread there.

cordially,
Scofflaw

D

Taking what Victor said, how about:

1. Irish and EU Politics
2. US and World Politics

Or;

1. Irish and EU Politics
2. US Politics
3. World Politics

Victor

Irish Politics
World Politics