Based on feedback from this post, we’re going to trial pushing for more politically controversial posts to go in !politics instead of !newzealand.

We’re interested in seeing where users think the line is. Which of these recent posts do you think belong in !politics?

  1. Frustration mounting as high school teacher strikes roll on - 1News
  2. All Whites game abandoned after alleged racial abuse - RNZ
  3. ‘Random’ group of Kiwis caught protesters who lit Parliament fires - 1News
  4. Teacher struck off after refusing to use student’s pronouns - 1News
  5. New additional ETS scheme floated in review of carbon market - RNZ
  6. Migrant workers being exploited, Queenstown Citizens Advice Bureau says - RNZ
  7. Operation Pakari: More arrests of people linked to Mongrel Mob, 85 charges laid - RNZ
  8. Auckland surgeons must now consider ethnicity in prioritising patients for operations - NZ Herald
  9. This RNZ story is probably more complicated than first thought - Stuff
  10. Teacher struck off after refusing to use student’s pronouns - 1News

We’re not able to move posts to another community at the moment, but we’re thinking of locking posts that should be in !politics and asking the OP to cross-post them there. Do you think this is the best approach?

  • AaronEnglish
    5•1 year ago

    Apologies in advance: I’ve only just arrived so I don’t know if my input is desired, but also I’ve seen some requests for more engagement and less lurking so I’m taking the risk.

    Could someone explain what the up and down arrows on posts are for? I assumed it worked similar to Reddit or Quora: on the posts it’s for things you want to see more or less of, and on the replies and discussion it’s for saying this does or does not contribute to discussion.

    If that’s the case, posts that people don’t want to see should be “downvoted” and we shouldn’t take it as malice or being unwelcomed, but more that this doesn’t fit the culture we are trying to build for this community specifically, maybe it would be more welcome in another community on the instance, or in another instance.

    Again I could be wrong on how this all works, so please do tell me!

    Purely from a scaling point of view, it would seem to be a bad idea to split up content and discussion further when there isn’t a population to support that level of division… but I understand the desire to ensure that the content appeals to the widest audience possible to try to grow that population. If it doesn’t work like I assumed above, then maybe we could have a simple more/less poll on posts to say if we want to see more or less of this type of content?

    As for these specific posts, many don’t seem overtly political to me. Political in my mind is more about elections and the drama of all that, rather than the actual legislation and decisions that drive that… we live in a society, so the rules that govern us and the way we pool our resources is something we certainly should encourage discussion around.

    That’s just my opinion, happy to lurk more if that’s requested!

    • @RaoulDukeOPMEnglish
      4•1 year ago

      Everyone’s opinion is valued, thanks for for sharing!

      Could someone explain what the up and down arrows on posts are for? I assumed it worked similar to Reddit or Quora: on the posts it’s for things you want to see more or less of, and on the replies and discussion it’s for saying this does or does not contribute to discussion.

      You’re right. I think the issue that lead to this discussion was that political posts tended to get heavily upvoted and often dominated r/newzealand. Some people are wanting a space that’s free of those political discussions and the toxicity that often comes with them. Other people want a space where they can discuss, debate and stay informed about politics. We can’t always please everybody, but we’re wondering if this is a good compromise.

      One of the hardest issues with separating them is knowing quite where the line would be. It’s pretty subjective. You could argue everything is political. You could look at how the media outlets categorise it, but I don’t know if their opinion is any better. Many of the above posts are categorised as politics by the outlet. That’s part of what this post is about. And it seems like everyone has a different idea.

      You’re right about splitting up content and discussion and it’s something I’m concerned about too. It depends whether that outweighs the benefits of keeping politics out of everything else.

      I don’t have a strong opinion either way. Besides, I don’t want to be making the rules for this place. I’d prefer the community decides how things work.