Discussionist poll #2. Digging a bit deeper....

[sufrommich]

50. It's got some flaws that could be fatal.

1. It's filled with posters who want to talk about DU,it's basically Meta taken off site with conservative cavers chiming in.Forums that talk about other forums aren't successful, they don't grow past the point of attracting anybody who's uninterested in talking about people they don't know on forums they aren't interested it.That kind of insular sport of attacking forums from another forum only will appeal to a very small group and it's a forum killer.No successful forums allow it.

2.There has to be a line drawn on any political forum that keeps out the extremist nuts.There's already a "news" thread linked to Beforeitsnews(a conspiracy site) about the militias preparing for war in America. Once a forum allows the Prison Planet/Alex Jones types in and they realize they're free to post,they'll take over and Stormfront won't be far behind.Forums can appeal to regular people who want to talk politics or they can appeal to nuts,they never will appeal to both. The admins need rules about what's acceptable to post,juries are useless in setting rules.

3.The forum categories are a hot mess,there's no rhyme or reason to what gets posted where.I think about a new poster,unaffiliated with DU,who enters the Culture forum only to see endless threads about a site called DU or "who do u think is hot?" OPs. Culture should be about culture. The Fun forum is there for those OPs.
The News forum needs rules about what can be posted as news.Again,juries are useless for setting boundaries and structure,that's the job of the admins.

I use Fark as a comparison,because it's a forum open to all political persuasions,I post there and am very familiar with it and it's a huge,successful forum. There are rules as to what gets posted where. Crazy Alex Jones/ Stormfront type posts or links will get you banned.Going there to complain about what someone on another forum said to you will get you laughed at.Successful sites have rules and cohesive sub forums with admins keeping things running smoothly,so far I'm not seeing any of that at Discussionist.