Draven

What is the rationale behind the Political Cartoon thread? It seems to violate rules of the political forum (specifically posting things without comment and generalizing about political parties).

Also it seems to be the same few posters going back and forth. I doubt anyone is changing their minds because of it, it fosters little to no discussion and seems pretty mean-spirited in general.

When I know what the cartoon is going to be about simply by looking at the username that posted it, I think it's outlived any usefulness it might have had.

My two cents anyway.

Groucho

Without that thread how would we be reminded that Obama plays golf again and again and again and again and again...?

Trevor

Some of them are funny. I'm ok with it technically violating our silly rules. One can just ignore the thread if they don't like it

VinVega

I see it like the random picture and random gif threads in other. I don't have a big issue with it, but we're open to suggestions if somebody has a better way to do a thread like this.

CaptainMarvel

It seems like if you're concerned about it being mean spirited, staying out of the thread would be the easiest solution, rather than trying to silence the participants.

Draven

I'm not trying to silence anyone, any more than other restrictions already at place on this board. But considering how strict the rules are in the Political Forum as it is, I don't understand why there is a thread where participants don't have to follow the rules.

The Adult forum was removed and no one had to visit that if they didn't want to. How is this different?

CaptainMarvel

The adult forum was "removed" when the former owner opened up a porn site.

Seriously, who except you is complaining about that thread? Don't click it and move on. The thread views count suggest plenty of others are interested.

chrisih8u

The rule says "- Just posting an article and link, particularly as the first post in a thread, w/o any additional commentary to continue the dialog is not allowed. If it's good enough to post it's worth commenting on as well."

Posting a cartoon does not violate the rules, as it is not "an article and link."

Draven

Ok, never mind.

Ghostbuster

I'm fine with the cartoon thread. However, I started a picture thread a few months ago, and it got locked. I didn't complain to anyone at the time, but this is a clear double standard. What's the difference between a cartoon and picture? They're both images, and they both may sometimes be mean-spirited, inaccurate, and/or stupid.

Generally speaking, I think the moderators do a satisfactory job, but in some instances the rules could be applied more consistently.

creekdipper

My first inclination was (don't fall over) to agree with you. I 100% agree that the poster's name is a pretty good indicator of the tone (and perhaps the topic).

However, I have to agree with others that the thread has its uses. Here are two:

(1) Quick & easy way to catch up on what's out there for us fans of policial cartoons (and they usually speak for themselves).

(2) Maybe keeps them out of other threads & placates the posters who want to substitute them for actually composing their own thoughts. Sadly, sometimes it does just the opposite & makes for a quick grab 'n' post, which can get annoying.

I also agree with you that the thread does seem to violate a basic rule about posts without comments (maybe exception can be made for "visual" threads) and that the comments about the posts tend to just be back-and-forth insults.

Groucho

My only wish is that people would filter cartoons based on quality. Way too many shitty cartoons are being posted simply because the poster agrees with the sentiment.

Count Dooku

I personally like the idea that people view the cartoons without having to wade through the same arguments over and over.

DVD Polizei

Well, that's not the protocol for the Politics Forum. Whine and complain about somebody long enough (or something long enough), and eventually, you'll get your lollipops.

spainlinx0

I like the thread. I roll my eyes at the shitty quality ones, but I enjoy a lot of them.

brayzie

I think you bring up some good points. I'm assuming that there's no generalizations allowed in the political forum in an attempt to stimulate a more nuanced and intelligent discussion of the issues. With political cartoons though, everything is reduced and simplified for easy consumption when usually the actual issues have much more complex natures.

For example, the newest political cartoon in that thread has Obama refusing to call these ISIS/Al-Qaeda terrorists "Islamic" and refusing to use the term "radical Islam." It seems like some media outlets, as well as the administration, are going out of their way tip-toe around the religious aspect of these acts of terrorism, or hide the aspect completely in some small cases. However, when you look at it more, I'm sure one of the reasons, at least for the administration, is not to make it look like the west vs Islam, because that's what these religious extremists want. These terrorist groups want that kind of propaganda to fuel the next crop of recruits, to make it look like a holy war. But from many of these cartoons or political commentators, they either imply or outright accuse the administration of being too liberal or too sympathetic towards any religion with the exception of Christianity instead of taking other factors into consideration.

The Bus

Reading the cartoons in <i>Newsweek</i> (a kind of “app” that was pre-printed and delivered to your physical inbox) was one of my favorite things to do growing up. That magazine had good editors. That thread does not. But that doesn't mean it should be closed.

Nick Danger

I like the cartoons. I occasionally laugh, I occasionally get annoyed. So I'm okay with it being an exception to the rule about pasting without comment. I'm tired of the back and forth, so I just scroll down to the next picture.

nemein

If I have one complaint about the cartoon thread its that it should only be restricted to cartoons and not extra dialog/comments back and forth about why such and such is right/wrong.