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My 2 cents on how to fix social media, maybe it is stupid but to ban any political discussion. People LOVE talking about politics especially in their personal c

My 2 cents on how to fix social media, maybe it is stupid but to ban any political discussion. People LOVE talking about politics especially in their personal community (echo chamber). I swear this is the most fun political people have had on the internet in 20 years. It’s too bad it just becomes an echo chamber. We had a community group for our town on Facebook, all it was was fake accounts and people talking shit about Democrats and the occasional left wing person talking shit back. Recently they banned political discussion and anything not directly related to our town. Thank the fucking lord. People will still slip in some political bullshit but it’s miles better.

ksec 5y ago
I think every social media will grow until it reaches politics, stock / investment or pornography. And you would think having a special channel for those would fix it, but no, it always creeps back in. It is sort of strange to continue see the same pattern over and over again. Personally I think we have a human nature problem, and not a technology problem looking for market fit.
- vorpalhex 5y ago
  In my social group, I ask that politics be contained to a specific channel. Anyone is free to join the channel, no limitations or anything, just an opt-in. Rule is posted obviously and we remind people frequently. I've lost 4 people because they were upset that this rule is enforced against everyone, out of a group of maybe 20. They wanted their politics to be everywhere and not constrained to one channel. I never thought this tiny little policy was going to cause such a mess. It has dramatically improved the rest of discussions - you can actually just talk about stuff without people jumping in with their political takes - but it's been an upsetting policy in ways I did not anticipate.
anonuser123456 5y ago
You realize that under your proposal, your own proposal would be banned right? You are advocating policy. That’s politics.
- cousin_it 5y ago
  I think that kind of gotcha response is usually wrong. Yes, people need to be protected from politics, and that protection requires a certain nonzero minimum amount of politics. The same is true for guns, smallpox, etc.
- bobobob420 5y ago
  lol! nice catch ...that definitely got me thinking
mdp2021 5y ago
What about instead to "counter immaturity in discussion", like we are trying to do here?
- zaphar 5y ago
  Achieving any kind of success at that is very much an outlier and can't possibly scale to all the forums currently on the internet at the moment. You may get a handful of places that reach the level that HN currently maintains but the overall effect will be the same as now.
bena 5y ago
Besides what others have brought up, I'll bring up the fact that what constitutes "politics" is almost a political question in and of itself. And I live in an area affected by Hurricane Ida. I've started following my local government on social media because it is one of the best places to keep up to date on what's going on concerning cleanup and what not. And I would say a government run page concerning that government is about as political as you can get. As is your community page. A lot of things related to your town is political. I mean, politics is the word we use to define how groups make decisions. So any time you're talking about making decisions in a group, you're talking politics. But of course, that's not what you mean when you say "politics". It's not what anyone who complains about politics mean when they say politics. They either mean "things I don't agree with", "things I find uncomfortable to think about", or "evangelizing a viewpoint". For instance, someone complained about Squid Game being "too political" because it had an underlying message of "rich people fuck with poor people for sport". But it isn't a political statement at all, it's a sociological one. But thinking about how a less exaggerated version of that is basically our day to day makes that guy uncomfortable. He wanted to tune in and drop out. But "this makes me uncomfortable" is a him problem. He's trying to make it an everyone problem.
deleted 5y ago
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ksec 5y ago

I think every social media will grow until it reaches politics, stock / investment or pornography. And you would think having a special channel for those would fix it, but no, it always creeps back in. It is sort of strange to continue see the same pattern over and over again. Personally I think we have a human nature problem, and not a technology problem looking for market fit.

vorpalhex 5y ago
In my social group, I ask that politics be contained to a specific channel. Anyone is free to join the channel, no limitations or anything, just an opt-in. Rule is posted obviously and we remind people frequently. I've lost 4 people because they were upset that this rule is enforced against everyone, out of a group of maybe 20. They wanted their politics to be everywhere and not constrained to one channel. I never thought this tiny little policy was going to cause such a mess. It has dramatically improved the rest of discussions - you can actually just talk about stuff without people jumping in with their political takes - but it's been an upsetting policy in ways I did not anticipate.

anonuser123456 5y ago

You realize that under your proposal, your own proposal would be banned right? You are advocating policy. That’s politics.

cousin_it 5y ago
I think that kind of gotcha response is usually wrong. Yes, people need to be protected from politics, and that protection requires a certain nonzero minimum amount of politics. The same is true for guns, smallpox, etc.
bobobob420 5y ago
lol! nice catch ...that definitely got me thinking

mdp2021 5y ago

What about instead to "counter immaturity in discussion", like we are trying to do here?

zaphar 5y ago
Achieving any kind of success at that is very much an outlier and can't possibly scale to all the forums currently on the internet at the moment. You may get a handful of places that reach the level that HN currently maintains but the overall effect will be the same as now.

bena 5y ago

Besides what others have brought up, I'll bring up the fact that what constitutes "politics" is almost a political question in and of itself. And I live in an area affected by Hurricane Ida. I've started following my local government on social media because it is one of the best places to keep up to date on what's going on concerning cleanup and what not. And I would say a government run page concerning that government is about as political as you can get. As is your community page. A lot of things related to your town is political. I mean, politics is the word we use to define how groups make decisions. So any time you're talking about making decisions in a group, you're talking politics. But of course, that's not what you mean when you say "politics". It's not what anyone who complains about politics mean when they say politics. They either mean "things I don't agree with", "things I find uncomfortable to think about", or "evangelizing a viewpoint". For instance, someone complained about Squid Game being "too political" because it had an underlying message of "rich people fuck with poor people for sport". But it isn't a political statement at all, it's a sociological one. But thinking about how a less exaggerated version of that is basically our day to day makes that guy uncomfortable. He wanted to tune in and drop out. But "this makes me uncomfortable" is a him problem. He's trying to make it an everyone problem.

deleted 5y ago

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