Slashdot Goes Political: Announcing politics.slashdot.org

With the US Presidential Election coming up, we've had a lot of story submissions that we would like to post, but they don't fit very well on the Slashdot main page. To address this, we'll be running special political coverage between now and the election in our new Politics subsection of Slashdot. Please submit stories directly to the section for consideration. As with all sections on Slashdot, there will be stories available within that section that don't get posted to the main page, so please visit the section if you are interested in more coverage. We'll do our best to be fair with story selection. We think we can do a good job since the Slashdot editors represent a diverse spectrum of political ideologies. The discussions are up to you guys. Here's hoping the experiment works!

Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[by Anonymous Coward]

We'll do our best to be fair with story selection. We think we can do a good job since the Slashdot editors represent a diverse spectrum of political ideologies.

LMAO!

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[pudge (3605)]

What's funny to me is that people think we DON'T have a diverse specturm of political ideologies. :-)

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[Dot.Com.CEO (624226)]

I think the +5 funny was due to the fact that you think that having a "diverse spectrum of political ideologies" means you will "do a good job".

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[Doc Ruby (173196)]

I think what's sad is politically active people who need robotic partisan uniformity. America's huge, diverse population has worked together for hundreds of years by finding compromise acceptable to the majority, even when that majority spanned many ideologies and parties.

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[thedillybar (677116)]

>I think what's sad is politically active people who need robotic partisan uniformity.

See the South Park episode [pipex.com] on this.

Cartman: I learned somethin' today. This country was founded by some of the smartest thinkers the world has ever seen. And they knew one thing: that a truely great country can go to war, and at the same time, act like it doesn't want to. [a shot of the crowd] You people who are for the war, you need the protesters. Because they make the country look like it's made of sane, caring individuals. And you people who are anti-war, you need these flag-wavers, because, if our whole country was made up of nothing but soft pussy protesters, we'd get taken down in a second. That's why the founding fathers decided we should have both. It's called "having your cake and eating it too."

Randy: He's right. The strength of this country is the ability to do one thing and say another.

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[E_elven (600520)]

In the case you didn't know, 'bipartisanship' in politics means that the other guys will do it your way, too.

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[tjstork (137384)]

"with us or against us" evil politics, characterized as best by the guys who don't vote the way I do. :-)

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[FortKnox (169099)]

Between you and jaime, I expect one of you to be dead by the end of October. ;-)

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[stienman (51024)]

I have no doubt you have a diverse political spectrum - for an American. I doubt you have a very diverse spectrum in general, though.

There are more commonalities between a republican and a democrat than there are differences.

-Adam

I doubt that

[Trepidity (597)]

People on the internet, and Slashdot in particular, tend to lean more towards the European mainstream than the American mainstream.

Except, of course, on civil liberties issues, where Europe's left-fascism makes the police-state folk in the US Justice Department envious: the UK's got CCTVs everywhere, issues "antisocial behavior orders" prohibiting people from (in one instance) making sarcastic comments to their neighbors; France bans movies that criticize its bloody colonial wars [imdb.com], and so on.

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[WillWare (11935)]

people think we DON'T have a diverse specturm of political ideologies

Nonsense! Slashdot has both kinds of political ideologies, Green AND Libertarian.

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[TheCaptain (17554)]

No...we think you have a diverse spectrum of left wing political ideologies.

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[pudge (3605)]

Yes, and I am saying it is funny to think that, since I am an official of the Republican party in Washington state, a precinct committee officer [wa.gov].

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[*no comment* (239368)]

uhhm dood, pudge is a conservative man. You should go read his journals. He's a very intelligent Bush supporter. It's funny that you make that comment to pudge of all people.


Slashdot just broke one of the 2 rules of peacekeeping conversation, don't talk about religion or politics. They might as well start up religion.slashdot.org and flame on.

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[stonecypher (118140)]

He's a very intelligent Bush supporter. ... married to the Easter Bunny, playing poker with Santa on the weekends.

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[by Anonymous Coward]

He's a very intelligent Bush supporter.

I'd support an intelligent Bush too...

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[raygundan (16760)]

I fully expect this section to be a non-stop flamefest that leaves nobody untouched. A knock-down drag-out troll fight, with everyone yelling, minimal dialogue, and 4 billion threads that run something like this:

"Bush Sucks."
"Democrats Suck."
"Non-libertarians Suck."
"America Sucks."
"Europe Sucks."
"My Country Isn't In Europe, You American Idiot."
"I'm Not an American, You Elitist Freak."
"I hate the it.slashdot.org color scheme."
"I predict all of the threads in this section will sound like this:"

*beep*

Infinite Loop.

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[gcaseye6677 (694805)]

I think the normal moderation system should not apply for the politics section. We don't need to make it all too easy for someone with strong political views and mod points to go through marking Troll on every opinion they disagree with. We get enough of that on the stories that are only semi-political.

Re:Funniest. Summary. Ever.

[pudge (3605)]

I am a Goldwater Conservative, not a neoconservative. I definitely side more with paleoconservatives than neoconservatives on domestic policy, but neoconservatives on modern foreign policy (my isolationist views changed, as with many people, following 9/11). We have an editor I'd term a libertarian, and he seems to identify more with them than the other parties. He's a bona fide disciple of Adam Smith.

Malda-Bates 2004!

[gevmage (213603)]

It had to be said.

Rob's platform:

• Suspected terrorists will have Rob's in-box forwarded to them until they turn themselves in for questioning. Even if people could stand the flood of messages, their ISPs would turn them in just to get them off the system.
• Hmm...the people with the 10 highest karma scores (I know the numbers are hidden, but they're still available internally) get cabinet positions.

Politics on Slashdot? Never!

[garcia (6573)]

Every discussion has some sort of political slant to it. You are somehow labeled as "right" or "left" depending on the whim of the moderators or random members of the community. People routinely claim you are some sort of radical communist [slashdot.org] just because you don't support the paying-off of public servants to create laws that benefit only the corporations. Obviously this is just one small example but it certainly reflects a good bit of what I experience here... We might really want to think about how the normal Slashdot moderation system is handled on this side of the site.

If anything Karma changes should be eliminated due to politically motivated moderation in this section. Some serious damage could occur to someone's account that is diametrically opposed to the rest of the Slashdot mentality.

I have been scouring books, articles, and random conversation for some intelligent and fair discussion about the state of politics today. I doubt that I will find too much "intelligent discussion" and I know we won't find any fairness here on Slashdot but we can always have hope ;-)

Re:Politics on Slashdot? Never!

[TopShelf (92521)]

Serious damage and Slashdot karma just don't belong in the same sentence...

Re:Politics on Slashdot? Never!

[SkyWalk423 (661752)]

Mod Parent +one-zillion "There's still hope for humanity"

It boggles my mind that there are people that base so much of their self-worth on a hidden int on a faraway server.

Re:Politics on Slashdot? Never!

[Ford Prefect (8777)]

You are somehow labeled as "right" or "left" depending on the whim of the moderators or random members of the community.

Really old, but I happened to be thinking of it earlier today - the Political Compass [politicalcompass.org]. Apparently I'm way off to the left, and down a bit.

Maybe all posters in this new section should take said test so that posters with conflicting views may safely ignore viewpoints that they disagree with. After all, there's a place for partisan publishing [guardian.co.uk] (scroll down a bit...) ;-)

I'd like to think...

[Mongoose Disciple (722373)]

... that as long as people are writing posts that inform and explain their viewpoint, they won't be modded down, even by people who disagree. A one sentence-post espousing an unpopular viewpoint, yes, is basically a troll or flamebait. A paragraph or so explaining why the author has that viewpoint and some of the facts/reasoning behind it shouldn't be. These are the kinds of posts that make for stimulating discussion that enriches us all, even if you don't agree.

It's possible I'm just a rosy-glassed optimist, but I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope.

Re:I'd like to think...

[stienman (51024)]

It's possible I'm just a rosy-glassed optimist, but I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope.

Obviously thinly veiled references to the rosary, cross, and christian 'hope', you sneaky troll.

Oh, wait, this isn't the religion section is it?

Politics?

Well that's essentially the same thing. Flame on!

-Adam

Re:Politics on Slashdot? Never!

[jamie (78724)]

I would hope that moderators are fair enough to send comments up or down depending on their quality, not whether their point of view is agreeable. Even if someone says something we completely disagree with, as long as they say it well and bring facts to the table, it is worth hearing.

My guess is that there will be many otherwise-unremarkable posts which will be moderated up simply because they express a popular point of view forcefully, and, as always, meta-moderators are encouraged to mark lame upmods as Unfair. If a post isn't any more Insightful than average, but gets moderated that way, then rigorous meta-moderation [slashdot.org] will help the system, next time around, give mod points to someone else who deserves them more.

Re:Politics on Slashdot? Never!

[Lord Kano (13027)]

My Karma was trashed because of politics. A few years ago I said something to draw someone's ire and I was karma bombed. My karma was reduced to the point where I couldn't post anymore.

Since then, I've been unable to get mod points.

LK

Re:Politics on Slashdot? Never!

[b0r1s (170449)]

It's called 'bitchslapping', and the term came from 'bitchslap.pl' (which you can find in the slashcode CVS attic).

It:
1) Pushes you down to -10 karma
2) Removes your 'eligible for moderation' bit
3) Sets your default post score at -1.

Editors can execute the script on people they consider 'abusers', though it's been used in the past to keep the readers quiet about massive editor abuse (see: the post of death, where anyone who responded was moderated to -1, and anyone who moderated them back up was bitchslapped).

By the way: 12 minutes of your time should change your mind [kerryoniraq.com].

Re:Politics on Slashdot? Never!

[Devar (312672)]

3314 Saddam Hussein Arrested by CmdrTaco

Just how CmdrTaco managed to arrest Saddam Hussein I shall never know. :)

questions that matter.

[sweeney37 (325921)]

any chance for /. interviews with the candidates for the issues that concern us nerds? I mean, this new sub section would hopefully give /. a little more clout.

Mike

Oh God...

[romper (47937)]

So does this mean all comments will be automatically moderated to -1 Troll? =)

OK, but . . .

[frankthechicken (607647)]

Can we please ban the editorials from /. editors to any political stories?

Non-US Elections

[Your_Mom (94238)]

I'm guessing from the logo of the section that this will be a 'No', but will there be coverage of Non-US elections as well?

Re:Non-US Elections

[Cigarra (652458)]

Non-US countries have elections?
Well, yeah, but not exactly like the ones you USAmericans have. In most other countries, those who get more votes, actually win the election...

Really?

[jejones (115979)]

We think we can do a good job since the Slashdot editors represent a diverse spectrum of political ideologies.

Perhaps some examples are in order.

Re:Really?

[Saint Nobody (21391)]

just read pudge's journal [slashdot.org] and jamie's responses to his posts. and then the ensuing wars of words as they both explain how completely and wrong the other's arguments are.

colors

[ack154 (591432)]

At least they did a better job with the colors/logo than the nasty IT section... ;)

New Moderation Proposals

[geeveees (690232)]

+1 Democrat

-1 Republican

-1 Commie Bastard

+1 Capitalist Pig

(Change + with - as seen fit)

Re:New Moderation Proposals

[stienman (51024)]

Take a page from Jib Jab:

-1 Right Wing Nutjob
-1 Liberal Weenie

-Adam

Re:New Moderation Proposals

[Mr Guy (547690)]

-1 Hippie
-2 Uses the term "dubbya" as if it gives his point weight
-3 Refers to "you Americans"
-4 Uses statistics without citing source
-5 Thinks college is "The Real World"

Great...

[xchino (591175)]

How do I mod an entire section as flamebait?

And I can see all the foriegners complaining that this is too U.S. centric :)

Section Colors

[denis-The-menace (471988)]

Why didn't the "IT" section get the "Politics" nicer colors?

I'm surprised that the bar in this section aren't:
Red-FadingTo-White-FadingTo-Blue

Disable Flamebait?

[Mr Guy (547690)]

How the heck are we going to mod this section? It sounds like EVERY comment is going to be flamebait. Then we'll have the usual problem with Non-US people griping about how unfair it is that it only covers US politics (I'm assuming here) as well as put in their two bits ON US politics. It's going to be messy!

And about time

[rueger (210566)]

I do have to say that in the last few weeks while meta-moderating I've been annoyed at the number of posts that were obviously moderated "off-topic" or "flamebait" just because the moderator didn't agree with the political slant.

I'll also second the post that suggested that this forum should look at politics everywhere, not just the US. There is a lot to be learned by looking at the ways that other jurisdictions handle things like Digital rights, wiretapping, and freedom of speech.

That said, I expect that I'll choose not to subscribe to the politics forum, and I doubt very much that political baiting will disappear from other parts of our beloved slashdot.

All stories?

[ptaff (165113)]

As with all sections on Slashdot, there will be stories available within that section that don't get posted to the main page

For real /. geeks, would it be possible to turn on a flag to get everything on the home page? Every time I metamoderate I wonder "How come this story doesn't ring a bell?". Now I understand why.

Clicking on each and every section to watch for missing stories is a bit lame, no?

Feel ready to own one or many Tux Stickers [ptaff.ca]?

Re:All stories?

[stienman (51024)]

Visit your homepage preferences [slashdot.org] and uncheck all the section boxes. This will 'unhide' these sections from your main page.

-Adam

Politics makes more than strange bedfellows.

[hey! (33014)]

It makes otherwise intelligent people complete closed minded idiots.

It's a well established fact that people seek out information which confirms their current opinion and actively screen out information which challenges it. Look at a programmer struggling with a bug or a user with a user interface and you can see it. Politics takes this natural human cognitive strategy and infuses it with emotion, value judgements and ego identification. This means that while in most situations people will eventually begin to take new information into account, in politics this practically never happens. The more we are confronted with truths that challenge our political positions, the more strongly we warp our sense of reality to suit our predjudices.

Any reasonable person from another planet would immediately come to some obvious conclusions:

On the economy, Bush got smacked down by an overdue correction in the business cycle and 9/11. His tax cuts probably gave the economy a short term stimulus. However, the long term effects of his policies are debatable.

Kerry has a realtively normal legislative career. He sometimes votes for one version of a bill and against another one, or for a particular thing by itself but against it when it's lumped with a bunch of other things he doesn't like. However, his career as a legislator is rather undistinguished.

Mr. Impartial Observer would also label Michael Moore a propagandist, and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth a bunch of vile political hatchetmen.

External validation feels good, but it is not intellectually honest. If the moderation system could be tweaked to encourage people to reevaluate their positions and look at the truth, it would be a great acccomplishment.

Re:Slashdot is not for politics

[over_exposed (623791)]

Because politics does MATTER, you twit. How do you think things like the PATRIOT act got through? I believe that had more "geeks" to use the term liberally, gotten out and voiced their opinions that things like the PATRIOT act or new wire-tapping laws were BAD (or at least had some negative and poorly thought out sections), things may have ended up for the better.

Just because politics can be boring doesn't mean they don't matter. Get off your swivel-chair and go register then excersize your right to VOTE. Maybe if all of the US slashdot readers did the same, we wouldn't have HALF the legal problems we do now and our country wouldn't be so bass-ackwards.

Re:american flag

[teamhasnoi (554944)]

hy an american flag for the /. graphic? there *are* countries outside america that practice politics. typical shortsightedness.

As a service to the editors, I fired up gimp, took the graphic and mixed every flag from every country together - what better way to promote a non-centrist discussion?

Unfourtunately, I got this [slashdot.org].

That's only going to cause wars.