Election roundup for rabble

5 posts / 0 new

Wed, 2019-05-29 08:56

MegB

Hey babblers,

At our last staff meeting I proposed that we do a babble election roundup as part of rabble's federal election coverage strategy. Your best discussions around this October's election will be collected and promoted through various means available on the site with me acting as editorial curator. This is something I do each year for our annual report.

I'm looking for feedback from all of you on how best to accomplish this. Things like basic thread categories, timing and frequency. Because this election encompasses so many pivotal issues - climate change, potential ascendancy of the now far right Conservatives, etc. your most creative thoughts on what this babble roundup will look like are most appreciated. Thanks so much.

Wed, 2019-05-29 13:49

WWWTT

I'm not entirely sure I understand what you are asking MegB? Are you asking about actual issues babblers feel are relevant in the October election? Or is it where those subjects can be found? Such as international politics or another subject heading?

Wed, 2019-05-29 14:29

Pondering

A separate forum for the election has been suggested before. That would help. Tough keeping individual threads on topic but if we all contribute by politely mentioning when a thread is going off or moving a discussion into an alternative thread ourselves. That is, if a reply is going to be drifting we can take the post we are replying to to start off a new thread or add it to an existing thread that is more on topic.

I would suggest a series of stickies with the umbrella topics. One for each leader, one for each party, one for each primary issue. For example, pharmacare, income inequality, indigenous affairs, etc.

I would not do one now for SNC Lavalin but if something happens with it during the heat of the election, like they get a DPA, it might warrant a thread. It would be your judgement call if a topic is likely to need its own thread.

Even if the first two pages grew to be all stickies I think it would be fine. It would be so much easier to find the right thread to post in because they could be easily scanned. If we wanted a topic that we know would be individualized we could just go to the end of the stickies to see the other active topics.

I think it would reduce thread proliferation while still allowing those who want to get into discussion of a specific article could do so.

Wed, 2019-05-29 17:04

(Reply to #3) #4

cco

Pondering wrote:

I would suggest a series of stickies with the umbrella topics. One for each leader, one for each party, one for each primary issue. For example, pharmacare, income inequality, indigenous affairs, etc.

If Scheer criticizes Singh's position on indigenous affairs, which thread would that go into?

This isn't to say your suggestion is without merit, certainly, but just look at how the SNC-Lavalin scandal, Brexit, and the Horgan government have bled across a dozen threads each here. If we have one megathread for the election, it'll get so cluttered it'll be useless, but having 50 will make it difficult to remember where a given issue was discussed.

In general, I think it's hard to discuss any leader in isolation during an election campaign. Platform item threads would run the risk of just repeating press releases. What about regionalizing the discussion, in a microcosm of how the board as a whole is organized? (There could be unified threads for the debates and other nationwide issues.)

Thu, 2019-05-30 04:10

Left Turn

Pondering wrote:
A separate forum for the election has been suggested before. That would help.

I believe a seperate forum for elections has been done in the past. I also believe it resulted in said forum and all threads contained therein being archived [read: no longer viewable on babble] after the election. Which is why I don't favour a seperate election forum.