Starting a forum on politics

[Stanley]

Can I get some advice on how to start a political forum?
Where do I begin?

I bought a european (.eu) domain that has the word politics in it. It's short and sweet. I also have a license for a vBulletin forum, but that's all I have.

 

[Dave]

Well, learn all you can about politics

 

[joe]

Post controversial comments on political blogs and have your link in your user name.

 

[Andrew]

Thats a good one, people blab on and on about politics. You've have no problem attracting post whores

 

[Payton]

You can probably pick up a bit of traffic when there's a vote or election coming up... call around to the different parties and ask where they stand on issues, it's like free prewritten content

 

[capitalistpig]

Yeah, the best thing you can do to get with a political blog is to write things that piss people off. Be antagonistic - they are suckers for it.

 

[donn]

Niche-fy the forum, although I can't think of any political niches.

 

[ITALIA]

Can I get some advice on how to start a political forum?
Where do I begin?

I bought a european (.eu) domain that has the word politics in it. It's short and sweet. I also have a license for a vBulletin forum, but that's all I have.

Just wondering, why a political forum? Politics is a very argumentitive issue, would need bloody good moderation.

 

[Payton]

Just wondering, why a political forum? Politics is a very argumentitive issue, would need bloody good moderation.

Well not if you don't mind people insulting each other and whole pages of threads dedicated to namecalling and e-fighting (is that even a term?) haha

 

[V12Kid]

I started a political site and recently got a call from the US Secret Serivce
careful what other idiots post on your site!

 

[peach]

Learning politics means watching a lot of seriously boring television

 

[ITALIA]

Well not if you don't mind people insulting each other and whole pages of threads dedicated to namecalling and e-fighting (is that even a term?) haha

I like that idea a lot. E-Fighting rules. I'm all in support of your website.

 

[JDA]

Take a look at other successful forums in your niche, you might find inspiration that way.

Here are two big US ones:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/ (liberal)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/browse (conservative)

Those are both pretty extreme (i.e. DU is really, really liberal, and FR is really, really conservative) but they're both very huge and active.

 

[WallaceCleaver]

Yikes! This one sounds like a lot of work. Things could get awfully
messy. You know what they say about discussing religion and politics.

 

[Payton]

Yikes! This one sounds like a lot of work. Things could get awfully
messy. You know what they say about discussing religion and politics.

That's probably what will make it a popular site, people can argue endlessly about politics, they'll just keep coming back for more of the same, over and over

 

[WallaceCleaver]

That's probably what will make it a popular site, people can argue endlessly about politics, they'll just keep coming back for more of the same, over and over

And it is also what could start some nasty flame wars, which require tons of moderating.

 

[shokthx]

Can I get some advice on how to start a political forum?
Where do I begin?

I bought a european (.eu) domain that has the word politics in it. It's short and sweet. I also have a license for a vBulletin forum, but that's all I have.

This could be brilliant. Good luck!

 

[Payton]

And it is also what could start some nasty flame wars, which require tons of moderating.

Maybe he could have a flame-acceptable politics forum... kind of like how this is the flame-acceptable webmaster forum haha

 

[WallaceCleaver]

Maybe he could have a flame-acceptable politics forum... kind of like how this is the flame-acceptable webmaster forum haha

But we aren't flaming each other. We have only flamed people who don't hang around here.

 

[joe]

You could approach it in a way that encourages mature debate and discussion, and throttle the trolls when they barge in. I once started a poltical forum and it started out pretty well but I accidently deleted the database and didn't have a backup.

Oh well.