Proposal: a tweet is not a meaningful topic of political conversation

[Stormy Daniels]

Lately some people have been posting vague ramblings in politics, then posting a link to some random tweet. This does not open the door to any meaningful conversation. It's basically just an advertisement for the fact that someone said something on Twitter. I've seen many threads get locked instantly because the OP has next to no content. I don't see how these tweet advertisements are really any different. I think that threads like this should be automatically banished to the rubber room.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

Depends on the tweet

 

[irosie91]

tweets are very meaningful ----it is how birds find their mates---and mamas

 

[Stormy Daniels]

Depends on the tweet

At best, there may be a diamond in the rough that is worth a discussion. But 99.99% of the time it won't be the case. Doubly so if the tweet you're linking is itself a link to a news article and talk about the article. But these idiots have nothing to say about the article, they only want to respond to whatever the headline was on Twitter.

If a prominent politician actually says something through twitter that is worth discussing, then start a conversation about their politics. But these "Fuck you Donald Trump, I hate you, here's a link to Donald Trump's twitter page" are mindless and should be thrown in the trash.

 

[Dan Stubbs]

tweets are very meaningful ----it is how birds find their mates---and mamas

Heard some grumble, groan, complain going on over nothings. So here is nothing.

 

[saveliberty]

Is this not similar to directing posters to another board?

 

[Stormy Daniels]

Is this not similar to directing posters to another board?

Yes, it is. One of the keys to a successful website is to retain traffic. Links to other websites can often be very useful, if done correctly. But links that would deprive you of additional traffic are detrimental. In this case, starting threads simply to talk about a tweet from someone who is ultimately nobody (even if they're a big deal on twitter), or to carry over a twitter conversation into here, creates an incentive for board users to move away from the board and spend their time engaging through twitter instead of here. It ends up being a traffic bleed.

And when the linked tweet is itself merely a linked news article, Twitter gains an even better advantage at the board's expense. Twitter gets credit for driving traffic to the news article, which ultimately leads to increased profit potential for Twitter, while the board only gets reduced user engagement.

There is a difference between an OP that establishes a topic of conversation, and an OP that simply responds to a tweet. If the President or Nancy Pelosi or whoever tweet something, and someone creates a thread to talk about that person's politics, then that's a thread that adds value to the board (er--possibly, depending on who started it and who joins, because there's also plenty of posts around here that are just refuse). If someone creates a thread that doesn't really say much, except to point out that someone tweeted something, or simply makes a vague response to a linked tweet, then the content itself isn't valuable, and the traffic bleed is definitely not valuable.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Lately some people have been posting vague ramblings in politics, then posting a link to some random tweet. This does not open the door to any meaningful conversation. It's basically just an advertisement for the fact that someone said something on Twitter. I've seen many threads get locked instantly because the OP has next to no content. I don't see how these tweet advertisements are really any different. I think that threads like this should be automatically banished to the rubber room.

Disagree.

Allow forum members to determine what is a meaningful topic of political conversation; a thread that lacks merit will sink to the bottom of its subforum.

 

[Stormy Daniels]

Lately some people have been posting vague ramblings in politics, then posting a link to some random tweet. This does not open the door to any meaningful conversation. It's basically just an advertisement for the fact that someone said something on Twitter. I've seen many threads get locked instantly because the OP has next to no content. I don't see how these tweet advertisements are really any different. I think that threads like this should be automatically banished to the rubber room.

Disagree.

Allow forum members to determine what is a meaningful topic of political conversation; a thread that lacks merit will sink to the bottom of its subforum.

With thinking like that you'll be an free market anarcho-conservative in no time. You're a half step away from calling for industrial self regulation.

If your premise were true, 90% of the threads that grace the politics section would never see a single reply.

 

[longknife]

The president's Tweets do exactly what they're meant to do - overcome the highly biased reporting of the media and getting his message out to average Americans. That's why you Snowflakes hate them so much.

 

[flacaltenn]

Lately some people have been posting vague ramblings in politics, then posting a link to some random tweet. This does not open the door to any meaningful conversation. It's basically just an advertisement for the fact that someone said something on Twitter. I've seen many threads get locked instantly because the OP has next to no content. I don't see how these tweet advertisements are really any different. I think that threads like this should be automatically banished to the rubber room.

Think we already try to do that. Particularly depending on the ORIGINATOR of that tweet. If it's a meaningless celebrity or news hack -- it goes to media. If it could just be another comment, reply, or post in an EXISTING topic or thread -- we'll merge it or delete it.

Just BECAUSE it has 180,000 likes doesn't mean it's enough to sustain a conversation.. OPs have to more than a comment that could be in EXISTING USMB threads.