loopytheone
Well-Known Member
On installing the Soap Box - as spelled out in point 5 of the rules - the Mod Team announced that debate and development here would be closely monitored.
In an initial review after three months - beginning of April 2017 - we agreed to continue observing, as the development was approximately what we had expected at that point in time.
Since then, development of the Soap Box has deteriorated significantly - as can be seen when looking at a few statistics:
The Soap Box has 39 threads. Only 9 of them - counting out the picture threads - were active after 3/30/17.
The 2 picture threads alone account for 80% as many posts as all other threads put together.
19 of the 39 threads have less than 10 responses - 11 of them less than 5 responses.
Participation in the Soap Box has declined dramatically, leaving about only a handful of posters regularly posting.
We have discussed whether opening up the Soap Box for all posters might help. But given the experiences of preceeding Hyde Park, and here in the past months, we doubt that this would improve participation.
Political "discussion" on Dims remains dominated by a few posters who live in their own political world and refuse - or are unable to - follow general public communication rules and conventions. This is a major deterrent for other posters.
Despite this low participation rate, after dealing with spammers, the Soap Box remains the second largest source of moderator activity.
Given that Dims is a board with no explicit interest in general politics, moderating is done by volunteers, the amount of effort needed here for a non core theme of the boards is disproportionate - and also frustrating.
We sincerely regret to not have found a workable alternative for political discussions here - but given all the above named finding, we see no other option than to close the Soap Box with immediate effect.
In an initial review after three months - beginning of April 2017 - we agreed to continue observing, as the development was approximately what we had expected at that point in time.
Since then, development of the Soap Box has deteriorated significantly - as can be seen when looking at a few statistics:
The Soap Box has 39 threads. Only 9 of them - counting out the picture threads - were active after 3/30/17.
The 2 picture threads alone account for 80% as many posts as all other threads put together.
19 of the 39 threads have less than 10 responses - 11 of them less than 5 responses.
Participation in the Soap Box has declined dramatically, leaving about only a handful of posters regularly posting.
We have discussed whether opening up the Soap Box for all posters might help. But given the experiences of preceeding Hyde Park, and here in the past months, we doubt that this would improve participation.
Political "discussion" on Dims remains dominated by a few posters who live in their own political world and refuse - or are unable to - follow general public communication rules and conventions. This is a major deterrent for other posters.
Despite this low participation rate, after dealing with spammers, the Soap Box remains the second largest source of moderator activity.
Given that Dims is a board with no explicit interest in general politics, moderating is done by volunteers, the amount of effort needed here for a non core theme of the boards is disproportionate - and also frustrating.
We sincerely regret to not have found a workable alternative for political discussions here - but given all the above named finding, we see no other option than to close the Soap Box with immediate effect.