I voted for “other”. By which I mean having a broad category listing. Like all main philosophical discussions in the top 60% or so. Then “Interesting Stuff” discussions below that. The Lounge stuff at the bottom.

Love the Lounge and Shoutbox, along with the topical political stuff. But let’s sandbox it. Put it at the bottom or to the side. Having oddball threads pop up at the top seems slightly off-balance. Even keeping it as this currently modified “no Lounge on front page” thing is fine. The Lounge will be cooler if it’s a secret! :snicker:

Thanks for considering making some changes/improvements. Not an easy thing to do, and it’s impossible to please everyone. But some tweaking may be beneficial here. :up:

Ya welcome :up: And this is looking like the way it will stay (keeping the lounge at the bottom of recent discussions isn't possible with this software). Personally, I love the lounge and the social element here, but the site is primarily about showcasing philosophy, and catering to those that want to do it, and that's what the front page should reflect.

They'll be deleted. — Michael

I see, then it's just a matter of you and I having a very different definition of what constitutes trivial or politically motivated posts. Or else the mods are simply so overwhelmed with such posts they haven't time to delete them all.

I haven’t been reading much lately. I regularly check the reported posts lists though, so if you see anything low quality please do flag them.

I'm not sure I'd feel qualified to decide. I don't want to provide a load of work for mods just on the basis of what might be an extremely unpopular view of what a quality post looks like.

I was really just following on from John Doe's post which lamented the loss of a more rigorous philosophical tone to posts across the site. My presumption from this was that there existed a reasonable quantity of posts in the main section which were considered by many to be of less philosophical rigour.

If its actually only me that thinks that, then I certainly wouldn't see much benefit to flagging them all, no?

I feel the same way, even though I know I’m guilty of letting my own quality drop. Part of the problem for us mods is that we’re quite often accused of being too oppressive, so it’s difficult to get the balance right. I think a lot of it really has to come down to the members themselves striving for quality and not relying on us to enforce it, which might just end up driving even good posters away. I don’t think there’s an easy solution.

I'm in favor of the default page being the Categories. That's how many other forums do it. I'm most in favor of creating an American option that lets the user freely decide how he wants to have the site open.

I voted for discussions sans lounge, on the assumption that the categories don't have the latest comment/thread link of the old pf. If it were possible to have latest commented discussions plus links to feedback, politics, current affairs, lounge, that would be ideal... and assuming we can't have a proper incomprehensible shout box that only shows a couple of lines at the top like in the good old days when men were men and philosophers were educated.

I think a lot of it really has to come down to the members themselves striving for quality and not relying on us to enforce it, which might just end up driving even good posters away. I don’t think there’s an easy solution. — Michael

You're right it is a delicate balance. Are you aware of the reasons why the "good posters" of recent have left the forum?