Poll: Have you set the politics message board to ignore?

[DooDiligence]

Twitter is for childish spats & I get sucked in over there a lot.

 

You're not following the right people and/or muting the right keywords, then. Twitter is whatever you make of it, very maleable.

 

I agree with you re: Twitter malleability.

 

The problem comes when someone comments on a Trump Tweet, or one posted by a sycophant of his.

 

I can't resist the urge to troll him (I know, grow up).

I'd just love to be the guy who pushed him over the edge & I expect to be 1 of the 1st doors to get kicked in if the purges come about.

 

Other than that, nearly all of the people I follow are very gracious & patient with my questionable contributions on financial discussions.

[writser]

Bingo. I'm interested in politics. I'm just absolutely not interested in CoBF members discussing politics.

 

Wrister, could you elaborate on the specific reasons you are not interested in the discussion on CoB&F? Is it the quality of discussion? Is it specific behaviors or practices that are an issue?

 

Is there something that would make the section useful to you? Do you find the contributions of some contributions useful?

 

By the way, thank you for the excellent contributions you have made on CoB&F. You have posted tons of good materials and comments over the years.

 

Thanks for the kind words.

 

With regards to your question: I think the politics forum is a cesspit. US politics is so polarized that there is no real discussion anymore - it's just democrats insulting and triggering republicans and vice versa. Participating in those flame wars is counterproductive: you will only reinforce the beliefs of yourself and your opponents and you will get frustrated and angry. And even the rare well-intentioned thread gets hijacked quickly.

 

Second, I'm mostly here to find and discuss opportunities in the stock market. I'd rather not know the political viewpoints of other posters because if they post something I consider idiotic in the politics section I might be biased when they actually post a good stock pitch.

 

Third, even though I rationally know the politics board is a waste of time it is immensely tempting to reply to people posting stupid stuff online (the famous XKCD comic). It takes self restraint not to do so. And I prefer to use the limited daily amount of self-restraint I have to not blow up in the stock market and to be nicer in real life. If I block the politics section I save self restraint.

 

Fourth: when I log in on this forum I want to see under recent posts what stocks are being discussed. That's what I am here for. I don't want to see:

 

"Bribery race heats up: Bernie versus Botox Betty"

"Who's More Creepier..."

"Call me when you're lonely"

"The Twat of South Carolina!"

 

It makes the 'recent posts' section less useful for me. Not to mention that it is fucking sad and depressing to see that trash every time you visit the forum.

 

In short: ignore the politics board and you will be happier, less biased and it will be easier to suppress the urge to masturbate in public places.

[SharperDingaan]

 

The intent of the manipulation is to either 1) make you do something ('do nothing' is the enemy), or 2) make you accept change (the 'current' is not sustainable). The think nothing of it, and don't think to question. Obviously, the tool has many potential applications - some good, some not so much.

 

There are of course a number of very effective 'counter-measures', but they will remain anonymous.

 

SD

 

Thank you for your thoughtful comments. You clearly have your own unique voice in all your posts. I have heard it said that a unique voice is a sign that someone is not acting as an ideologue and is likely to engage sincerely in debate.

 

I would like to add to one point you make here. Although in advertising and commerce the goal is frequently to a consumer to take an action as you said, when it comes to political disinformation, a very common goal IS to discourage someone from doing something. Voter suppression is frequently a goal and that makes my point, but there are plenty of other examples.

 

Disinformation primarily is aimed at creating distrust or apathy. A passive, demoralized, disinterested populace is frequently the ideal outcome because they will be better opponent and less likely to offer resistance as an adversary.

 

Whether it's Russian disinformation, or Trump talking the message often is that "everybody's a crook, so why bother". That is the common theme. The fact that Russian disinformation and Trump supporters have this in common is probably just coincidence. Criminals frequently justify their actions by telling themselves and others that "everybody does it". When in fact that's not the case. Criminals are in fact rather rare. In the case of Russian disinformation, it is much more the case of decades of practices and refining of their techniques and distrust and demoralization has worked for them for decades.

 

One of these little old ladies was Russian .... and along the way - worked with some of the best propagandists of her time. Disinformation, and 'goal-post' setting, is nothing new; the only real difference today is the 'scaling' possibilities that come with greater speed and more precise targeting.

 

The trick of course is not to engage, and let the propagandist do all the running.

With the help of an opportune banana peel every now and again  ;)

 

SD

 

 

[Spekulatius]

A coworker once told me, after we had some political discussion at work, that “Opinions are like A$$holes, everyone got one, and no one cares about any except their own.” I guess it’s basically true, especially when discussion politics. I have also decided to block out the board, I have enjoyed to sometimes post (or troll there), but I think it’s just a waste of time and energy.

[Liberty]

Twitter is for childish spats & I get sucked in over there a lot.

 

You're not following the right people and/or muting the right keywords, then. Twitter is whatever you make of it, very maleable.

 

I agree with you re: Twitter malleability.

 

The problem comes when someone comments on a Trump Tweet, or one posted by a sycophant of his.

 

I can't resist the urge to troll him (I know, grow up).

I'd just love to be the guy who pushed him over the edge & I expect to be 1 of the 1st doors to get kicked in if the purges come about.

 

Other than that, nearly all of the people I follow are very gracious & patient with my questionable contributions on financial discussions.

 

The problem is with you, not them. You can't control others, but you can control yourself. Work on self-control skill. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's something to aim for (goals are more directions than destinations). And/or, mute the word "Trump". Problem solved.

[DooDiligence]

Twitter is for childish spats & I get sucked in over there a lot.

 

You're not following the right people and/or muting the right keywords, then. Twitter is whatever you make of it, very maleable.

 

I agree with you re: Twitter malleability.

 

The problem comes when someone comments on a Trump Tweet, or one posted by a sycophant of his.

 

I can't resist the urge to troll him (I know, grow up).

I'd just love to be the guy who pushed him over the edge & I expect to be 1 of the 1st doors to get kicked in if the purges come about.

 

Other than that, nearly all of the people I follow are very gracious & patient with my questionable contributions on financial discussions.

 

The problem is with you, not them. You can't control others, but you can control yourself. Work on self-control skill. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's something to aim for (goals are more directions than destinations). And/or, mute the word "Trump". Problem solved.

 

You are right.

 

edit: I went through my muted keywords & found that they were all set to "From people you don’t follow" & that might be why I was still getting nonsense in my feed.

 

I changed all muted keywords to "From anyone".

[fareastwarriors]

Set to ignore. Thanks!

[LC]

To me, it's entertainment. Nobody is changing anyone's mind but treating it like theater is fun and engaging. Some people watch the Kardashians, others watch the news. The only difference between a pleasure and a guilty pleasure is that feeling guilty is no fun :D The rule I set for myself is not allow judgement to bleed over to the other sections of the forum. Do I think it's silly for someone to be religious, or support Trump? Maybe - but that doesn't mean that person can't identify good investment opportunities.

 

Furthermore, take a look at the investment section of this board - how many people here are adhering to something resembling the "25 punchcard" philosophy? Not many I would wager. Within a single day you can see 15-20 different investment ideas being debated just on the first page of that board.

 

And I'll browse them, but 99% simply don't interest me. Not that they aren't profitable potentially, but I like to keep the 'too hard' pile stacked high. So, when 99% of the time is not having anything to add to the investment ideas discussed, the politics section is an area to post and debate something.

[Read the Footnotes]

Voting and commenting have slowed down, so I will now summarize the results of the poll and the comments made in posts. Here are the results as of now.

 

Have you set the politics category to "ignore"

Yes. Thank you Sanjeev for that option.

55 (62.5%)No.

20 (22.7%)Thanks. Didn't know I had the option, and I will set Politics to "Ignore".

13 (14.8%)

Total Members Voted: 88

 

62.5% of respondents were already automatically blocking the Politics board with the ignore feature. An additional 14.8% of respondents said they were going to block the politics board thanks to this thread, representing a 23.6% increase in members automatically blocking the Politics board due to this thread. In combination 77.3% stated they would be blocking Politics automatically in the future.

 

22.7% were not automatically blocking the Politics board and did not indicate an intention to do so in the future. It should be noted that a large portion (3 out of 16 or 18.75%) the commenters posted that they do not automatically block the Politics section, but do ignore the Politics section through good old fashioned mental effort. I'm not sure how much power you can assign to 3 out of 16 electively mentioning that they just ignore posts, but I think it is an indication that a large portion who are not automatically blocking are not actively engaged or interested in the Politics section.

 

Here is a summary some of the comments posted as replies to the poll.

 

There were 16 members who posted substantive comments regarding the usage and value of the Politics board.

 

Three respondents mentioned they ignore the Politics board, but do it by old fashioned mental effort.

Four mentioned that they are not a fan of blocking boards for various reasons

Five alluded to automatically blocking the board improving their process

Eight mentioned the quality of the posts being the reason they ignore the Politics board.

• 
   
  
• Four mentioned the quality of the analysis or discussion
  
• One mentioned logical fallacies and cognitive biases
  
• Five mentioned the posting of ideology instead of analysis
  

 

One poster mentioned participating in the Politics section as a form of entertainment. It's not clear if that attitude would contribute to meaningful analysis.

 

Interestingly one poster mentioned participation or the temptation to participate in trolling on sites other than CoB&F, which lead to a message board therapy session of sorts. In this case the lightbulb did want to change and the attempt at counseling seemed respectful, appreciated, professional and possibly effective.

 

One interesting point for me is how many of the best all time contributors to CoB&F actually posted to this thread. Three or four who I would rank as top posters said or implied that they were not at all impressed with the quality of conversation on the politics section. Several also mentioned the value they see in political discussion, just not the current quality on CoB&F. I would welcome a higher quality of analysis as it seems they would.

 

[Gregmal]

Well, now that I have these data points and various tidbits of analysis I can start making money in the stock market!

[bizaro86]

Thanks! This should make the "new posts" feature much more relevant for me.

 

As a related note - is anyone aware of a way to "ignore" individual threads? While I don't want to ignore the general board entirely, there is one thread I'd like to ignore as it isn't relevant to me and clogs up the "new posts" list sometimes.

[Read the Footnotes]

Thanks! This should make the "new posts" feature much more relevant for me.

 

As a related note - is anyone aware of a way to "ignore" individual threads? While I don't want to ignore the general board entirely, there is one thread I'd like to ignore as it isn't relevant to me and clogs up the "new posts" list sometimes.

 

You're welcome!

 

To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to ignore a single thread, but I wonder if it might make sense to ask Sanjeev whether a certain thread might deserve its own category. In eight years, that thread has grown to be 1397 pages in length and we might have four more years of that thread dominating the new posts. It might deserve its own category based on volume, if not logic. If that thread were moved to be in its own category, it would give more flexibility for people to manager their inbox.