Next New Site Feature Discussion: Category Filter?

[Tony (admin)]

There’s been quite a bit of discussion about whether or not to talk politics (or other non-Ute stuff) here.  There is a politics category here.  The issue is that the front page and forum pages show all posts and some people don’t want to see non-Ute related content.  

A cool feature UFN has/had (if it has gone down again) is the ability for users to customize/filter the categories and uncheck ones they don’t want to see, like politics.  It would not be extremely difficult to implement this type of filter on the home page here.

With such a filter those who like to chat about politics or other non-Ute subjects, especially on the off season, could do so without irritating those who wish not to see it.

Let me know your thoughts.

[96GradAlum]

Make it hap’n Cap’n.  That’s my vote.  I’m one that like to discuss various topics but I understand if others dont 🙂

[leftyjace]

Recent Posts also shows everything. Don’t forget that page – that’s my go to 🙂

I think it’s a great idea, and was one of the admirable features of UF.N.

[Tony (admin)]

I’ve been digging a little to find out what I will need to do.  The filter may be global, in which case recent posts it would filter.  Not 100% sure though.  I’ll get the home page done first most likely.

[Anonymous]

Just get rid of politics. Sorry I don’t care what you all think about politics. I don’t care what my family thinks about politics when they talk about it awkwardly at Thanksgiving.  

[AZswayze]

What do you care if there’s a category that you can simply uncheck? I really don’t understand this mindset.

[vcsg01]

My opinion.  Keep it Ute or sports related.  There are plenty of other places to go for discussion on politics.

[AZswayze]

And that will kill the board during the offseason. What do you expect people to discuss when there are days, even weeks, at a time where we don’t have any news regarding Utah sports? And, if you don’t care for it, simply uncheck the category.

[Tacoma Ute]

I can’t get on the other site again. Not sure if it’s the site or my phone.

[Rick]

It’s down again!

[AZswayze]

It comes up on my computer but there are no threads and nobody logged in, almost like somebody deleted everything. Won’t let me login either.

[AZswayze]

I’m for it, especially once we get into the offseason. I am so tired of people complaining about the politics at Ufn when they could have easily unchecked the category. It’s like some people can’t control themselves, so they want to ban the possibility of having to read political discussions altogether. It’s really odd.

[Riot West]

It’s like some people can’t control themselves, so they want to ban the possibility of having to read political discussions altogether. It’s really odd.

Exactly. About two-thirds the s**t that gets posted about Utah I could not care less about. So-and-so committed/committed elsewhere! Big whoop. I just scroll past it. It’s not that hard – and I sure as s**t don’t feel compelled to write a post each time and explain how uninterested I am.

[AZswayze]

And you really don’t have a choice there, as there’s no recruiting category. These folks can uncheck the damn politics category, but they’d rather bitch constantly about all the political talk. Most of the time when people complain about it they mention how it’s so liberal, which tells me that it’s not the discussion that bothers them so much as it is people giving opinions that differ from their own.

[Utah]

Exactly. They are children who can’t fathom the possibility that they are wrong. Benson said that good Mormons are Republican, so if you aren’t, you are wrong!

It’s childish to say the least. 

Usually it is someone that has a ridiculous stance, gets called out on it, and then tucks tail and runs. 

[SkinyUte]

I quite like the political talk, especially during slow times for Utah sports or during important political events (like the election). It’s a good reminder of the oft times stark diversity within our somewhat homogeneous Utah fan population.

People do tend to get awfully riled up about it though, not sure how you temper that.

[leftyjace]

Some great points in this thread. Here are a couple I picked up on:

1. If the categories were able to be unchecked, then people could limit their “feeds” to those categories they actually wanted to pay attention to. I agree with this and think it’s valid. My objections to politics thus far have been chiefly because of item two, which is…
2. The danger is if people hijack threads – which can happen no matter what. Then it’s up to an active mod (or mods) to make sure that doesn’t happen with regularity, or that a thread gets moved to a more appropriate category. Or locks the thread. Again, I think this is less of a problem here because we have an active owner/king/mod.
3. A Recruitment category could prove to be beneficial.

[AZswayze]

Threads being hijacked at Ufn are pretty rare when it comes to political opinions. There’s a much bigger problem with hijacking to talk about BYU. Even then, like you said correcting this would be the job of the mods.

[leftyjace]

Fair point. Though I have seen it done by hijacking and turning towards politics over there, I definitely have seen it a helluva lot more with hijacking and discussing BYU if at all possible.

[Utah]

[Anonymous]

Or you have someone post something about Utah sports and it is lost in all of the pointless political talk. So no one talks about what the site is supposed to be about. Go pound your head into a wall on a Tribune blog post if you really need to discuss politics with strangers. 

[SkinyUte]

But then I’d have to deal with Zoobs.

I might disagree with some folks here, but at least I know they’re sane.

[AZswayze]

Political talk is far from pointless. You may never change the person’s mind that you’re debating, but you may be able to influence others who are reading the back and forth. From a personal perspective I learn a lot discussing politics with others. I feel like it’s extremely worthwhile.

I love Utah sports as much as the next guy, but how much can you possibly talk about a particular game or recruiting? Most lengthy conversations are over who Utah should fire and hire, and I can’t think of a more worthless debate than that. I actually think it may be a bit unhealthy to obsess about any one thing so much.

[Tony (admin)]

Can of worms opened! Guessing I can implement the feature.  Some for and some against.  But at least with an option like that members can tailor their posts.  If it becomes too much of a PITA I’ll bail, but I think I’ve already figured out about 50% of the code.