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by mrbodoia 3408 days ago
I didn't initially use a political test because I wanted the three categories to be less policy-based (e.g. what's your view on abortion/gun control/immigration) and more focused on people's emotional, "tribal" affiliation. I was hoping that all the people who feel a strong connection with either the left or the right would pick those two, while people who were less sure would feel comfortable picking neither.

However, as many commenters have pointed out, the current design makes it somewhat difficult for people without strong partisan affiliations to choose a side. I'm going to look into some sort of short quiz like the political compass that might make signups easier for people (and also increase the signal, as you mentioned).
1 comments
humanrebar 3408 days ago
> more focused on people's emotional, "tribal" affiliation

Maybe I'm missing something, but that's basically all we have right now. Is the goal to get people to be tribal and emotional in the same place instead of apart?

Also, I have strong affiliations, especially on particular topics, but I can't really identify as right if Trump is "far right" or left if Warren is "far left". It doesn't make me confused about who I am. It's just that people aren't even measuring right or left on the same axes.

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mrbodoia 3408 days ago
That's basically the goal, yeah. I think it's very difficult to prevent people from being tribal and emotional at all, but I think the bigger issue right now is that existing platforms for political discussion encourage people to ensconce themselves in bubbles of like-minded people. I'm hoping to create a platform where people will at least be exposed to representative members of the other tribes, rather than whatever strawmen manage to make it through their bubble.

Your beliefs notwithstanding, I think that there are a fair number of people who do identify as either unambiguously right-leaning or left-leaning, and I intended the blue and red categories on the site to be for them. I was hoping that people like yourself that don't feel comfortable with either label would be comfortable choosing "neither". It's meant to include both people who are confused about their stances, as well as people who are sure but don't identify with either the right or the left.

However, it looks like people didn't interpret the categories the way that I expected them to. I'm going to rework the signup page to try and make the third category more appealing to people like yourself (and like myself!) who have strong views but don't see themselves on either the left or the right.

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humanrebar 3408 days ago
Maybe I wasn't clear. In particular, people identity themselves and each other as "right" and mean drastically different things. People would inevitably interpret your categories differently because there is no consensus or even discussion about what the words even mean.

I don't identify myself as "independent", so I suspect I won't really be served by a grab bag group (1). To put it another way, I suspect politics is becoming increasingly "long tail", so I suspect that even three categories will have issues.

Though in a long tail world, maybe there's a niche for that even.

(1) https://xkcd.com/774/

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