I am new to internet forums/discussion boards, how do they work?
They are a form of social media which foster online conversations. This Wikipedia article is a good introduction.
The forum software's FAQ page covers the basic mechanics; to access it while in the forum, click on the Forum dropdown menu at the top, then the ‘FAQ - Software’ link. Also useful is this more detailed user guide.
What format will the voter-candidate conversations in the subforums take?
They are discussions - if someone states a position, they can be asked to defend that position in a follow up. They are also limited to a single questioner and politician, to prevent a cacophony.
There is no expectation that a consensus will be reached - the conversations will often end with the participants agreeing to disagree.
Why do I need to be a resident of the district to be able to fully participate?
Because these forums are centered on shared geography and localized politics. Certainly non-resident participation is welcome, but resident participation is the main goal and therefore it should be easy to identify residents and their preferences within the forum.
Why does Forum registration require that I reveal my real identity to the site administrators?
The major influence on the rule here has been the experience of the forums at e-democracy.org, which have been successfully run for 20 years. They have found that requiring real names greatly contributes to a culture of openness and respect. Disallowing anonymity in forums is not uncommon: Facebook, for example, has always had a real names policy.
Why can I post using an anonymous username, thus keeping my real identity private?
So that you don't have to self-censor yourself.
Expressing an opinion that you have arrived at rationally, but which is considered “wrong” by somebody, can potentially have serious consequences. You could find yourself turned back at a border of a foreign country, or caned within one. Within the US you can easily get yourself picketed or threatened, all you have to do is publicly express a strong opinion on a hot-button topic like gun or abortion laws.
Of course, you have to express these opinions within the site terms of use, which prohibit abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any US laws.
I see that I can login using an existing social media account by clicking on the appropriate icon. How does this work, and is it secure?
A tutorial showing a user posting to Facebook, and a friend seeing the post and then logging into the forum with her account, is here. Note that the screenshots show an outdated template.
Logging on this way is secure because the site software uses a cryptographic hash function on your existing social media password, and only stores the encrypted result.
So if your password is “123456879”, what is stored looks something like “A9G8veCcHQz7”. Nobody at this site has access to your unencrypted original password, since it is not recorded in the database.
Where is the procedure for certifying that I am registered to vote in my district(s) explained?
This webpage goes over the process, which only takes a few minutes.
Many of the communications available at a District Forum can be done elsewhere. (For example, I can write a letter to the local newspaper.) Why do these things there?
- Because you would have to search out and visit many websites to do all of the things the single website allows you to do.
- Because all communications there are public and archived by Google, and for some (not all) matters that is desireable.
- Because there is no gate-keeping to prevent (for example) your letter to the editor from being published.
- Because posting things here can be complementary to doing them elsewhere. If you got a letter to the editor published, why not also post it here?
- Because you will often get more views and feedback than you would otherwise.
- Because if your neighbors vote up your insight or question with many ‘likes’ then your representative will be under pressure to respond to you.
Is there academic work (theory or studies) which is related to the District Forum concept?
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Yes, there has been a lot of relevant e-democracy activity, both theory and experiments, in the last two decades. Some particularly relevant papers which are freely downloadable are:
- Realising Democracy Online: A civic Commons in cyberspace, by Stephen Coleman and Jay G. Blumler (2001, pdf). A district forum is similar in many ways to the online Civic Commons described here.
- Direct Representation: Towards a Conversational Democracy, by Stephen Coleman (2005, pdf). This discusses the problem of disconnection between representatives and representated; a district forum is a mechanism to create a new connectedness.
- Democracy, deliberation and design: the case of online discussion forums, by Scott Wright and John Street (2007, pdf). This article, which demonstrates the importance of a forum's design, has been cited more than 300 times.
What are the Forum rules and policies?
These are in the Rules & Policies section, part of the Administration section. A short summary is here. Complete Community Rules are here, Privacy Policy is here, and Terms of Use is here.
Who is organizing these forums, and why are they doing so?
There is one main organizer, Travis Mitchell, a research scientist who lives in SE Pennsylvania. Contact me on Twitter (@VoterVoices) if you are interested in the project.
I am organizing them because I strongly believe that non-partisan platforms for voters to interact with politicians are an important public good. Making them more available and easier-to-use should eventually result in our political leaders becoming more responsive to the concerns of ordinary voters.
This is a non-profit, volunteer-run project. All funding for it so far has come from myself; this has been made possible thanks to the contributions of the open-source software coders at phpBB.com. Forum hosting costs are low enough that a vTownhall can be maintained by its local volunteers, and that is my ‘business model’ for future expansions.
