Proposal for a new "Current Events" subforum

A bit too much, I think.

signature: just one of those many Reddit lurkers who, over morning coffee, scrolls through this site and a few news outlets that would honestly be redundant if they weren't already reading Aktualno🙂

That’s because this forum hasn't seen a software update in years. Modern platforms actually bother to include RSS feeds. They automatically pull in news threads from selected sites into a PDF format, and then they just auto-lock after a while.

That would be awesome 👍

And who, ultimately, holds the authority to decide whether we receive this? What is the actual issue with simply adding a single sub-forum? Those interested in true crime will frequent it—and those who aren't can simply ignore it—and that should be the end of the matter.

quietdriver said:- Condoleezza Rice, Joe Biden, Eric Adams, Harvey Weinstein, and about 85 others have been arrested

Good grief! George W. Bush managed to slip away!
Or is he actually part of that group of 85?

It’s not a bad idea, really... but let's be honest, if anything major happens in politics, someone will definitely start a thread in the Politics sub; if there's news about cars, it'll pop up in the Cars sub. In that sense, Reddit basically functions like its own little news portal, doesn't it?🙂

Anyway, I voted YES because this could turn out to be a pretty great sub.😉

Betty Sanders67 said:So, who actually makes the final call on whether we get this or not?

That’s exactly what I’m wondering too. Can we get a moderator to weigh in here?

The owner of Reddit actually pitched the idea. We even sat down and hashed it out for a bit, but nothing's set in stone yet. For now, the consensus is that we just don't really need something like that.

Why bother? Any current news story is going to find its audience on the relevant subforums anyway 🤷

In my opinion, this is totally unnecessary. Some subforums—take Natural Science, for example—already have dedicated threads for breaking news, plus they have the option to spin off a whole new discussion thread if things actually get interesting.

The subforum you’re proposing would basically be a miniature version of Reddit, which is just redundant. It would overcomplicate everything and honestly just end up becoming a playground for trolls and spammers.

FOR

placidjackal36 said:The proposed sub-forum would essentially be a miniature version of Reddit—which is completely unnecessary.

I disagree. It wouldn't be redundant—it would serve as a real-time feed of the news we typically hear on the radio, watch on local news stations, or skim on major news sites. It would certainly be more engaging than other platforms, primarily due to the commentary—and because users who actually work in police departments or EMT services could report what they see firsthand. They can often provide much more accurate and immediate accounts than professional journalists can. For me, and many others who follow the news closely, having everything centralized and sorted chronologically—rather than dealing with news portals where an article might have been posted twelve hours ago—would be incredibly valuable.

Betty Sanders67 said:Personally, I think most news junkies would love to have everything consolidated in one spot, sorted strictly by the most recent activity—not like those typical news sites where you're looking at headlines that were posted over twelve hours ago!

Well, the problem with sorting purely by what's "freshest" is that the top of the list ends up being whatever thread just got a new comment, even if the actual topic started way back yesterday. You can always tweak the view to sort by title or the number of replies... but as far as I know, there isn't an option to sort the entire board by the date the threads were originally created.

rustydrifter10 said:The threads aren't necessarily sorted by recency—the top of the list is just whatever topic was last commented on, which could be an older discussion entirely. You can sort by title or number of replies, I believe—but as far as I am aware, there isn't an option to sort by the actual date the thread was created.

My point was regarding ongoing events—take a spreading wildfire, for instance—where being able to read the most recent posts would allow users to grasp the immediate situation on the ground, whereas traditional news outlets might still be reporting on what happened several hours ago.

Betty Sanders67 said:I don't think so! That would just turn into the same old daily news we already hear on the radio, catch during the evening news, or scroll through on major news sites. It might be a little more interesting than other places, mostly because of the comment sections and because folks on Reddit who actually work in construction or at an ER... they could share what they've seen firsthand, probably much more accurately and way faster than any professional journalist could ever manage. For me, and plenty of other news junkies out there, it would be great to have everything gathered in one spot, sorted from most recent to oldest, rather than having to deal with those big news outlets where you see stories that were actually posted twelve hours ago.

Hmm, if this bolded part is meant to be the whole point of a new sub-forum, then I am even more strongly against it!
It would just be pure sensationalism... and honestly, the ugliest kind.
As if we aren't already blessed enough with the sheer excellence of our police force and healthcare system... now we're supposed to carve out space for that certain category of (un)humans who would want to use a public forum to spill all the gritty details about accident victims right after they've been processed by the cops or doctors. Anything beyond the first twelve hours? Please, that's ancient history at that point.

We've really hit a new low here...🙂
Is there no bottom to this?😈

Emily Kim67 said:Well, if this is actually the point of the new subforum, then I am even more against it.
It would be nothing but pure sensationalism... and in its ugliest form at that.
As if we weren't already blessed enough with the excellence of our police and healthcare system... now we need to carve out space for those certain (un)humans who would use this site to leak details about accident victims after they've been processed by the cops or doctors. Anything beyond the first 12 hours is, quite frankly, ancient history.

We’ve really hit rock bottom here...🙂
Is there any decency left?😈

Look, I'm obviously not advocating for scavenging, and the moderators would step in if things crossed the line of good taste.

But honestly, look at the recent flooding or the way the Democratic Party is getting torn apart today—those are exactly the kinds of situations where we need a dedicated space like this.

quietdriver said:Of course I'm not advocating for being insensitive, and besides, the moderators would definitely step in if things crossed the line of good taste.

Honestly, just look at the recent flooding and today's news about the Democratic Party planes crashing—those are perfect examples of why we really need a dedicated sub-forum like this.

I mean, I suppose I can see where you're coming from regarding the floods, though if I'm being honest, I actually thought the media did a pretty decent job keeping everyone informed.
But I'm a little lost on your take regarding the Democratic Party jets... look, at the moment you're writing this, it hasn't even been four full hours since the accident happened! Whether by pure coincidence or because someone was already on the scene, what is it you're looking for? A list of names? To know if there were fatalities? I just don't quite get it...
You certainly can't know the specific details or the actual cause of an accident that quickly, since something like that requires a full investigation, forensic reports, and all sorts of official procedures....
So, it basically boils down to wanting names and knowing if anyone died, and how many, only four hours after the crash.
Have you considered that these people have families who might not have even been notified yet? It’s not like we have thousands of pilots and we can just assume every spouse, parent, or child has already gone through that agonizing wait, or that they've all received updates by now, but we still need a place for discussion and details here on the Forum.
I'm truly sorry, because I actually loved your initial idea, but discussing the Democratic Party incidents falls right into the category I mentioned in my previous post.

quietdriver said:Look, I'm not saying we should be vultures here, but the mods step in if things get too out of line...

Just look at the recent flooding and today's chaos with the Democratic Party—that's exactly why we need a subforum like this.

Stuff like that gets posted in Politics. If you want the hot news, go to the Politics section.

People were already talking about the floods, and that thread about the Democratic Party was posted three hours before you even brought it up here. Three pages of replies in just three hours...

Kevin Williams56 said:People were already debating the floods, and that thread about the Democratic Party was started three hours before you even brought it up here. We've already filled almost three pages in those three hours.

Just to clarify, that topic was posted only 50 minutes after the plane went down, and just a few minutes after the news actually broke publicly.

Kevin Williams56 said:Stuff like this usually gets dumped into the Politics section, so if you're looking for what's actually happening right now, that's where you should be headed.

People have already been going at it regarding the floods, and that thread about the Democratic Party was started three hours before you even mentioned it here—and in just those three hours, they’ve already filled almost three whole pages.

I get that, but those kinds of topics always end up getting tangled up with those endless political debates over old-school partisans and whatever else... stuff I'm just not that interested in.
It would be way better if current events were kept in one dedicated spot.

quietdriver said:I get it, but those threads always end up getting buried under endless political debates, old-school partisans, extremists... stuff I just can't be bothered with.
It’d be better if current events had their own dedicated space.

The idea isn't bad, but there's a catch. If you want news on the forum before it hits major sites like CNN or Fox, who’s actually going to fact-check it?
What happens when fake news starts popping up in a thread? After a few times, nobody's gonna believe any "breaking" rumor they see here.
How would you even moderate that mess?
Basically, we’re back to waiting for a real outlet to report it just to make sure it's legit. And by then, it’ll already have found its way onto the forums anyway.
Seems like a massive headache to me... 🤷