Time for an experiment. Thanks to the diligence of our commenters, the comment count on my post about Rodney Hide’s appalling lapse of judgement on the reality of climate change has rocketed up to over 500. The WordPress blog system isn’t really designed to deal with comment threads that long (though there improvements coming in the next update), and you can’t, as Roger Dewhurst has noted, post images or attachments in-line. I have therefore installed and configured a forum/bulletin board system (phpBB3, for the techies) here. It’s embryonic – I’d like suggestions for forum categories and so on – but the most important thing is to see if it attracts good comment and debate.
Here are the rules:
The Hot Topic forum is intended as a place where climate issues can be discussed freely and without heavy moderation. Using forum software allows many features not (yet) available in Hot Topic’s comment system (including posting pictures and file attachments). Users can create their own topics for discussion, post their own ideas, without waiting for the blog to have a relevant post.
The forum does not replace blog comments – it’s an extension, and a complement. As a rule of thumb, if your comment is directly related to the content of a blog post, post it at the blog, but if it’s off-topic take it to the forum and either join an existing topic, or create a new one.
As with the comment policy at the Hot Topic blog, robust debate is welcomed, but I require all users to be reasonably polite. Anything that might contravene laws of libel will be removed. My decision is final. Consider it a benign dictatorship…
Head on over and give it a try. All feedback gratefully received.
Related posts:
- Still talkin’ (open thread #2)
- New comment system for Hot Topic
- Hot Topic: finalist Best Australia or NZ Blog in 2007 Weblog Awards
- Bus stop (wet day)
- Back to the futures forum
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Hot Topic, the first popular science book to examine global warming from a New Zealand perspective, was 
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Embarrassingly, I realise that I had the forum in testing mode – apologies to anyone who’s tried to register and post. Should now be working fine. Let me know here if you have any issues.
Great idea! Thanks!
* waits for activation key *
That was pretty neat Gareth, sending us all over there to keep the Magic weather man occupied while you get on with the real work here. But I’ve had enough; I’m coming back.
Maybe we could work out a roster so that every once in a while someone could nip over and give him a prod. We could keep him running round in circles for years, nicely out of harms way.
Laurence, that is a great idea.
Gareth, can we have a discussion open to go over the election and the lack of real policy on climate change please?
That’s easy – and the whole point of the forum. You can go into the NZ section, and start a new topic yourself by making the first post. Go ahead – try it.
Forum content is determined by the people who visit and post there, not by one person. I provide you with a framework and a set of ground rules, then you go ahead and debate…
Maybe I should rephrase that. Following on from Laurence’s point
, are you going to write something here about the political parties’ climate change polices?
Yes, there will be a post in due course. I’ve got a few things to get done first (and some research to do) – but sometime next week, I’ll have something to say. Meantime, the forum’s there so you don’t have to wait. It’s not meant to be a ghetto for Ken (though that does have its good points
).
I think I can wait
, discussions with the cranks drive me nuts sometimes 
There seems to be some bogus HTML on the forum front page:
<a href=’<a href=”./memberlist.php?…
It shows up only on some browsers, but it’s still bogus.
– bi, International Journal of Inactivism
I can’t see that in Safari or Firefox on Mac OS: what are you using, Frank, and whereabouts on the page?
Gareth:
Under a certain text browser, it shows up as an additional blank hyperlink, such as at the position of the @@’s here:
Last post
Wed Oct 15, 2008
In: Rules and regulations
By: @@Gareth
Last post
Sat Oct 18, 2008
In: Crankwatch
By: @@Laurence
– bi, International Journal of Inactivism
When I look at the source, I think I can see what you’re getting at, and it may be a side-effect of the theme/style I’m using for the forum. But if it doesn’t show in ordinary browsers… (I don’t think I’ve ever seen w3m in browser stats…)
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