E-Democracy encourages those who either don't agree with or run afoul of our forum rules and management to utilize other online forums.  Links on the right will help you be heard somewhere.

E-Democracy's fragile online public spaces are citizen-based.  Those citizens who voluntarily gather, enter our forums with equal rights and agree to communicate based on a common set of standards. 

The competing rights we have established for our participants come into conflict from time to time. We try to mediate that difficult reality while promoting the freest and most relevant online political discussion possible. 

We encourage you to compare our approach with other forums where the hosts often claim ownership over the content you contribute and an unlimited right to do whatever they want whenever they want. We limit our powers. 

E-Democracy's mission and our forum managers' responsibilities are to keep discussions relevant to their charters and to ensure that they have some agenda-setting impact in real politics and community. Our forums are more of a citizen assembly, like a legislative assembly with decorum expectations, than Hyde Park or a virtual street corner protest.

We keep our forums relevant by encouraging people to stay on topic and through the enforcement of our rules.  We give official warnings and we remove participants who receive a second official warning within in a year (for violations on the same forum) for specific amount of time.  Through our volunteer forum managers and a Board appeals process we make the messy process work for the benefit of Minnesota's democracy.  As we strive for balanced and fair forum management, we make difficult and subjective decisions all of the time. 

Your feedback on our efforts is appreciated and if you are really ticked off at us, please start your own forum, announce it to 500+ people, and give us some deserved competition!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

• mn.politics Newsgroup
• Minnesota Forums and E-mail Lists
• Political Web Forums
• E-Democracy.US Discussion Directory

You can easily read mn.politics via Google Groups on the web. Also try the mn.general newsgroup for less political topics.

To post via the web we suggest that you create a web-based e-mail address and then create a Google Account using that address so you can post.

Non-profit, citizen-based community forums not officially part of E-Democracy

Bloomington Web Cafe
Northfield Citizen Online
Twin Cities Free-Net Conferences

Minnesota Yahoo Groups

Political Web Forums - Where else you can go

In Minnesota try:

StarTribune Talk
MPR's News Forum
TwinCities.com Forum

Or search your local media site for web forums.

Nationally, try these active forums at these sites:

e-thepeople.org
C-SPAN
New York Times
USA Today
National Public Radio
Yahoo!
FreeRepublic (Conservative)
Democratic Underground (Liberal)

You might find some more forums of interest here. and on our E-Democracy.US collection of discussion links.