patrick.net

Biff Baxter says

the talking points on both sides tend to have some good truth to them

Oh, no, no, no Biff you admitted that there is truth -- albeit buried -- to liberal talking points.

I am afraid that you have entrenched yourself further into the side of the zealot liberal.

Dear Marcus,

I don't hear many political voices, just angry people or people who desperately want to be heard. I think it is a bit sad but really have no goal to change it.

My real objective is to get the real estate and political sections separated. The "politicos" can spew all they want.

Other than Patrick's need to be heard, why on earth are these sections stuck together?

Biff

P.S. - I really do appreciate Patrick's efforts with this website, just not the blending of these two sections.

Biff Baxter says

Back to my original point. If you go to the bookstore to learn about real estate, you don't go to the political section.

* * * * *

Can't we separate the real estate and political sections?

I am afraid that it is not that easy.

1. There are people who regardless of the issue want to make it some politicians fault, and yes some of those people post in these forums.

2. Even the most polite conversation about real estate is probably going to have some political aspect to it. The National Association of Realtors is a huge political contributor, because well... politics and real estate go hand-in-hand.

Biff Baxter says

I really do appreciate Patrick's efforts with this website, just not the blending of these two sections.

There are separate Political and Real Estate sections of the forum, are you talking about deleting the politics section entirely?

Biff Baxter says

I think the only reason the real estate and political sections are together is because Patrick really, really wants his political views to be heard.

Actually, they are separate right ? There used to be one miscellaneous section and a little while back Patrick created a bunch of separate non-real estate forum sections. The forum is for discussion and you don't have to go there. My guess is that this whole internet thing is a little new for you and you haven't totally figured out how this site works.

And in fairness PAtrick is always trying to improve it.

I think of the site as two main parts. The links Patrick posts on most weekdays which are about 2/3 or 3/4 about Real Estate with the rest either about genral economics, politics, or anything interesting. Then there is the forum topics for discussion, where you can find links up above.

But sometimes Patrick posts links under the daily links to discussions in one of the forums (usually politics).

The combination obviously works for a lot of people. Speaking for myself, I was here reading the daily links for quite a while before I checked out and got a little hooked on the forum.

You're right, there are a lot of idiots on the forum, but some really smart people too. If you don't' respect some of the voices on here, then you might be sort of a moderate to semi-extreme republican, because I would agree that we don't have many smart voices from that group on here. CBOE might be one, but it's hard to think of many others. Although I believe many of the so called liberal voices on here are in fact fairly moderate to conservative (that is if we were in a sane world).

I am very happy to have any polite political views expressed on the forum. Just treat other people the way you would want to be treated.

I'm working on letting users pick the newslinks too, so that:

1. It's less work for me.
2. I can't be accused of choosing them to suit some political bias.

Please vote on newslinks! Voting now available on home page. Tomorrow will be the first set of newslinks going out that is entirely chosen by user voting.

Dear leoj707,

Talking about National Association of Realtors politics is completely reasonable in a real estate forum. The other 99% of politics deserve their own special, separate place. Something like the following:

http://patrick.net/real-estate

No political stuff here.

http://patrick.net/politics

No real-estate here.

This way you can read both if you choose to, but if one doesn't interest you, it isn't shoved in your face.

You could even have the following:

http://patrick.net/real-estate-and-politics

Technically this is very easy to acheive. Mentally you have to be able to stop preaching at people who don't want your sermon.

Biff

To clarify, I am only interested in the real estate news links. I would guess that some other readers are interested in only specific subjects. I rarely read user content.

Is there a place where I can see real estate news links without other links?

Biff

P.S. - I am just about done with this subject.

marcus says

f, I hope english isn't your first language, because your writing looks like that of about a sixth grader. I know I know, I don't write all that much above that level.

I udder woids Shuddup!

marcus says

My guess is that this whole internet thing is a little new for you and you haven't totally figured out how this site works.

Dear Marcus,

This whole internet thing is very new to me.

Biff

Just treat other people the way you would want to be treated.

As a cage fighter, I totally agree.

Biff

Biff Baxter says

Is there a place where I can see real estate news links without other links?

Yes. It's the heart of the site. If you pay attention to the source of daily links, you can easily avoid ones that take you to a Patrick forum. It's right there next to the title in parentheses.

If it says (Patrick.net) it's taking you to the forum. But if it says something like NYTImes, or economist.com, etc., then it's an article.

When you hit the big Patrick.net above, it takes you to the main page where the links are, ie, http://realestate.patrick.net/

marcus says

Biff, I hope english isn't your first language, because your writing looks like that of about a sixth grader.

Dear Marcus,

Please forgive my juvenile writing abilities. You are correct. English is not my first language. It is my sixth. You see how things can get muddled.

Biff

Biff Baxter says

Something like the following:

http://patrick.net/real-estate

No political stuff here.

http://patrick.net/politics

No real-estate here.

This is exactly the way it is currently setup.

leoj707 says

This is exactly the way it is currently setup.

My question is "Is there a place where I can see real estate news links without other links?"

I see real estate links with links for other subjects. If there is a place for just real estate news links, please post it.

Biff

marcus says

f Baxter says

Is there a place where I can see real estate news links without other links?

Yes. It's the heart of the site. If you pay attention to the source of daily links, you can easily avoid ones that take you to a Patrick forum. It's right there next to the title in parentheses.

If it says (Patrick.net) it's taking you to the forum. But if it says something like NYTImes, or economist.com, etc., then it's an article.

When you hit the big Patrick.net above, it takes you to the main page where the links are, ie, http://realestate.patrick.net/

Again, I am not interested in user posts. I can easily ignore user posts for real estate in the real estate section if they are separated (e.g. below) from Patrick's news links.

Does this exist?

Biff

ITs the right half of the main page !

http://realestate.patrick.net/

I can see how a new user might find it a little confusing, but I like what Patrick is doing. You have to be patient with the evolution of the site, and with your own learning curve with it. He is mixing some forum links in with the news links and his voting scheme to bring popular links to the top.

You just need to pay attention to the source if you want to avoid political discussion.

One last time. We may be getting close.

The right half of the main page has news links for more than one subject. It includes real estate, politics, etc.

What I am looking for is exactly that but with only real estate news links. Bonus points for putting this on a real estate page.

I am done.

Biff

Well, what you're asking for goes against what Patrick is experimenting with.

Is it too much trouble for you to read the title of the 10 most popular links on the right (some of which are sure to be about Real Estate) ? And to note the source. I guess if the source is patrick forum, he could say which forum (maybe not worth the trouble or TMI).

I say let Patrick grow his site. Changing it, and making it richer, might turn some off, but he's trying to grow it, which is a trial and error process, with the community of people that follow it giving him feedback.

Even though I'm an old timer who's set in his ways, I can handle change and I think there would be nothing cooler than if this thing keeps on growing and evolving. It seems like Patrick has sense about not constantly changing it.

Thanks Marcus! I am just trying to figure out what provides the most value without taking all my time. It would also be nice to eventually make a profit too.

So we'll see how the voting thing works out. I know that the links won't all be about real estate, and some might be animations of cats batting something back and forth, but that's not so awful.