Is Atlas significantly less ideologically diverse than it was 10-15 years ago?

[Former President tack50]

Despite being a super short answer I find myself in agreement here the most with YE (and with PSOL's argument with ties in nicely with his). Polarization has trickled down to the forum and has made every poster here way more partisan. I think people tend to mention Kavanaugh as the turning point, though I suppose it is something that has gradually grown since 2015.

I disagree with Virginia that demographics dictate this, since conservatives on Atlas underperform even what pure demographics would dictate. I even made a thread about it here. It is very easy to see why Atlas shouldn't be majority Republican/conservative based off of demographics, but do Atlas conservatives even reach the estimation of 30% or so? I definitely don't think 1/3 of the forum voted for Trump but I may be wrong.

Remember some demographics would also be the kind that would push Atlas to the right, like being whiter than the young US population or being supermajority male (upwards of 90%!)

I also definitely don't think something like 45% of the US population are far right, borderline neonazi white supremacists. If they are tbh Americans should all be packing their bags and moving somewhere else and I would be insanely pessimistic about the future of a country where nearly half the population is like that (with the outcomes being dictatorship, civil war, or both)

Finally, I will note PSOL has a point too (which ties in very nicely with YE's argument about polarization). If you think about it, Atlas hasn't really become more left wing compared to say, 2012; when there were lots more maroon avatars or their predecessors, with far left rethoric and what not. It's not like Atlas is now less ideologically diverse because we have a ton of rose Twitter socialists, instead Atlas just has a ton of partisan generic Democrats (I often talk about the "red avatar blob" which is true) The modern Atlas poster isn't really more left wing, it is just way more partisanly Democratic and pro-establishment. I can think of very few left wing anti-Democratic (or skeptical of Democrats) posters (PSOL indeed being the highest profile one, a couple of maroon avatars, but that is it).

[Former President tack50]

A while back, I made a post asking if Atlas had less active users than it had in its earlier past. I found out that statistically, the answer was no- there are actually more active users now (although not by much).

I don't mean to get too off-topic, but more than double the active users is considerably more than 'not by much.'

Certainly not nearly as much as other corners of the internet.

For a specialist online message board, the vast majority of which have been in decline, it is pretty impressive growth.

Yeah, for a site that looks straight out of 1999, in a kind of website (forum board) that has been in steep decline for a decade now, the fact that Atlas has managed to not just remain steady, but even to grow and be almost twice as large as it used to be is mighty impressive.

I don't know how she has done it but she has managed to have the site grow and full congrats to Virginia and the mod team on that; as well as to the entire Atlas community for making the site such an attractive place to post in.

[Former President tack50]

Then, for the Trumpers, changing cultural mores. How long would Statesrights, a poster with Confederate stuff in his sig who was openly not cool with blacks or gays, last on the forum now? And yet States was basically an ur-Trumper and I have no doubt he went Trump hard, but despite being one of our top all time posters, he'd not be welcome here now.

The question of course then turns to why is he not welcome now when he was welcomed for a very long time and when a very significant amount of the US (circa 25%?) thinks like him Not like I think he should not have been banned, but still.

(And of course whehter a political forum should allow all kinds of mainstream politics)

[Former President tack50]

I disagree with Virginia that demographics dictate this, since conservatives on Atlas underperform even what pure demographics would dictate. I even made a thread about it here. It is very easy to see why Atlas shouldn't be majority Republican/conservative based off of demographics, but do Atlas conservatives even reach the estimation of 30% or so? I definitely don't think 1/3 of the forum voted for Trump but I may be wrong.

I don't think it fully describes the partisan makeup of the forum, but it makes a large contribution. Also consider that north of 30-40% of this forum (depending on the time and poll you use) is LGBT, which is a heavily Democratic group - male or female.

Has there ever been any insight into why this forum has a significant LGBT presence?

This is purely anecdotal experience but every other political discussion board I've been to has had similar demographics to Atlas. Those being 90%+ male and no less than 35% LGBT (indeed the Spanish politics forum I used to comment on was upwards of 40% LGBT and only had 2 women as regular posters)

Internet spaces in general have always seemed very men dominated to me (but I have a massive bias there for obvious reasons ).

As for LGBT people, the theory is that in general LGBT people tend to be more politically active, and that includes discussing politics more online, though it isn't limited to that.

[Former President tack50]

I don't think it fully describes the partisan makeup of the forum, but it makes a large contribution. Also consider that north of 30-40% of this forum (depending on the time and poll you use) is LGBT, which is a heavily Democratic group - male or female.

Oh it absolutely is a huge contribution; I am not denying that. My question is whether Republicans/Conservatives match at least the demographics they should have on paper.

Indeed for the LGBT example, if that was the only factor, you could expect perhaps something like this

65% of Forum is non-LGBT, splits 48% Conservative
35% of Forum is LGBT, splits 20% Conservative

Result of that would dictate a forum that is roughly 38% Right of centre if I am doing the math correctly. (of course, sexual orientation isn't the only demographic that matters)

Most factors do indeed benefit the left being a majority, the question is how big should it be Back on the thread I linked Torie made this analysis for instance:

Forum factors favoring the Pubs: (1)white and (2)male.

Forum factors favoring the Dems: (1)educated, (2)young, (3)nerdish, (4)foreign, (5)urban, (6)secular, (7)unpartnered/unmarried  and (8)LGBT.

So the score is 8 to 2.

Now, I don't know if nerdish people split left of centre and I always exclude foreign posters from my calculations, but it would still remain at 6-2.