Philosophy

So please forgive me for the off topic inquiry.

I've noticed that the pinned rules thread for this group was posted by your account, so I've taken that to mean that you're familiar with the way things run on DU. I've know of and respected this site (without having participated) for almost twenty years. This community attracts conscientious and selfless individuals willing to understand and civilly discuss national and global issues. I've even heard that elected members of government sometimes visit DU.

The DU community does a fantastic job of keeping its visitors informed of relevant facts. The "recs" system does a pretty good job of keeping the day's most important headlines easily accessible to even the most casual visitor.

When I am faced with a problem, I define the problem, then (most importantly) look for a solution. Some people are capable of defining problems in simpler terms than others. Having quick concise emotionally charged explanations to current problems tends to get attention in our culture. Or characterizing huge problems in digestible cartoons. Or worse yet, recounting's of negative (if not negative, certainly not constructive) interactions with people of opposed ideology.

More attention should be given to the pursuit of solutions to these problems that drove us to DU. I wish the pages receiving the most views on this site had easy access to serious solutions purposed by members to the problems we face today.

Perhaps pinned threads defining specific problems, that encourage users to come up with thoughtful solutions? If members of government ever do browse DU looking for input or ideas, it should be easy for them to find the best ones.