Politics in nonpolitical online forums and communities [View All]

[Onlooker]

I play chess on Yahoo pretty often. There's a lounge area for people to chat. When people talk intelligently, they often talk politics. In the last couple of months, I've noticed a definite trend away from Bush. The proBush sentiment used to dominate most of the discussions, but now the players who had proBush handles are never around, the proBush players rarely speak up, and the people who oppose Bush often dominate the boards.

Today, someone from Florida talked about unemployment, someone from Tennessee about the high price of housing, and others talked about Iraq and the falling stock market. They all had one thing in common: They don't want Bush to get a second term. I'm an optimist who is pessimistic about Kerry's chances, but if the change going on in the chess forum reflects a change going on in society, then something exciting is going on.

Do any of you belong to nonpolitical forums or communities where politics is sometimes discussed? Have you noticed any changes?