Dear Kerill,

Community sites like Rise Up, or the Usenet itself, may suit your
purpose. I can suggest a number of actual lists you should consider too.

On particular lists there is the working-class-studies list out of
Yorktown :

http://lists.ysu.edu/pipermail/working-class-studies/

A spin off list at :

https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/thecommons

And Rise Up itself may provide a large enough collection to meet your
research needs :

https://lists.riseup.net/www/

In addition, I am confident that the Usenet itself has a number of
active forums that meet your specification take a look at the groups :
Seattle.politics and ba.politics as examples. I do not spend a lot of
time on the Usenet these days but it has always been the source of the
greatest diversity.

If you are really brave you might also consider IRC hosts as a research
source, for example those at EFNet : http://www.efnet.org/?module=channels

Also take a look at the "hyperlocal" community project
http://www.backfence.com which is about to open a community site in Palo
Alto. I have spoken with this group and their plans are very much what
you are looking for I think.

With respect,
Steven





Jennifer Stromer-Galley wrote:
>
> I don't know of any such list - unfortunately.
>
> I've often wondered if there's been an increase or a decline in political
> forums online, but haven't had the time to do such a study. But, it's
> clearly
> something needed . . . .
>
> ~Jenny
>
> > Hi there,
> > Does anyone know of a database (population list) from which I could
> > draw a sample of online political forums to analyze? The type forums I
> > am interested in are ones which allow citizens to discuss local or
> > national political issues.
> > If anyone has any ideas please email me at kerilldunne@...
> <mailto:kerilldunne%40yahoo.co.uk>
> > Thanks
> > Kerill
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Communication, SS 340
> University at Albany, SUNY
> 1400 Washington Ave.
> Albany, NY 12222
> 518-442-4873
> jstromer@... <mailto:jstromer%40albany.edu>
> http://www.albany.edu/~jstromer <http://www.albany.edu/%7Ejstromer>
>
>