18 minutes ago, Promit said:

Speaking as a member and not a moderator, these are the things I'd like to see:

• All politics threads must have some kind of plausible connection to games or the game industry. Sorry but most of your guys' opinions are terrible and I've grown tired of reading the latest stupidity.
• Minimum reputation to even participate in political threads, and I'm not thinking small here. Perhaps a hundred points. Alternately minimum post counts/account ages? Either way, I believe that new accounts should have no right to participate.
• An understanding that stepping out of line in these threads is grounds for an insta-ban, much more readily than we might normally do so.
• I don't think we've had much of a problem with this yet, but there are certain domains/sites I would blacklist, and YouTube links should be off limits as well. You all know why.
• An outright explicit ban on threads that touch on race, gender, sexuality. Nothing good can come of these discussions.

As a moderator, I'd very much like the ability to force particular members out of political threads permanently. We've seen an influx of people lately who kinda sorta do some game stuff here and there but mostly have an axe to grind on political ideology and just can't help themselves. A couple are already in this thread.

I agree. 

Also, I'd like to add that anything politics related should be hidden from the main topic stream on the front page (at least give me the option to filter it).  If people want to talk shit politics, then they should have to go looking for it explicitly.  It gets very tiresome and annoying (and occasionally rage inducing) whenever I see some idiot ranting about their "free speech" being suppressed because the world at large is telling them it's not OK to be racist/homophobic/misogynistic/transphobic/gay frogs/Alex Jones/etc... on my front page feed.

For the most part, I rarely participate in these types of conversations because I personally believe people don't want to learn or be educated and just want to be right. It's a waste of my time and energy to deal with them or even read their nonsense. And I certainly wouldn't go seeking it out on my own, so having them show up like that provides me with absolutely no value whatsoever.

Political conversation has its place and outright banning it would be a mistake. But, given the current state of things, it's a topic that needs very special handling and a zero tolerance approach. 

I don't think suppressing the rating/voting system is a good idea either. Frankly, some of us just want to tell people they're idiots without getting into a long drawn out argument (an argument that is a waste of time because people will double down on their stupidity more often than not).  I think it's an OK (not perfect) mechanism to show people that their kind of backwards thinking is not wanted or appreciated and they should consider going elsewhere without having to write a thesis.

1 hour ago, Promit said:

All politics threads must have some kind of plausible connection to games or the game industry. Sorry but most of your guys' opinions are terrible and I've grown tired of reading the latest stupidity.

"sorry but most of you guys' opinions are terrible..." relative to your stance? And your stance is the perfect opinion standard bar?

"... and I've grown tired of reading  the latest stupidity"   Again these are peoples opinions, so they are stupid relative to your opinion? Or to a standard stance? Life is a cycle, as some people are maturing out of the stupid stage others are entering into it. You probably once had opinions which were less than perfect before, and now you emerged from it, you saying the platform should be banished?

1 hour ago, Promit said:

Minimum reputation to even participate in political threads, and I'm not thinking small here. Perhaps a hundred points. Alternately minimum post counts/account ages? Either way, I believe that new accounts should have no right to participate.

If the minimum rep is not solely from similar political threads (of which voting would not be allowed in future) it is meaningless and would not be effective in eliminating certain members (whatever their type is). Because reps gained else where (ie technical forums) cannot translate to good behaviour in political threads

1 hour ago, Promit said:

• An understanding that stepping out of line in these threads is grounds for an insta-ban, much more readily than we might normally do so.
• I don't think we've had much of a problem with this yet, but there are certain domains/sites I would blacklist, and YouTube links should be off limits as well. You all know why.

As a moderator, I'd very much like the ability to force particular members out of political threads permanently. We've seen an influx of people lately who kinda sorta do some game stuff here and there but mostly have an axe to grind on political ideology and just can't help themselves. A couple are already in this thread

The rest of these sounds like a dictatorship is about to emerge here....  careful 

As for the main point of this thread raised by @khawk. My personal opinion is: it is the Lounge for heavens sake, and I just see most of it as having a little bit of fun... even for the so-called heated political thread -  I have zero tolerance for personal insults - otherwise lighten up guys

1 hour ago, Promit said:

We've seen an influx of people lately who kinda sorta do some game stuff here and there but mostly have an axe to grind on political ideology and just can't help themselves.

Well before long it will be time for the next election season, and it's important for political operatives to build karma in different communities so they can leverage the prestige to promote democrat candidates. People should be aware of how much is at stake in politics right now. This is no doubt by design. It's not limited to Reddit or 4chan. The whole ihnternet is a political battleground, now. So open yourself up to political arguments and propaganda at your own risk, I say.

6 minutes ago, grumpyOldDude said:

The rest of these sounds like a dictatorship is about to emerge here....  careful 

You're absolutely in a dictatorship. We just happen to be a polite one. Unlike Khawk, I have no belief that political threads are healthy, useful, or positive for this site and I would not blink if we revoked them entirely tomorrow. Given that situation, not only am I not reluctant but I am actively enthusiastic to drastically limit participation in the political stuff.

1 minute ago, Unknown33 said:

Well before long it will be time for the next election season, and it's important for political operatives to build karma in different communities so they can leverage the prestige to promote democrat candidates. People should be aware of how much is at stake in politics right now. This is no doubt by design. It's not limited to Reddit or 4chan. The whole internet is a political battleground, now. So open yourself up to political arguments and propaganda at your own risk, I say.

You are one of the people I was talking about. My proposed rules are intended to keep you out of these threads.

I agree. Politics is simply a topic that emerges wherever people come together. I don't see the solution in banning it from the forums.

However, what I will say is, that it has been way too present at the main page. I do disagree with taking it entirely from the main page as it is content that belongs to these forums as any other.
What I wish, is that political topics are a bit more limited on the front page though. Those threads tend to get more frequent answers than most other threads (especially when it gets a little heated)
If there's 10 answers to that thread, it shouldn't pop up 10 times a day on the front page. Some sort of display restriction would probably prevent the main page from being spammed with those replies.

1 hour ago, Tape_Worm said:

I don't think suppressing the rating/voting system is a good idea either. Frankly, some of us just want to tell people they're idiots without getting into a long drawn out argument (an argument that is a waste of time because people will double down on their stupidity more often than not).  I think it's an OK (not perfect) mechanism to show people that their kind of backwards thinking is not wanted or appreciated and they should consider going elsewhere without having to write a thesis.

From my experience, downvoting is how many backwards thinkers lash out at others.

31 minutes ago, Promit said:

You're absolutely in a dictatorship. We just happen to be a polite one. Unlike Khawk, I have no belief that political threads are healthy, useful, or positive for this site and I would not blink if we revoked them entirely tomorrow. Given that situation, not only am I not reluctant but I am actively enthusiastic to drastically limit participation in the political stuff.

You are one of the people I was talking about. My proposed rules are intended to keep you out of these threads.

So what you're saying is you want to ensure that only highly politicized rhetoric is allowed and to ensure it conforms to a suitable agenda. Makes sense. That way we can adhere to the typical talking points and keep the flame wars going.

37 minutes ago, Unknown33 said:

prestige to promote democrat candidates

This is another example of what I was on about. Trying to paint the world scenario to be "only democrats do this thing". This is not good-faith discussion. You are arguing in bad faith, and actively trying to pretend obvious falsehoods are truths. This is another example of something I feel should be cracked down on much, much harder. This is active propaganda disguised as being neutral.

Edit: And interesting how you ignore direct questions when you claim to be interested in a discussion.

1 hour ago, Lactose said:

This is another example of what I was on about. Trying to paint the world scenario to be "only democrats do this thing". This is not good-faith discussion. You are arguing in bad faith, and actively trying to pretend obvious falsehoods are truths. This is another example of something I feel should be cracked down on much, much harder. This is active propaganda disguised as being neutral.

 

Edit: And interesting how you ignore direct questions when you claim to be interested in a discussion.

I think what's interesting is when a Trump bashing thread lasts for several pages but a similar question about the future of liberalism is closed immediately, followed by serious discussion about only allowing certain people to participate in political discussion.

To me and the many people reading this post, that is very interesting.

Edit: This is how you destroy a forum, by the way. Nobody asked the question, but this is the answer. Maybe this will be the first community to survive becoming a contentious, politically biased platform for ideologues but it probably will not.

You alienate the original core userbase and then get a lot of trolls, then you seem to attract new users in droves, but after the trainwreck of the controversy wears off you just have a dead forum.

5 minutes ago, Unknown33 said:

I think what's interesting is when a Trump bashing thread lasts for several pages but a similar question about the future of liberalism is closed immediately, followed by serious discussion about only allowing certain people to participate in political discussion.

To me and the many people reading this post, that is very interesting.

So, no response to my questions, and your reasoning is because your thread was locked (with reason given by the moderator who locked it). This is you continuing your spree of bad-faith arguing, trying to divert the attention away from your initial post which had dubious content you were called out on. You being unhappy with other stuff is no excuse for your own bad behavior. Do better, or admit you're a troll.

Your own retaliation thread was locked with a reason given by the mods. One poster (acting as a regular member) posted the suggestion about restricting access to certain members you refer to. These are separate things, yet you try to link them. Again, dishonest, bad-faith arguing.

And you claim to speak for the many people reading the post. The only one you can reasonably speak for is yourself. Stop trying to act like you are a representative of the posting community, knowledgable about how many agree or disagree with you apart from what has been stated.