Request for a "POLITICS" forum

[Jakobud]

Can we please have a politics forum so people can go in there to talk all their politics bs?  The Everything Else forum isn't even worth venturing into anymore unfortunately...

[menace]

here here...i was hoping it would die down after the election, but it seems to be reaching a more fevered pitch. I too vote for either a ban on political discussion altogether or a separate forum--there are enough places on the web to do it, I don't understand why it needs to fill up this forum and on arcade controls website of all things...

[GGKoul]

Well, there was political discussions before and they were in passing.... now, we have some hard core people that just go on the Everything Else too debate politics and post nowhere else.

I'm trying to limit my political discussions, but I think going its to take someone to step in and lock the political threads for them to stop.

[saint]

Political threads have through the end of this weekend to let people get the after-election stuff out of their system.  At that point, I'm going to ask (but not mandate) that everyone quit the political threads.

--- saint

[GGKoul]

Political threads have through the end of this weekend to let people get the after-election stuff out of their system.  At that point, I'm going to ask (but not mandate) that everyone quit the political threads.

--- saint

Sounds fair.

[quarterback]

Political threads have through the end of this weekend to let people get the after-election stuff out of their system.  At that point, I'm going to ask (but not mandate) that everyone quit the political threads.

I clicked on the "Board Discussion" link for the first time today to come and make the exact same request that Jakobud did at the beginning of this thread.  A number of the other forums I frequent have split their "off topic" forums into "politics" and "no politics" for all the same reasons that we're seeing here.

While I can understand the decision to have people simply "quit the political threads", I am not personally optimistic about that.  

First off, it means that somebody has to define what "is" a political thread and what "isn't" a political thread.  Is a Monica Lewinsky joke a 'political thread'?  What about a 'Bush is dumb' joke? What about a "'Did anyone see Fahrenheit 911?" thread?  Where is the line drawn?  I don't think I've ever seen any thread in a forum that even mentions Michael Moore maintain any civility without additional warnings, moderation and/or post deletions.  It doesn't take long for these types of threads to go downhill fast.

Secondly, what about users' signatures?  Are political messages allowed/not-allowed in there?  If messages like "4 more years of Idiocy" are allowed but not allowed to be responded to, I can guarantee that tempers will continue to rise.

Finally, if nobody is going to "mandate" the rules, then I find it hard to believe that a no-political-talk-honor-system is going to work.  I haven't seen it work on any of the other forums I frequent.

For these reasons, I simply want to put in my 2-cents to say that I am all for a "political rhetoric" forum.  It provides a way for people to discuss these things without everybody else being overrun by them and without the need to moderate all the other forums.
my 2-cents

[nighthawk2099]

The small problem I have with that is, this isn't a Political Board, it's a Build Your Own Arcade Control forum.

This is were we should be able to put aside out religous, political and cultural differences and focus our attention on those things which we all have in common and enjoy, that's gaming.  Be it console, arcade, or PC.  There are too many things in this world which tears people apart and drives a wedge between humanity.  We need to turn our selves back to our enjoyment of gaming and stop bickering over things which we can do very little about.  Who knows how many people who would have joined up to learn about this great hobby, were turned off because of the bickering and argueing that has spewed from people's keyboards.  It is one thing to have Howard slam someone for being an Idiot or one of us Flaming a newbee for not doing s search, but it's another for one person on the other side of the world to condem me for doing what I do.  We all have issues.

Me, as an American, I am tired of this "well, real Americans do this" or "Real Americans do that".  We are Americans with different views, that makes us who we are, but we are still Americans.  Let's hope that it doesn't take another September 11 to show us that..........

Sorry about the book..... I'll sit down now.

[quarterback]

The small problem I have with that is, this isn't a Political Board, it's a Build Your Own Arcade Control forum.

But it does have an "Everything Else" forum, therefore people feel free to discuss "Everything Else".

I'm not disagreeing with you.  I'd be happy to see absolutely NO religious to political talk on these boards at all.  But without active moderating, an "off topic" or "anything else" forum quickly slides down hill.  That's why so many boards HAVE OT forums in the first place.  They exist because otherwise people will ramble off-topic in the other forums.  Creating an OT or "everything else" forum is a way to channel those conversations elsewhere.

Maybe the discussions will tone down now that the election has ended and none of this is necessary.  Who knows.

[nighthawk2099]

We can only hope.

[Jakobud]

The small problem I have with that is, this isn't a Political Board, it's a Build Your Own Arcade Control forum.

Maybe the discussions will tone down now that the election has ended and none of this is necessary.  Who knows.

Before the election all the Kerry supporters were just talking smack and trying to prove some point to everyone.  Now they are just crying and complaining about being robbed.  The politic threads have actually INCREASED since the election ended.

[paigeoliver]

They will go away, it was the exact same people who were whining 4 years ago. They moved on to other things.

Don't worry, I predict more whining in 4 years. Matter of fact, I predict a cycle of whining in which we have 3 years and six months mostly whine free, followed by six months of whining, and then the cycle will repeat itself.

[Matt, GoC]

Ya, I'm not into politics and stuff.  This forum is all about our projects, not what some idiot did to some guy and how ticked it made you.