Posting Political/Religious Threads in the Main Forum

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by patteeu

Why would I want it moved? That's not my thing, it's yours.

As for your little poll, it seems kind of meaningless to me. It's meaningless because several of the "yes" voters made it clear that they only had abusive cases in mind, but more importantly it's meaningless because like so many of your other inane ideas, the mods are going to keep on being reasonable anyway.

It was a fun little thread though. Thanks for posting it.

We should talk to some of your liberal friends - perhaps we can rustle you up a "I participated" trophy.

[jAZ]

Originally Posted by patteeu

You don't even address the biggest issue here. The biggest issue is the gray area between news/current events and politics and the way that line has a tendency to shift depending on who the poster is. As someone pointed out early on, this thread could be considered political, but since Frazod posted it, he's not available to whine about it.

It's not very gray IMO. If it's political or religious, then it stays in the DC, no matter who posts it (a DC regular, a Lounge-only regular, or a total noob).

The LONE exception is a major news event, one that rises above politics, then it stays in the Lounge until it's hijacked (then moved).

That exception is handled by the mods and they usually get it right. That's a gray area I'm comfortable with.

But the question being raised here is people who are deliberately and repeatedly trying to take minor stories with a political or religious angle and turning it into a debate in the Lounge.

That's worthy of punishment.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by jAZ

It's not very gray IMO. If it's political or religious, then it stays in the DC, no matter who posts it (a DC regular, a Lounge-only regular, or a total noob).

The LONE exception is a major news event, one that rises above politics, then it stays in the Lounge until it's hijacked (then moved).

That exception is handled by the mods and they usually get it right. That's a gray area I'm comfortable with.

Whether you realize it or not, that's a huge gray area when you've got people like Frazod around. You may know it when you see it, but different people have different opinions about where the line is drawn.

In any event, it's worth repeating that you are one of the biggest reasons there's a problem with political topics in the Lounge to begin with. You were one of the two or three who couldn't contain yourself enough to avoid spamming the board late in the 2004 election cycle and now we all pay for your sins. You're a little like the drug addict who first argued for the banishment to save the board from yourself and who, after going into recovery, now argues in favor of harsh sentences for other drug users.

Originally Posted by jAZ

But the question being raised here is people who are deliberately and repeatedly trying to take minor stories with a political or religious angle and turning it into a debate in the Lounge.

That's worthy of punishment.

That's actually not the question being raised here. I almost never post a thread in the Lounge. I even more rarely post a thread that has any tangential relationship to politics here. Frazod makes it clear that he considers my recent Cheney prayer thread to be objectionable. By your own standards, a prayer thread belongs in the Lounge where the prayer thread prefix is available and even if DC had prayer prefixes, it's still just a news story as long as it isn't about political positions or a political campaign, IMO. Despite all this, Frazod and a few others didn't "know it when they saw it" the same way you say you would. Furthermore, several of the people who complain about politics in the Lounge actively worked to turn the Cheney prayer thread political, some even went so far as to post irrelevant content about abortion in the effort.

If anyone is worthy of punishment in that scenario (and I'm not advocating punishment here), it's not the guy who just wanted to generate positive thoughts for another human being. It's the people who don't want politics in the Lounge so much that they apparently couldn't resist trying to load the thread down with politics.

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by patteeu

That's actually not the question being raised here. I almost never post a thread in the Lounge. I even more rarely post a thread that has any tangential relationship to politics here. Frazod makes it clear that he considers my recent Cheney prayer thread to be objectionable. By your own standards, a prayer thread belongs in the Lounge where the prayer thread prefix is available and even if DC had prayer prefixes, it's still just a news story as long as it isn't about political positions or a political campaign, IMO. Despite all this, Frazod and a few others didn't "know it when they saw it" the same way you say you would. Furthermore, several of the people who complain about politics in the Lounge actively worked to turn the Cheney prayer thread political, some even went so far as to post irrelevant content about abortion in the effort.

If anyone is worthy of punishment in that scenario (and I'm not advocating punishment here), it's not the guy who just wanted to generate positive thoughts for another human being. It's the people who don't want politics in the Lounge so much that they apparently couldn't resist trying to load the thread down with politics.

In all fairness Pat you knew what you were doing when you started a prayer thread about Cheney in the Lounge. I went and read through the thread and you even admitted in your OP that it would be moved to DC. You can't blame anybody but yourself on this one so don't try to play little mrs. innocent.

[jAZ]

Originally Posted by patteeu

That's actually not the question being raised here. I almost never post a thread in the Lounge. I even more rarely post a thread that has any tangential relationship to politics here. Frazod makes it clear that he considers my recent Cheney prayer thread to be objectionable. By your own standards, a prayer thread belongs in the Lounge where the prayer thread prefix is available and even if DC had prayer prefixes, it's still just a news story as long as it isn't about political positions or a political campaign, IMO. Despite all this, Frazod and a few others didn't "know it when they saw it" the same way you say you would. Furthermore, several of the people who complain about politics in the Lounge actively worked to turn the Cheney prayer thread political, some even went so far as to post irrelevant content about abortion in the effort.

If anyone is worthy of punishment in that scenario (and I'm not advocating punishment here), it's not the guy who just wanted to generate positive thoughts for another human being. It's the people who don't want politics in the Lounge so much that they apparently couldn't resist trying to load the thread down with politics.

Oooh, that's right! I had forgotten about your stunt. Yeah, you were indeed guilty of trying to manipulate the rules and take a minor political news story and turn it into a public fawning over your favorite politician.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Awesome.

[dirk digler]

I say we just delete all the sub forums and let it become a free-for all.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

I say we just delete all the sub forums and let it become a free-for all.

Don't make me come down there.

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by frazod

Don't make me come down there.

It would be awesome. I say we try it for a couple of weeks

[luv]

If we police the political/religious threads in this manner, then we would have to police threads about movies, music, tv, electronics, etc in the same fashion, as we have a separate forum for those as well. And also threads about the draft, gambling, or fantasy sports, as they have their own forum, too. We can't just pick on threads about stuff that we may or may not like.

For this reason, I'm voting no. I think the mods are doing a good job the way they are handling things right now.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by luv

If we police the political/religious threads in this manner, then we would have to police threads about movies, music, tv, electronics, etc in the same fashion, as we have a separate forum for those as well. And also threads about the draft, gambling, or fantasy sports, as they have their own forum, too. We can't just pick on threads about stuff that we may or may not like.

For this reason, I'm voting no. I think the mods are doing a good job the way they are handling things right now.

The mods move those threads, too. Which is fine. It's good those forums exist because it keeps the main forum cleaned up.

It's the nature of political/religious threads that are the problem. For example, nobody is going to post a picture of an aborted fetus in a thread about iPods.

[jAZ]

Originally Posted by luv

If we police the political/religious threads in this manner, then we would have to police threads about movies, music, tv, electronics, etc in the same fashion, as we have a separate forum for those as well. And also threads about the draft, gambling, or fantasy sports, as they have their own forum, too. We can't just pick on threads about stuff that we may or may not like.

For this reason, I'm voting no. I think the mods are doing a good job the way they are handling things right now.

I disagree 100%. Political threads account for nearly 15% of the entire Lounge and they are divisive and a major distraction to the general readers of the Lounge. That's hugely different than the media, pictures, draft and other forums.

[Brock]

Originally Posted by luv

If we police the political/religious threads in this manner, then we would have to police threads about movies, music, tv, electronics, etc in the same fashion, as we have a separate forum for those as well. And also threads about the draft, gambling, or fantasy sports, as they have their own forum, too. We can't just pick on threads about stuff that we may or may not like.

For this reason, I'm voting no. I think the mods are doing a good job the way they are handling things right now.

That's nonsense. Politics and religion spark more arguments and bile than any other subject. Keep it out of here.

[doomy3]

Originally Posted by Brock

That's nonsense. Politics and religion spark more arguments and bile than any other subject. Keep it out of here.

You must have already forgotten about Mark Sanchez.

[Brock]

Originally Posted by doomy3

You must have already forgotten about Mark Sanchez.

well, this is a football forum. Arguing about football is at least part of why this forum is here.