# Suggestion. I think we should ban political threads.



## Josshy0125 (Sep 22, 2019)

It's causing a lot of tension, pissing me off, as well as others, and there are far too many trolls.

I think we should just get rid of this section. It just causes division and frustration.  Thanks.

(I don't really care about discussing whether or not this is a good or a bad idea i jusy wanted to get my opinion out there.)


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## PanTheFaun (Sep 22, 2019)

I think that people should be able to talk about whatever they want but I do agree that it really does cause division.


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## Josshy0125 (Sep 22, 2019)

PanTheFaun said:


> I think that people should be able to talk about whatever they want but I do agree that it really does cause division.


I agree. And as you could clearly tell, I get pissed. I know that's a personal problem of which I personally need to work on, and that doesn't have to do with anyone else, but myself, it's an issue that I have to deal with, because it's my issue alone, but I feel discussing such heated topics only cause frustration, argument, and divisiveness among those here, when we could all be discussing games, custom firmware, and shite.


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## PanTheFaun (Sep 22, 2019)

Josshy0125 said:


> I agree. And as you could clearly tell, I get pissed. I know that's a personal problem of which I personally need to work on, and that doesn't have to do with anyone else, but myself, it's an issue that I have to deal with, because it's my issue alone, but I feel discussing such heated topics only cause frustration, argument, and divisiveness among those here, when we could all be discussing games, custom firmware, and shite.


Agreed and no need to explain yourself, buddy! No hard feelings? c:


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## godreborn (Sep 22, 2019)

I usually don't open threads that might depress me.  I guess that's easier said than done.  I used to do it all the time when I was drinking.  now, I have a clearer head and just ignore that stuff.  not saying whether there should be political or even religious discussions, but I think a lot of people take these things personally.  I'll just stay in the modding and hacking threads from now on.  and, if you're like me, I'd suggest you do the same


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## morvoran (Sep 22, 2019)

While I feel that people can be too easily butt-hurt when their ideals (or rather the ideals of their leaders) are challenged, I also feel it is necessary to have a subsection for people to keep this political nonsense out of the main site. 
I wonder if you would be more receptive to a political section if the only threads were about how wonderful liberals are, how their policies make rainbows shine and unicorns dance, and how they just make everyone healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Since this isn't a perfect world, as in what you perceive to be perfect, maybe you can just accept that all people don't share your opinions and just ignore that section all together if you can't handle it.  Nobody is forcing you to venture in there to get "upset".

Also, trying to get a certain type of thread shut down all together because you don't agree with it sounds kinda like fascism.


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## KingVamp (Sep 22, 2019)

I'm not for getting rid of the section, but we should probably have more quality control.


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## Paolosworld (Sep 22, 2019)

morvoran said:


> While I feel that people can be too easily butt-hurt when their ideals (or rather the ideals of their leaders) are challenged, I also feel it is necessary to have a subsection for people to keep this political nonsense out of the main site.
> I wonder if you would be more receptive to a political section if the only threads were about how wonderful liberals are, how their policies make rainbows shine and unicorns dance, and how they just make everyone healthy, wealthy, and wise.
> Since this isn't a perfect world, as in what you perceive to be perfect, maybe you can just accept that all people don't share your opinions and just ignore that section all together if you can't handle it.  Nobody is forcing you to venture in there to get "upset".


I don't speak for everyone but the reason I get annoyed at the political section isn't because some people have different opinions, I just get annoyed at how it turns an otherwise helpful and tight-knit community into a fucking battleground. I feel like if I actually announced my politics I would end up being hated on this site (as if there wasn't enough drama already!).

I applaud you for being so transparent in your political beliefs on this site. You got balls, sure. But at the same time I feel like people need to realize that nobody is going to change their minds about anything so the only reason why people use that section (at least in my eyes) is just so that they can try to fight people online and "roast" them, which is such a childish thing to do imo.

Even though people can theoretically argue politics online and still be civil, it almost never turns out that way. Murphy's Law.


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## ArturDat3DS (Sep 22, 2019)

The problem is that it’s not easy to change someone’s opinion. Everyone wants to push through his opinion.


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## Navonod (Sep 22, 2019)

If it pisses you off why are you reading them? I stopped reading political threads and arguing my points. The discussion goes down hill as soon as someone gets butt hurt or they try to put words in your mouth.


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## Chary (Sep 22, 2019)

Banning the section outright would just let it spill back out into General Offtopic and USN, just how it used to be. No thanks. Banning it entirely would forcefully shut down attempts for actual discussion of worldwide important topics. Take a look at any video game board's politics section, or even regular, political-based website comment sections, and you'll see that politics are a cesspool; such is the way of things. 

Apparently, walking away isn't cutting it as things are, for a lot of people. 

After reporting on gaming news for this site for years, I've learned that you always need to report the facts, without bias in the first post. You have to be careful of your tone and to be careful if you're unintentionally trying to push a certain view, and remove language that would indicate such. The political threads here don't ever tend to do that. It's always "TrUmp KILLED 30 puPpIeS WHat a MOnSteR pls DiE if U doNT AGrEe" or "LEFTISTS LITERALLY BURNED MY HOUSE DOWN". Stricter rules should be implemented for thread content and titles, to at least bring down the initial tension. 

Will bickering need to be more strictly moderated? Perhaps. But then you can't just remove people's thoughts, even if they're wrong, because they're entitled to their opinion, and removing it because it pisses someone else off is a form of censorship. As it stands, people already report others in binges just because they don't agree with another. It's a careful line to walk. But it's obvious that there's a lot of people who are going crazy due to the section even existing, so some kind of change or improvement should be made.


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## MasterZoilus (Sep 22, 2019)

Yepp it should be banned all together .... these idiots and they're views have a BILLION places to post there worthless rhetoric. We are bombarded every freaking day everywhere by these attention trolling hogs, GBATEMP is not about this and shouldn't be.  Should be void of all this nonsense. we need a place to be free of this ridiculousness! You wanna be a political A*hole troll , do it somewhere else! It be great to come here and not have to worry about all that junk being here too!

This is a privately own site, it can set whatever guidelines it wants.  

My channel doesn't have many subs, only close to 10k, and I filter all comments and don't ALLOW any political discussions/bashing/trolling at all. comments get deleted, you get ONE warning, then you get blocked. And hell, these last 28 days have gained me the most amount of subs of any rolling 28 day period since I started 2 yrs ago. So it hasn't affected a thing.


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## Deleted User (Sep 22, 2019)

better idea is to not have it show up in "recent content" feeds like EOF posts are, because politics are basically EOF

and imo shouldn't be on a gaming site to begin with but that's just me


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## Xzi (Sep 22, 2019)

Chary said:


> Stricter rules should be implemented for thread content and titles, to at least bring down the initial tension.


Couldn't agree more, it should be pretty easy to draw the line at sensationalism and provocation.  I'd also prefer if topics were kept relevant to an entire country's interests, if not the world's.


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## the_randomizer (Sep 22, 2019)

Maybe I'm cynical, but the only thing I've ever seen from political threads is either "if you don't share my values and don't agree with me, you can go to hell". Or my favorite, "if you don't agree with my views on such and such, you're a racist, bigot, homophobic loser, etc etc" just for not agreeing or having different opinions. People can't even express opposing views without the opposite parties throwing a fit. I've never seen a discussion in politics end where people agree and become friends, all they do, IMO, is cause people to get pissed off at each other.


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## godreborn (Sep 22, 2019)

is there a way to prevent these threads from appearing for you?  like a block feature?  I know you can with vb, but I'm not sure about xenforo (only been in the admin section for when I was on another site).  rss feeds should be able to do this by just having it reject anything with certain words in the title.

love the site, but it pains me to see arguments happen, 'cause they never stop until someone finally decides to walk away.  and, that usually doesn't happen for pages, if ever.


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## The Catboy (Sep 22, 2019)

I've just taken to ignoring certain people. It's not a matter of me "disagreeing with them," I am bound to disagree with a lot of different topics. There are just some people who aren't worth my time and I am not going to contribute my time to them for that very reason.
Personally, I just think the section needs better moderation and quality control more than anything else.


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## morvoran (Sep 22, 2019)

It's not even just the politics section.  If somebody wants to express their opinion on a blog post, they get a lot of comments attacking them from people that didn't even give the content a chance to sink in or even read the blog at all before responding (they just jump straight to showing their true hateful selves).  Then they get mad when you delete their hateful comments like you need to accept their hatred of you for sharing your thoughts on a blog.


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## godreborn (Sep 22, 2019)

I think this might be it:






I don't know if that means it includes the sidebar with new posts.

edit: it seems to work.


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## godreborn (Sep 22, 2019)

there's also "people you ignore" if you want to go that route.  iirc, it will just say that you're ignoring the person if you come upon one of their posts.


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## Josshy0125 (Sep 22, 2019)

It's causing a lot of tension, pissing me off, as well as others, and there are far too many trolls.

I think we should just get rid of this section. It just causes division and frustration.  Thanks.

(I don't really care about discussing whether or not this is a good or a bad idea i jusy wanted to get my opinion out there.)


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## VinsCool (Sep 22, 2019)

Personally I just ignore them, occasionally reading threads to my amusement (or my disgust).
Politics are everywhere, we cannot help it.
Having that stuff concentrated in a single section is definitely a good thing.


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## Mythical (Sep 22, 2019)

There's an ignore feature and you can just not click on most politics threads (unless they're oddly named)


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## DuoForce (Sep 22, 2019)

American Politics are a joke.  Republicans and Democrats are all the same. I agree with banning political discussion.  This is a site about hacking video game consoles, not politics


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## CraddaPoosta (Sep 22, 2019)

Censorship is always wrong.

Said by a member in good standing  for almost ten years on this gaming website who has been blessed with a level 3 warning.

Some people become mods to make up for what they will never actually be in real life. I hope the mod to whom I am referring reads this and finds a girlfriend.

You're the equivalent of a cop who gets a badge to add an extra two inches to his lacking manhood. 

You'll recognize this mod by whether or not they strike me for this, but I digress.

Others want to restrict speech that they don't agree with so they can appear to be on "the right side".

Both are pathetic.


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## Issac (Sep 22, 2019)

One argument for the sub forum, as a response to the "this is a gaming forum" argument:

Sure, people have billions of places to vent their views and opinions, but this isn't about venting. It's about the community.
If I want to discuss politics with this community, because of the people I share an interest with, then that's great to be able to do so, right?
Just like discussing movies or music within this community, there's a reason why people want to do it with THIS community and not on some other place: the community.

As long as people are civilized and stop with the ad hominem attacks, it should be all good.


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## DinohScene (Sep 22, 2019)

This has been suggested countless of times, rather have this nonsense into one place that users can ignore if they want to then have it spread its cancer over the entire forum.


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## Iamapirate (Sep 22, 2019)

Don't feel compelled to read or reply to those threads.


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## DarthDub (Sep 22, 2019)

Quality control for sure. What's amusing is that me and several other users have gotten away with shitposting in some of the political threads.


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## Searinox (Sep 22, 2019)

Don't ban political topics and discussion. Ban deliberate propaganda, trolling, and be attentive to persistent unauthentic behaviour.


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## Quantumcat (Sep 22, 2019)

Issac said:


> If I want to discuss politics with this community, because of the people I share an interest with, then that's great to be able to do so, right?


The politics section is hardly a community though. Just people screaming their opinions at each other, thinking if they can make more posts and yell louder they will "win". It's the Jekyll to the rest of the site's Hyde.


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## Quantumcat (Sep 22, 2019)

Searinox said:


> Don't ban political topics and discussion. Ban deliberate propaganda, trolling, and be attentive to persistent unauthentic behaviour.


That means someone has to spend hours a day reading every thread and post that gets made there, and pass careful judgement on them - not really possible.


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## DinohScene (Sep 22, 2019)

DarthDub said:


> Quality control for sure. What's amusing is that me and several other users have gotten away with shitposting in some of the political threads.



Moderating the political section is an incredible task, locking a thread will result in the staff being called nazi's.
Removing posts has the same effect.

But please do report offending posts, some threads have so many quotes and broken up replies that it's easy to miss things.


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## Issac (Sep 22, 2019)

Quantumcat said:


> The politics section is hardly a community though. Just people screaming their opinions at each other, thinking if they can make more posts and yell louder they will "win". It's the Jekyll to the rest of the site's Hyde.


The SITE is a community.


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## Reynardine (Sep 22, 2019)

We've had this discssion here before. Well, I set the politics section to hidden as soon as I knew how to do it. Peace of mind. ;-)

Sometimes when I log out on the front page I'm suprised to see what kind of thread titles I missed.
But I know better than clicking on them.

I'm no better than other people, talking about politics makes me angry and/or depri, so I ignore that stuff.


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## player594 (Sep 22, 2019)

This thread has turned into a political discussion. How ironic.


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## KingVamp (Sep 22, 2019)

Quantumcat said:


> The politics section is hardly a community though. Just people screaming their opinions at each other, thinking if they can make more posts and yell louder they will "win". It's the Jekyll to the rest of the site's Hyde.


Yeah, I wouldn't compare music and movies to politics.


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## FAST6191 (Sep 22, 2019)

DuoForce said:


> This is a site about hacking video game consoles, not politics



I have never got that line of logic or understood why one should preclude the other. Moreover such discussions have been here... I don't know if I can say the start as I have not plumbed the forums that much but for more than a decade and things are doing just fine. If you don't want to engage then surely it is like the football (soccer if you prefer) threads -- I can't stand the game, not playing it, not watching it, not playing computer games of it, not watching computer games of it, not discussing any aspect of the previous... and never have, indeed if there is such a thing as activity induced narcolepsy then I probably have it for football) and have no clue how people do it. To that end I just don't and skip past such things.

But even without that is the stance on hacking game consoles, and all that comes with it, not a political act after a fashion? In doing so you are typically going up against the vest interests of a lot of political actors, and policies that have stood and been enacted from various governments (at this point there is a decent chance the DMCA is older than many of the newer members or at least from a point they are likely to remember, while it has been somewhat defanged it is still present and enjoys a broad measure of cross party support).


Back on topic, so to speak, then a firm -1 from me. I can't say I find ignoring things the best plan in life but the tools are there if you must. If you think someone is posting drivel then engage with them and show them where their logic might have faltered in getting to that point. Sometimes it goes to fundamental differences in approach (in my case I seldom find "but my religious book says" a good reason to do anything, yet others would vehemently disagree so then we are left with having to undo possibly decades of brainwashing and cult mentality, something I and nobody I have ever read of has ever found an easy method for, before we can discuss the actual matter which is somewhat tedious, occasionally you might be able to go a bit abstract -- "these are the rules of the lawmaking process, go from here" but it seldom creates a great resolution where religious dogma is a driving force)


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## morvoran (Sep 22, 2019)

FAST6191 said:


> I can't say I find ignoring things the best plan in life but the tools are there if you must. If you think someone is posting drivel then engage with them and show them where their logic might have faltered in getting to that point.



I agree that if you can't ignore somebody's opinion, share your own.  Don't just go crying and making a thread/post about how they need to be shut down because they're "trolling my emotions!!!", or just outright flaming them as "stupid, hateful, blah, blah, blah" just because you can't handle anybody going against your "morals?".  I know there are some children here, but its a shame when there are grown adults that act so immature that words either hurt their feelings or make their hateful selves come out.  

I enjoy coming to this site for the gaming related topics, but I also enjoy sharing the things I see in the news ( just as anybody else is free to do in any section) and my opinions along with debating those that may not agree with me.  
Just because everybody may not agree with my views, that does not mean I need to be silenced, be called a troll, or be shown outright hate.  I am not bothered by the last two as I don't think of words as an assault, but unfair censorship is just outright not good for anybody.  I appreciate the staff here for staying unbiased by not shutting down anybody based on their beliefs (as well as the one sided demands of certain people such as the OP) and allowing people like me to have a place to share our opinions here.


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## ChiefReginod (Sep 22, 2019)

I like hearing other people's opinions even if they differ from my own. If I disagree with what they're saying I can either challenge them to an Internet fight or ignore it and do something productive with my time instead.

As others have suggested, though, it might be a good idea to remove it from the recent content feed just to keep the focus on gaming-related stuff. If anyone wants to talk politics they can still go to the sub-forum.


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## Mark McDonut (Sep 22, 2019)

This place used to be way less politically rabid when it was still an open piracy forum, ironically.
Biggest threads were the newest GBA antipiracy methods and evading them with patches.
Any time politics worms its way into a non-political website, it becomes total dogshit and I'd be lying if I said I didn't* lurk here a lot less lately with all the politics. Too much effort to hide and ignore stuff when you can just as easily close your browser and play a video game.


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## Josshy0125 (Sep 22, 2019)

It's causing a lot of tension, pissing me off, as well as others, and there are far too many trolls.

I think we should just get rid of this section. It just causes division and frustration.  Thanks.

(I don't really care about discussing whether or not this is a good or a bad idea i jusy wanted to get my opinion out there.)


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## FAST6191 (Sep 22, 2019)

Mark McDonut said:


> This place used to be way less politically rabid when it was still an open piracy forum, ironically.
> Biggest threads were the newest GBA antipiracy methods and evading them with patches.
> Any time politics worms its way into a non-political website, it becomes total dogshit and I'd be lying if I said I didn't* lurk here a lot less lately with all the politics. Too much effort to hide and ignore stuff when you can just as easily close your browser and play a video game.


The open piracy forum part ended with the ROM section, which was 2002. Today you can still find guides on really odd ways to do backups (but ways that work better with downloaded media), means of correcting any protection they have for hardware or emulators, and discussions of pulling apart games to make them work the ways people want them to work (cheats, ROM hacking, and other things devs likely care little to see), nobody cares if you either overtly or by simple deduction aspire to be a pirate*, and if you want to discuss the latest Switch release (checking a random predb then Ni_no_Kuni_Shiroki_Seihai_no_Joo_for_Nintendo_Switch_JPN_NSW-HR and it dropped 20/09/2019 at 13:04:41, or two days ago at time of writing) then you can do that too quite happily and have it be on topic in the games section. Unless you mean when posts detailing Scene releases stopped being a site focus but I would hardly call that shedding open piracy.

*I quite often compare rules to video encoding sites. Now these sites hosted extensive discussions of DVD ripping and circumvention of protections (at this point it was prior to the corrupt sector stuff which DVDs took to in later years) but in many of them if you rocked up asking for what was clearly help converting say a H264 video to XVID (no H264 in the wild at this point -- cameras would be a few years yet before they used it, and if you managed to have such a thing then you would probably be the one asking far more in depth questions) then pirate go home would be response even if you could convincingly write it off as an innocent thing to do and essentially the same method/programs/workflow would apply to your home video camera MPEG2 or whatever.

Similarly we had discussions of political hotbutton issues (I know it is mostly an American thing and nowhere else cares much but here is a fairly extensive abortion discussion from 2008 https://gbatemp.net/threads/abortion.86018/ ), general day to day politics and all that goes with that for as long as I have been here and watching, and as far as I can tell early on as well. Now there might well have been something of a cultural shift (outside games and possibly within too) during that time, which is an endlessly fascinating notion for me, and there has been a growing push for what some dub escapism but that is something of a different topic, or perhaps it isn't and the shifting sands have made hosting political discussion untenable where before they were not. I pondered a bit further in https://gbatemp.net/threads/on-political-discussions-in-gaming-forums.529244/ but I will stick around this thread for the time being.


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## Jiehfeng (Sep 22, 2019)

You know what's like the only thing that's leaking from the Politics Subforum? Literal mention of the Politcs Subforum.


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## VinsCool (Sep 22, 2019)

Jiehfeng said:


> You know what's like the only thing that's leaking from the Politics Subforum? Literal mention of the Politcs Subforum.


Rule #1 of the Politics Subforum: do not talk about the Politics Subforum.


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## KingVamp (Oct 11, 2019)

Just wanted to thank the mods for cracking down on some these threads.


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## Rolf12 (Oct 11, 2019)

KingVamp said:


> Just wanted to thank the mods for cracking down on some these threads.


What has happened??

Skickat från min Mi 9 SE via Tapatalk


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## Jiehfeng (Oct 11, 2019)

Rolf12 said:


> What has happened??
> 
> Skickat från min Mi 9 SE via Tapatalk



https://gbatemp.net/forums/world-news-current-events-politics.290/

One look and you'll notice many threads are locked.


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## Rolf12 (Oct 11, 2019)

Jiehfeng said:


> https://gbatemp.net/forums/world-news-current-events-politics.290/
> 
> One look and you'll notice many threads are locked.


Okay some, but not that many. I see the forums most active propagandists are still at it. Luckily I have ignored the persons so the nonsense doesn't show up.

Skickat från min Mi 9 SE via Tapatalk


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## Jiehfeng (Oct 11, 2019)

Rolf12 said:


> Okay some, but not that many. I see the forums most active propagandists are still at it. Luckily I have ignored the persons so the nonsense doesn't show up.
> 
> Skickat från min Mi 9 SE via Tapatalk



Well any more and it just becomes censorship, if you notice the reasons why most of them were locked is because of "bait". If you want those guys to get banned or something, you will have to wait till they slip and make the wrong move, then the mods have an excuse to stop resisting the ban button.


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## Rolf12 (Oct 11, 2019)

Jiehfeng said:


> Well any more and it just becomes censorship, if you notice the reasons why most of them were locked is because of "bait". If you want those guys to get banned or something, you will have to wait till they slip and make the wrong move, then the mods have an excuse to stop resisting the ban button.


Hehe. That's the way. 

Skickat från min Mi 9 SE via Tapatalk


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## rickwj324 (Oct 11, 2019)

Personally I don't come to a gaming site to discuss politics and would prefer to keep them separate.  I just quit a comic book website for exactly that reason.  I couldn't go to read about my favorite comics without the inevitable political b.s. interrupting things.  I'm not suggesting to ban political discussions, but when/if the day comes where politics interferes too much with this site then I would definitely say goodbye. Its a shame that the two can't stay separated.


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## Viri (Oct 11, 2019)

Eh, if you dislike it, just block the political section of the forum. I don't mind politics on this forum, as long as they *stay *in the political section.


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## AmandaRose (Oct 11, 2019)

KingVamp said:


> Just wanted to thank the mods for cracking down on some these threads.


Yep especially that one thread that the issue is very close to my heart about (yall should know which one I mean if you know me lol) Also was nice to see the site staff take pretty quick action to lock that issue for once. So huge thanks to @WeedZ for doing that. 

That one took all my power not to snap and reply with an angry rant instead I played nice and just hit them with facts that they could not argue with 

Also them going there with that thread was just pure laziness yet at the same time I was surprised it took them so long. Its normally one of the first things people like them normally try to get a rise from.


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## IncredulousP (Oct 11, 2019)

ChiefReginod said:


> As others have suggested, though, it might be a good idea to remove it from the recent content feed just to keep the focus on gaming-related stuff. If anyone wants to talk politics they can still go to the sub-forum.



https://gbatemp.net/threads/exclude...tab-in-front-page-recent-content-feed.546276/


Personally the only problem I see plaguing the politics section is the blatant propaganda and misinformation being posted constantly and protected as "political opinion."


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## FAST6191 (Oct 11, 2019)

AmandaRose said:


> Yep especially that one thread that the issue is very close to my heart about (yall should know which one I mean if you know me lol)



I am guessing that was the " ‘Hundreds’ Of Young People Regret Gender Transition, Seek Reversal" thread. It is beyond my abilities to peek into right now but I did see the story discussed elsewhere... a rather unfortunate set of occurrences. Was it devoid of any kind of nuance or option for discussion?


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## AmandaRose (Oct 11, 2019)

FAST6191 said:


> I am guessing that was the " ‘Hundreds’ Of Young People Regret Gender Transition, Seek Reversal" thread. It is beyond my abilities to peek into right now but I did see the story discussed elsewhere... a rather unfortunate set of occurrences. Was it devoid of any kind of nuance or option for discussion?


It was just another thread that was created to cause trouble and had a lot of hidden meaning in it that would have went unnoticed by 99% of the site members. Also its something that has been posted about before and has always ended up turning nasty.

I'm all for friendly discussion and have nothing against the site having a political section. Where I do have issues is with the political section being used for political propaganda by two site members and them stating on several occasions that they have zero interest in discussing anything with site members that disagree with them. Doesn't that go against the whole principle of the political section being there for friendly discussion?


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## FAST6191 (Oct 11, 2019)

AmandaRose said:


> It was just another thread that was created to cause trouble and had a lot of hidden meaning in it that would have went unnoticed by 99% of the site members. Also its something that has been posted about before and has always ended up turning nasty.
> 
> I'm all for friendly discussion and have nothing against the site having a political section. Where I do have issues is with the political section being used for political propaganda by two site members and them stating on several occasions that they have zero interest in discussing anything with site members that disagree with them. Doesn't that go against the whole principle of the political section being there for friendly discussion?


Always a fun one. Arguably disingenuous threads being something you almost have to suffer if you are going to aim for open discussion (others reading a this point in time a nice starter http://cryptome.org/2012/07/gent-forum-spies.htm ).
Personally I still don't see deletions, (b)locking and whatnot as the way out of it, though occasionally necessary, and outright blocking of any discussion is worse still. The more effort but better results approach of pre-empting, relentlessly seeking justification and extraction of whatever truths underpin things doing far better for me. Certainly harder in the current political climates where irrationality is far more common than it ought to be, said irrationality is glimpsed all over the shop, and partisanship has been elevated to art form (I have always hated modern art), as well as several things seemingly undergoing shifts of great magnitude. In the end he who wrestles with pigs might invariably end up dirty but I have no problem with dirt.


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## Deleted User (Oct 11, 2019)




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## Jiehfeng (Oct 11, 2019)

FAST6191 said:


> Always a fun one. Arguably disingenuous threads being something you almost have to suffer if you are going to aim for open discussion (others reading a this point in time a nice starter http://cryptome.org/2012/07/gent-forum-spies.htm ).
> Personally I still don't see deletions, (b)locking and whatnot as the way out of it, though occasionally necessary, and outright blocking of any discussion is worse still. The more effort but better results approach of pre-empting, relentlessly seeking justification and extraction of whatever truths underpin things doing far better for me. Certainly harder in the current political climates where irrationality is far more common than it ought to be, said irrationality is glimpsed all over the shop, and partisanship has been elevated to art form (I have always hated modern art), as well as several things seemingly undergoing shifts of great magnitude. In the end he who wrestles with pigs might invariably end up dirty but I have no problem with dirt.



Your way with words sometimes is quite confusing to me to get what you say sometimes, a little too complex personally, I feel as though more complex words shouldn't be used consecutively and consistently, it makes understanding a difficult job, at least for me. The right way would be to use uncommon words a bit rarely imo.

That's what I think anyway, I do hope one day I will reach on one side an intellectual point where I can read and understand posts like that at the same time with ease.

Maybe it just has something to do with too many words in one post I'm not yet familiar with haha.


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## AmandaRose (Oct 11, 2019)

FAST6191 said:


> Always a fun one. Arguably disingenuous threads being something you almost have to suffer if you are going to aim for open discussion (others reading a this point in time a nice starter http://cryptome.org/2012/07/gent-forum-spies.htm ).
> Personally I still don't see deletions, (b)locking and whatnot as the way out of it, though occasionally necessary, and outright blocking of any discussion is worse still. The more effort but better results approach of pre-empting, relentlessly seeking justification and extraction of whatever truths underpin things doing far better for me. Certainly harder in the current political climates where irrationality is far more common than it ought to be, said irrationality is glimpsed all over the shop, and partisanship has been elevated to art form (I have always hated modern art), as well as several things seemingly undergoing shifts of great magnitude. In the end he who wrestles with pigs might invariably end up dirty but I have no problem with dirt.


I just found it very interesting that we haven't had a transgender bashing thread in months then just a few hours after I posted in this thread https://gbatemp.net/threads/trump-s...ng-democrats-are-stealing-health-care.549498/ they felt the need to create one. Very interesting timing indeed.

I'm sure the two events are entirely unconected lol and had absolutely fuck all to do with my huge post pointing out everything in great detail their beloved leader has done against the trans community


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## FAST6191 (Oct 11, 2019)

AmandaRose said:


> I just found it very interesting that we haven't had a transgender bashing thread in months then just a few hours after I posted in this thread https://gbatemp.net/threads/trump-s...ng-democrats-are-stealing-health-care.549498/ they felt the need to create one. Very interesting timing indeed.
> 
> I'm sure the two events are entirely unconected lol and had absolutely fuck all to do with my huge post pointing out everything in great detail their beloved leader has done against the trans community


I can't get there. I would far sooner bet on it being a nice story for one of the list of common talking points. Sadly having such a thread made by someone with such a mindset might mean the actual nuance (if such things are being pushed too hard, or without regard for a modifier condition, then that is horrible), hence the justify, preempt and extract approach.



Jiehfeng said:


> Your way with words sometimes is quite confusing to me to get what you say sometimes, a little too complex personally, I feel as though more complex words shouldn't be used consecutively and consistently, it makes understanding a difficult job, at least for me. The right way would be to use uncommon words a bit rarely imo.
> 
> That's what I think anyway, I do hope one day I will reach on one side an intellectual point where I can read and understand posts like that at the same time with ease.
> 
> Maybe it just has something to do with too many words in one post I'm not yet familiar with haha.


Not the first time such a comment has been made, and I do try to curtail certain words and sentence construction styles, however I do also find it all too easy to slip back into it as it is the way my head naturally phrases things and an active step to stop it.


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## Josshy0125 (Sep 22, 2019)

It's causing a lot of tension, pissing me off, as well as others, and there are far too many trolls.

I think we should just get rid of this section. It just causes division and frustration.  Thanks.

(I don't really care about discussing whether or not this is a good or a bad idea i jusy wanted to get my opinion out there.)


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## Chary (Oct 11, 2019)

FAST6191 said:


> Not the first time such a comment has been made, and I do try to curtail certain words and sentence construction styles, however I do also find it all too easy to slip back into it as it is the way my head naturally phrases things and an active step to stop it.


Forget focusing on political threads, all staff onboard for a FAST to English handbook, stat!


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## Engezerstorung (Oct 11, 2019)

The problem with "some thread" (you know which one) arent about discussing opinion, but just splatering bullshit glittered in a rethoric exercice and then just rebuking any argument just for the "kick" of "rubbing dem libtards nose with it".
The problem here is the daily trolling (because even if they actual believe what the views they are backuping it doesnt change the fact that at no point it is looking for a real discussion, its just "be convinced by my superior argumentation or prove to me that you are a dumbshit waste of a subhuman" mentality).
And it just turn the politic section into a toxic wasteland.


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## AmandaRose (Oct 11, 2019)

Chary said:


> Forget focusing on political threads, all staff onboard for a FAST to English handbook, stat!


Fast needs to be banned from using fancy words that nobody else understands. He just ends up making us all feel like dumb fucks 




Engezerstorung said:


> The problem with "some thread" (you know which one) arent about discussing opinion, but just splatering bullshit glittered in a rethoric exercice and then just rebuking any argument just for the "kick" of "rubbing dem libtards nose with it".
> The problem here is the daily trolling (because even if they actual believe what the views they are backuping it doesnt change the fact that at no point it is looking for a real discussion, its just "be convinced by my superior argumentation or prove to me that you are a dumbshit waste of a subhuman" mentality).
> And it just turn the politic section into a toxic wasteland.


Exactly


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## Jiehfeng (Oct 11, 2019)

FAST6191 said:


> Not the first time such a comment has been made, and I do try to curtail certain words and sentence construction styles, however I do also find it all too easy to slip back into it as it is the way my head naturally phrases things and an active step to stop it.



Yeah in that case don't try to do so if it comes naturally, the problem lies with me.


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## FAST6191 (Oct 11, 2019)

Jiehfeng said:


> Yeah in that case don't try to do so if it comes naturally, the problem lies with me.



I will continue to try toning it down -- if I expect others to be able to do something with whatever I write I do have to try to play to that, and continue to recognise that not everybody (especially on this site) has English as a first language, something of a knack for it, decades of playing with it and also a fondness for playing with it. Someone's ideas are more interesting to me* and if I am doing the "I are wordboy" thing then that might get in the way, even if can be more succinct or encompass more nuance*, or on occasion allow me to rip the piss out of someone to their face and have them thank me for it or only realise 10 days later when the time for any acceptable reproach has long since passed.

*quite often we are dealing with concepts otherwise expressed as code or in the case of politics concepts that have anything but a clear division or simple solution.



Engezerstorung said:


> The problem with "some thread" (you know which one) arent about discussing opinion, but just splatering bullshit glittered in a rethoric exercice and then just rebuking any argument just for the "kick" of "rubbing dem libtards nose with it".
> The problem here is the daily trolling (because even if they actual believe what the views they are backuping it doesnt change the fact that at no point it is looking for a real discussion, its just "be convinced by my superior argumentation or prove to me that you are a dumbshit waste of a subhuman" mentality).
> And it just turn the politic section into a toxic wasteland.


That might be the current flavour of what might be dubbed infection (again see http://cryptome.org/2012/07/gent-forum-spies.htm ) but we have also seen the opposite** side of the would be political compass try it on at times, both are about as spineless in the end (their rage quit threads are endlessly amusing here).

The question then becomes is it likely to disrupt the flow of things and if so does something need to be done about it? Second in this have things changed out in the world that might change the necessary approach***?

Completely removing any political discussion does seem to be either admitting defeat or cutting your nose off to spite your face. We have literally had the better part of two decades at this point of it happening just fine. Not to mention it is a rather hard line to draw at times.
Removing discussion of a given stripe is both counterproductive (forbidden information and all that, to say nothing of "sunlight, wonderful disinfectant) and also hard to do as you end up on shifting sands here.
To that end my position still has to be keep it open, if you have the time then show where something might be wrong in something. Whether you change the poster in question's mind is one thing but you provide an alternative for the others reading which might otherwise get swept up in things.

**Chary vs Old in the new staff recruitment discussions a while back was my favourite for that one. And people occasionally accuse me of getting people to spew nonsense while being completely unaware of their debate partner's particular credentials in that one (not that even mattered in that case), though to be fair that is one of my favourite negotiation strategies.

***despite drivel from a few politicos (including big ones) games are pretty much sorted/protected now where "OMG violence and occasionally tits" was a rather different discussion well within memory (it has barely been 10 years since Jack Thompson was disbarred and that did not slow him down too much) and a more hardline counter narrative was needed to oppose such forces. More generally out in the world then certain traditional lines are changing somewhat, possibly too fast for some and into some very odd things but the end result is still change.


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## Jiehfeng (Oct 11, 2019)

FAST6191 said:


> I will continue to try toning it down -- if I expect others to be able to do something with whatever I write I do have to try to play to that, and continue to recognise that not everybody (especially on this site) has English as a first language, something of a knack for it, decades of playing with it and also a fondness for playing with it. Someone's ideas are more interesting to me* and if I am doing the "I are wordboy" thing then that might get in the way, even if can be more succinct or encompass more nuance*, or on occasion allow me to rip the piss out of someone to their face and have them thank me for it or only realise 10 days later when the time for any acceptable reproach has long since passed.
> 
> *quite often we are dealing with concepts otherwise expressed as code or in the case of politics concepts that have anything but a clear division or simple solution.



See that's the thing, I understood your first sentence, but that's almost it. I knew what you were saying in the rest individually, I know the words and what they mean, but I couldn't get a point from all that, except the first sentence where you mention you're gonna try to tone it down. And for that I like the idea of "simplicity is key", if you're going to try to stray from what you feel to be your nature, I think that's more beneficial and less harmful, big words can stay; I could occasionally check your posts and have a Google tab open to improve my vocabulary.


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## the_randomizer (Oct 11, 2019)

godreborn said:


> I think this might be it:
> 
> View attachment 180174
> 
> ...



Way ahead of ya, those kinds of threads get my blood boiling.


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## Kelvinnkat (Dec 18, 2019)

morvoran said:


> While I feel that people can be too easily butt-hurt when their ideals (or rather the ideals of their leaders) are challenged, I also feel it is necessary to have a subsection for people to keep this political nonsense out of the main site.
> I wonder if you would be more receptive to a political section if the only threads were about how wonderful liberals are, how their policies make rainbows shine and unicorns dance, and how they just make everyone healthy, wealthy, and wise.
> Since this isn't a perfect world, as in what you perceive to be perfect, maybe you can just accept that all people don't share your opinions and just ignore that section all together if you can't handle it.  Nobody is forcing you to venture in there to get "upset".
> 
> Also, trying to get a certain type of thread shut down all together because you don't agree with it sounds kinda like fascism.



No, if anything it sounds like the lack free press, not necessarily fascism. Also, though I happen to agree that we should keep our political section (so I can laugh at Gamer-Gaters,) cutting out the political views of those who want to take it from others is not fascist, and it could actually be argued that if Germany had done this, it wouldn't have devolved from the Weimar Republic into the fascist state it became. And it's great that you see liberals for what they are (which is people who want to make the distribution of power and wealth more fair). It's a shame that you had to side with the people who sacrifice everything to help those already too powerful in society at the expense of women and minorities.


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