Suggestion. I think we should ban political threads.

[Josshy0125]

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.)

 

[PanTheFaun]

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

 

[Josshy0125]

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.

 

[PanTheFaun]

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:

 

[godreborn]

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

 

[morvoran]

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.

 

[KingVamp]

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

 

[Paolosworld]

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.

 

[ArturDat3DS]

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

 

[Navonod]

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.

 

[Chary]

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.

 

[MasterZoilus]

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.

 

[Deleted User]

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

 

[Xzi]

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.

 

[the_randomizer]

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.

 

[godreborn]

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.

 

[The Catboy]

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.

 

[morvoran]

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.

 

[godreborn]

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.

 

[godreborn]

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.