Designated Political Arena constructive criticism & suggestions for improvements thread

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Spark Spark in another forum I have used, it was not done by buying membership. There where questionable and nsfw areas though. A member had to request access to that area. All requests where approved, but once in, you couldn’t complain. All gloves where off. Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t have rules, but I am saying maybe political area could be done via requesting access? I realize you are busy and this may not work but it’ll take the “my feelings are hurt” out. Can’t complain about naked women if you voluntarily walked into the strip club.... so to speak.

if this has already been covered, please excuse. I didn’t feel like wading through 7 pages.
 
This place is fairly small and certainly niche so unless your hosting company has sent warning I don't think de-platforming is much of a concern. If the changes are to better the politics section it could probably use more mods at least temporarily once the national transition has happened and things become more normal some could step away. In general this site is moderated well enough some places I visit are more transparent and some much more opaque (looking at you MR) so perhaps more threads like this would be beneficial so decisions could be explained. Having gotten my pee pee slapped I know reasons are communicated to the individual but if there is a trend perhaps there could be thread about it, so we don't give voice to our tempers or bad judgements.

In the end Politics/W&C serve their purpose and probably should not be drastically changed.
 
rje58 said:
While we're cleaning things up:

Let's all agree to leave out words like right-wing extremist, lefty/leftist, sucking off his gun barrel, commie, Trump c-cksucker, fascist, capitalist pig, socialist, bitter clinger, gun-grabber, NRA goon and a number of even more perjorative terms by which some posters refer to other posters in the PA on the regular. On the other hand, if personal attacks are intended to be one of the regular features of PA, then please ignore this suggestion: it's all going just fine over there.
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I agree.

We may as well put together a list of proscribed words, like Democrat, Republican, he/she (and all other gender connotations), terrorist, gun, knife, rope, socialist, fascist....and so on. Perhaps, the English language will evolve to include more appropriate words with which to convey our thoughts, or we can adopt what ever new language emerges.

But seriously, I feel like I am treading a mine field at every attempt to communicate, so we may as well assemble and maintain a list of trigger words that we can apply to PA and the rest of the forums. Unfortunately, I suspect that it would grow exponentially over time.

n2s
 
lieferung said:
The idea is, W&C is supposed to be the cesspool, not the PA.
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I have been active there since the beginning and have read or participated in just about every thread, and I don’t know what you are calling a cesspool.

PA has been a very respectful forums. There has been disagreement as should be expected when engaging in policy discussions, but it has never degraded to the level of the language commonly used by our politicians or mainstream media, unless they were being directly quoted. Our Mods have been doing an excellent job and our members have been cooperating.

n2s
 
not2sharp said:
I have been active there since the beginning and have read or participated in just about every thread, and I don’t know what you are calling a cesspool.

PA has been a very respectful forums. There has been disagreement as should be expected when engaging in policy discussions, but it has never degraded to the level of the language commonly used by our politicians or mainstream media, unless they were being directly quoted. Our Mods have been doing an excellent job and our members have been cooperating.

n2s
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You mean since a return to civility was implemented yesterday afternoon, because before that none of what you say is true, or why the need for a forceful declaration of change in direction?

It looks to me like the new direction is working well, the mods are enforcing Sparks rules, and those unwilling to conform are being dealt with.

So far, it looks to me like the new direction of the PA subforum should go a long way to keep the lights on for bladeforums, which is my main concern, not that anyone should care what I think. But still, thank you to Spark and the mods for the change.
 
not2sharp said:
PA has been a very respectful forums. There has been disagreement as should be expected when engaging in policy discussions, but it has never degraded to the level of the language commonly used by our politicians or mainstream media, unless they were being directly quoted. Our Mods have been doing an excellent job and our members have been cooperating.
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Come on, man! A very respectful forum? Two days ago I had to ask a mod why he was calling the VP elect “camel-la”?
 
I was not advocating for a list of trigger words, I just happened to notice that the "trigger list" that was provided went all in one direction, and thought that if such was going to be condoned, it might as well be balanced - since that was the supposed goal of the protesters.

not2sharp said:
I agree.

We may as well put together a list of proscribed words, like Democrat, Republican, he/she (and all other gender connotations), terrorist, gun, knife, rope, socialist, fascist....and so on. Perhaps, the English language will evolve to include more appropriate words with which to convey our thoughts, or we can adopt what ever new language emerges.

But seriously, I feel like I am treading a mine field at every attempt to communicate, so we may as well assemble and maintain a list of trigger words that we can apply to PA and the rest of the forums. Unfortunately, I suspect that it would grow exponentially over time.

n2s
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Unless you can point to a post where someone told Biden supporters that they needed to get his or Harris' (genitals) out of their mouths, then your example appears to be a fairly mild term by comparison.

It's a slippery slope when one side claims to have a monopoly on tolerance and their actions work in a completely opposite manner. I'm glad that everyone on all sides will be required to show civility, and we also need to remember that there are more than two sides - we live in a widely diverse country and world.

GeofS said:
Come on, man! A very respectful forum? Two days ago I had to ask a mod why he was calling the VP elect “camel-la”?
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not2sharp said:
I have been active there since the beginning and have read or participated in just about every thread, and I don’t know what you are calling a cesspool.

PA has been a very respectful forums. There has been disagreement as should be expected when engaging in policy discussions, but it has never degraded to the level of the language commonly used by our politicians or mainstream media, unless they were being directly quoted. Our Mods have been doing an excellent job and our members have been cooperating.

n2s
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This thread wouldn't exist if the PA was a "respectful forum" o_O:D
 
Does that mean you're okay with it if you go into PA and somebody tells you to get the Vice-President's snatch out of your mouth?

I don't think either one is acceptable - and that's my point. There are those who only object to insults and low blows from one side or the other! That kind of behavior should be unacceptable here on BF regardless of what side you're on!

I'm not a Trump supporter, nor a Biden supporter. When you don't have those ultra-partisan blinders on, it's amazing how you can see the (unfortunately little) good and the (incredible amount of corruption and hypocrisy) bad on both sides of the aisle!

GeofS said:
Mild? My example appears to be some racist bullshit.
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GeofS said:
Mild? My example appears to be some racist bullshit.
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And he's using one example when the ratio of insults from one side to the other is 1000:1, and the mods were in on it. I'd disregard his continued persistence in bring up the issue as it is clearly not accurately representing the situation.

Plus, things have changed. That is no longer allowed and the mods are enforcing it. Time for us to all move on.
 
GeofS said:
Come on, man! A very respectful forum? Two days ago I had to ask a mod why he was calling the VP elect “camel-la”?
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When you tell a story, tell the whole story, please. Your complaint was considered and respnded to, at some length, by a Mod, me. No doubt it was also seen and my response considered by supers.
Camel-a is not, in my judgement, racist unless Kamala is Arabic. Is it disrespectful? certainly. If you think political discussion should be respectful then you would have to scrub 90% of political comments about Trump, Bush, Trudeau, and 90% of what Swift, Voltaire, paine et al wrote. Frankly, I think it should be an offence to make respectful comments about Trudeau ;)

Not every complaint a member has is legit and not everything done or not done by the Mods is biased.

The issue, as always, is to know where to draw the line between legitimate comment and sarcasm vs abusive witless comments. We have gone to great lengths to try to do that fairly and explain the criteria, especially during this "reset" As an example, look at my long explanation and ilustration in the meme thread.

Just as there is a difference between legitimate and illegitimate commentary on politics there is legitimate and illegitimate commentary on the PA and members. This thread contains both.
 
HJK said:
When you tell a story, tell the whole story, please. Your complaint was considered and respnded to, at some length, by a Mod, me. No doubt it was also seen and my response considered by supers.
Camel-a is not, in my judgement, racist unless Kamala is Arabic. Is it disrespectful? certainly. If you think political discussion should be respectful then you would have to scrub 90% of political comments about Trump, Bush, Trudeau, and 90% of what Swift, Voltaire, paine et al wrote. Frankly, I think it should be an offence to make respectful comments about Trudeau ;)

Not every complaint a member has is legit and not everything done or not done by the Mods is biased.

The issue, as always, is to know where to draw the line between legitimate comment and sarcasm vs abusive witless comments. We have gone to great lengths to try to do that fairly and explain the criteria, especially during this "reset" As an example, look at my long explanation and ilustration in the meme thread.

Just as there is a difference between legitimate and illegitimate commentary on politics there is legitimate and illegitimate commentary on the PA and members. This thread contains both.
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Maybe a mod should...I don't know...lead by example? Maybe?
 
HJK said:
When you tell a story, tell the whole story, please. Your complaint was considered and respnded to, at some length, by a Mod, me. No doubt it was also seen and my response considered by supers.
Camel-a is not, in my judgement, racist unless Kamala is Arabic. Is it disrespectful? certainly. If you think political discussion should be respectful then you would have to scrub 90% of political comments about Trump, Bush, Trudeau, and 90% of what Swift, Voltaire, paine et al wrote. Frankly, I think it should be an offence to make respectful comments about Trudeau ;)

Not every complaint a member has is legit and not everything done or not done by the Mods is biased.

The issue, as always, is to know where to draw the line between legitimate comment and sarcasm vs abusive witless comments. We have gone to great lengths to try to do that fairly and explain the criteria, especially during this "reset" As an example, look at my long explanation and ilustration in the meme thread.

Just as there is a difference between legitimate and illegitimate commentary on politics there is legitimate and illegitimate commentary on the PA and members. This thread contains both.
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You're attempting to move the goalposts. That comment was in response to a claim that PA was a 'very respectful forum'. In your comment you both confirm that it was disrespectful and certainly seem to put forth the view that it's impossible for PA to be a respectful forum, so you are, in essence, agreeing with GeofS GeofS .
 
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