Should The Political Discussion Board Remain?

[DreadPirateRoberts]

the-pi-guy said:

potato_hamster said:
The participation in this site seems to be on the steady decline, and you want to give people one less reason to come here to discuss things?

That doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

 

Flilix said:
Yes, since there's absolutely no reason to remove it, especially considering the low amount of activity the site already has.

I can assure you that some people have stopped coming here because of the political threads.  

And this is true of any forum that has an off-topic section in general but a political section specifically.  A sports forum with political talk will face the same problems.  The simple reality is, a political section in a gaming (or sports) forum is never going to draw people to the site - because nobody goes looking for a gaming site to talk politics in.  But such a section can, and often does, drive people away.  Frequently because of toxicity either pushing them out, or if they are the toxic ones themselves, through being banned. 

Such sections are a value add for existing members, and it's no surprise that a seeming majority here wish to keep this one.  It's not so easy a call from a moderator/administrator perspective since you guys see far more than most the damage it can cause to the community.