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.

Frankly just remove the option to post anything at all. No people will get banned that way and it will make the focus shift towards sales.
Upvoting an article you like should be more then enough

I think we need to keep it....everything this way is so politicized to the point that it bleeds into everything one way or another. At least we'll have an avenue to redirect those kinds of discussions. Unless you're all about banning political talk outright entirely.

I think the boards should say, so long as discussions remain civil - ie, don't smear entire groups of people for being on a certain side of the aisle, liking a certain politician, etc. Criticising the politician him/herself is one thing or criticising/pointing out the flaws of an argument, but I've seen a fair bit of attacks on those who simply support certain politicians or belong to certain political tribes. 

As much as I can find the content tiresome and sometimes even depressing, it's also a nice outlet to get my feelings and opinons out there, of which I really don't feel comfortable doing in life, hardly even amongst my own family and friends. So it is an outlet in a certain way. And I think it's the case for many as well.

I personally try to avoid political discussion, but I don't think getting rid of the forum is a good idea. Some people will want to discuss politics and I'd prefer it not bleed into the other discussion topics.

As some said. Let the Political Discussion Board remain, but bar political discussions from the front page.

The one reason i would keep the political forum is because it keeps those topics there for the most part. I fear that if it is gone other forums are going to be flooded with political topics.

If politics forum is removed, then all non-gaming forums should be also deleted and any non-gaming discussions and posts should be against the rules. Unless its like that (and possibly even then) the politics can´t be eliminated. As others have already said, political stuff will just flood into other forums like general discussion etc.

Its better now when its confined to its own forum and can be easily ignored by those who wish to do so.

Political threads should stay. Sometimes the fights and discomfort are worth it. Free speech. Democracy. Open internet and so forth...

Yes and I believe if Brett the owner of chartz was contacted he would say yes. Forum activity will drop even more then it already has. For whatever reason these threads attract a lot of attention compared to your average gaming threads.

So in the interest of this forums activity absolutely it should stay. And this coming from someone who posts and creates threads for non political sections 99% of the time.