Machina said:
BraLoD said:
People should never be restricted on what they want to talk about here.
Just stop letting it get on the front page, make it game/sales talk only.
Less people will have issues with it if they just don't see it that often.
So yes, but away from the front page. |
Bandorr said:
I'd start by having it not be on the front screen. I don't mean give people the option to filter it out. I mean have it not on the front screen even if they aren't logged in.
If someone visits for the first time and they see some of the tragic, toxic, and disgusting things that come out of the politics section - they would flee the other way.
The other two gaming forums I'm aware of are Resetera, and Neogaf. Avoiding what people think of those sites, their forums, their content and their moderates - both have separated politics far from gaming.
The "gaming forum" is clearly labeled for Resetera. Same for Neogaf. If I want politics I can choose the politics forum. If I don't, I can go to the gaming forum. They are easily separated and require no effort on my part.
Even Amazon (when they had gaming forums) separated politics from gaming. |
Faelco said:
Like others said, separate it from the rest, and keep it out of the front page. It gives a very bad image to newcomers to see sometimes more ridiculous political threads than gaming threads. |
EricHiggin said:
Like a few have already mentioned, if the political forum seems to be that big of an issue, I would for now, stop it from trending on the front page altogether. Hot topics, latest topics, doesn't matter. That way users who want to get into political discussion have to 'go out of their way' to get there specifically, so there aren't exactly a lot of excuses if someone isn't happy with what's being said in that forum, aside from those who are new to that forum. It should at least stop any users from being annoyed or triggered who see it on the front page and don't have the option to remove it from what's trending. If users did have that option, that may be something to look into, but it doesn't solve the question of, are existing and non users being brought in because of it, being turned off because of it, or do most not care because they came here for gaming related information and discussion? This can be a slippery slope however when it comes to all the non gaming related forums if people have issues with them, now or in the future, especially since politics these days seem to be slowly leeching into everything else regardless, even gaming to a degree.
I wouldn't just drop it at this point without trying a few solutions where it still exists, and I wouldn't heavily moderate it beyond what's being done now, because you will end up with the same type of push back social media is getting right now in terms of censorship. That would totally go against politics in general, and political discussion in a political thread, within reason of course. A political forum is all about free speech and if that's not something you can handle, then you should stay out of it. Everything has it's upsides and downsides. Trying to make slight changes so everybody can still enjoy their experience as much as possible makes sense, but creating 'safe spaces' is not a good idea in general. While that may fix the problem here and now, it will almost certainly raise new issues in the future because of it. I wouldn't be surprised to see a rise in politically based topics, as minor as they may be, leeching into the other forums much more often and quickly if there wasn't a specific political forum to post them in, and I would have to assume most would agree that would be worse than what exists now. Stricter moderation could of course fix that, but how many users will be pushed away from the site because of it?
If you will not tolerate being burned, messing with fire in any manner is a bad idea, so you stay away from it. You don't ban fire from existence though, because it certainly has it's uses.
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deskpro2k3 said:
Keep it, but by default don't let it show up on forum hot topics. That way everyone is happy. |
TalonMan said:
I could certainly do this - but I'm just not positive whether that should be the default or not, it's kinda hard to say. If it's removed by default, then lurkers won't see them and they won't have the option to ever see them there... ...and it's always possible that a particularly fiery political discussion, traps a lurker into registering so they can voice an opinion.
Never so easy to settle on "default" options... 
...on topic - I think keeping the Politics section is actually important, because it keeps all of the political discussions into one board (like a garbage collector), rather than having those conversations spill into other forums around the entire website. Of course, moderators would control this by trashing any political conversations that start on other boards - but it then sorta has that feel like Freedom of Speech being taken away (no political board at all, and no conversation about politics being allowed in other gaming boards - strong arm tactics!!!).
Really, a tough call.
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So when CGI approached me about this I was genuinely on the fence and didn't mind what decision people came to. These posts have pushed me off the fence (particularly the bolded stuff); I now quite strongly think the political section should remain on the site, but should by default not show up on the front page unless a user actively chooses for it to do so in their settings.
I note Talon's point about the downside of doing this, and it would also no doubt result in fewer people taking part in political threads, but I think the benefits outweigh the downsides and this is the best compromise option available to us.
Some of the shit that stays in the hot topics for days at a time is really an embarrassment, but I don't want us to limit what topics people can talk about (within reason).
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