| curl-6 said: Over the past couple of years, a number of users here have expressed to me, both publicly and privately, that they feel that banhammer recently falls far too readily upon expressions of political opinion, namely anything that is not strictly politically correct. While expressions of actual racism, sexism, and the like are clearly against the forum rules and should indeed face moderation, creating an environment where only one side of the political aisle is allowed to speak and exist is not conducive to a sustainable forum environment, especially when activity is already low; more than one long term user has called it quits in recent months because of this. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it should be open season, the existing rules against hateful conduct that have stood for decades should still be adhered to, I am simply passing on a concern here that quite a few members have relayed to me. |
I think moderation in general has been too tight in this forum over the last several years. Not terribly so, but definitely, IMO, too strict.
With regards to political speech in particular, I would say that opinions should be allowed to flow freely in in the political discussion forum. Serious flaming, and mean-spirited trolling should not be tolerated. But, extreme political opinions should be, even if they're pretty offensive. It's really not reasonable to constrain political opinions to only those things that are close to the mainstream in a political discussion forum. There's really no point to even having the forum if you're going to force everybody into some box.
With all of that said, I opted out of the political discussion forum years ago. So, I'm really not sure of the climate or culture in there right now. But, I will say that I don't have any issues with offensive or bothersome political speech here, because I use the very simple option to opt out of seeing it. Everyone should be reminded that this option exists. You don't have to tolerate offensive bullshit. You can turn it off. But, you don't have to turn it off for everybody else.
