I wasn't aware. Thanks. Honestly I didn't try the filter setting in the forums because I usually browse specific boards when I go through the forums and only browse hot topics from the front page. Does it remember the filter setting you choose for future login sessions?

I maintain that I think for the health of the community it would be better for Politics to at the very least not be displayed in Hot Topics or front page by default, only showing up to members who have joined the forums and specifically opted to have them show up in Hot Topics.

Keep it but just push for stricter moderation to combat obvious exaggerations, trolling, name calling ect. There's a pretty clear difference between an actual discussion and saying everyone is a sjw, feminist, racist, sexist, Nazi that's the downfall of Western society.

I saw no benefit but saw you wanting to decide what other people are allowed or should do.

But where do you draw the line? Some things are actually sexist or racist and deserve to be called out as such. SJW and Nazi are definitely overused, but feminist and nationalist are things that people often openly identify as. I'd say so long as no one is using those terms to dismiss a person entirely by attacking them instead of the argument it's reasonable, but do you really think that if someone wanted to accuse an argument of being sexist or racist, that we could trust every single mod to be a fair arbiter of which times the term sexist or racist is being fairly applied to the argument and when it's being unconstructively applied to the person? Legitimate discussion is possible, but I like the moderators here, and I don't want to have to associate them with the calls they make on the politics board as to what's acceptable and what's not, and I don't want other people to have their feelings about the mods colored by those political calls either. It's easy to respect the mods when they make calls in the gaming and sales forums, but the mods are just human beings. They're going to have political opinions, and those opinions are going to bias their calls in the Politics board, and people are going to be sensitive to that. Stricter moderation would just result in people who disagree on where to draw the line growing resentful of the moderators, and I for one am really grateful for the job our volunteer moderators do and don't want to put them into that position, or see the damage to the community that would cause.

If I'm completely honest, I wish the porn weren't banned and wish it were just quarantined to a particular part of the site that you had to opt into, but I respect the decision to get rid of it. Our community doesn't need porn, and when we want to discuss or share pornographic stuff with other members of the VGChartz community, we've found ways to do so that don't involve the forums. I'd argue the same is true for politics, and losing the Politics board would just result in things like Discord servers for politics that could each have their own rules, which would avoid the issues I've raised.

Still you seem to be defending removing instead of offering what could be done if it happened.

I couldn't care less if the forum didn't have politics and I certainly don't remember entering more than 2 or 3 NFSW, mainly because I use a lot during worktime and it wouldn't be good idea using it there.

It seems to me like a wild conclusion, that people are driven away by the politics forum. I am here for a long time, longer than you actually, and I have seen many members go over time. There seem to be many different reasons, but toxicity between fanbases seems to be a very driving factor to push people away. Xbox-fans by now are pretty much completely bullied away by the two other fanbases. Only few retro-fans or fans of PC-gaming or mobile gaming holding out here. Pretty much everything is seen as a way to boost the own fanbase and constantly are good news for the other side targeted with posts containing 'but's or other stuff detracting from the positive news. Negative news for the other side will be gleefully posted. That I see as the bigger problem. Because many don't care for politics threads, but for gamign threads, but these often aren't enjoyable as everything enjoyable will surely be tainted by the other side.

I don't think I understand what you're saying, sorry. If you think my position is that the politics board should be removed and politics as a whole removed from the site, you are correct. That is what I'm defending. I don't know what you mean by "what could be done if it happened." If what happened? The removal of politics? I just offered Discord servers as an alternative to a politics board. I only mentioned the NSFW stuff because I thought that's what you meant by " I saw no benefit but saw you wanting to decide what other people are allowed or should do. "

Thanks so seems like my impression that you want to remove the topic from the forum was right even if there is zero real benefit from it. It is much more of a need to control what others are allowed or not to do.

I really feel bad for the moderation team here at VGC. These people all volunteer their time to help out a website that's about videogames. That's why we're here. And then the real world and all its BS encroaches on that and everyone feels like they should just be able to say whatever they want without repurcussion, as if saying "no offense, but..." is all that is needed to make their statement protected by some ridiculous "free speech" clause that most people don't seem to understand doesn't apply to private websites.

As I've mentioned before, I don't think it would be useful to remove the Politics section as it does provide people with a place to discuss these issues and it keeps the other forums free of such volatile subjects, but the amount of moderation required to keep the Politics forum civil is a fulltime job in and of itself. It's not even the content of many of the posts, but rather the tone and tenor of many of them that make them the most incendiary.

Anyway, the only point of this post is to express my sympathy for the moderation team and to accept whatever decision they make. This isn't a paid job for any of them and babysitting this website is difficult enough in the Console Wars sense, let alone the real world dumpster fire we're all currently living through.