Well, I don't get into political discussion but the existence of the politics board doesn't bother at all because I have it filtered out from my Hot Topics.

How about removing nsfw or sports

If you could leave the political whinging at the door and remain on topic, that would be fantastic.
Left and Right are simply two sides of a coin... Two different perspectives... And both are needed for a functional, stable democracy and a healthy debate.

It's not so much the debates/arguments that are the issue though anyway, it's the degree of toxicity which often spills over into other threads that some are taking issue with.

I am all for leaving it in place... We aren't required to venture into that part of the forum, but I don't mind doing it on the odd occasion... And debate, even if it is slightly heated tends to be healthy in my opinion.

But if it brings in new users, then that's a bonus as well.

I feel like Forums are a last century construct as it is... And it feels like they are in decline across the internet, so any excuse you can use to retain and bring in new users has to be a good thing, right?

I originally voted no, but there have been some great counter points made. Also, it does appear like a bad decision to removing features on the site, when growing an audience is needed.

Don't mind him, he always seems to flip-flop within the next several posts. He's not consistent about his political views so the only thing he is consistent on is the hyperbole he posts and that's the behaviour I've observed ... 

Yesterday he was anti-right wing, today he is anti-left wing but tomorrow he'll be anti-right wing again so I can only imagine his purpose being to caricature american politics ...  

You could rather remove troublesome threads instead of nutering the whole topic, kinda like with users. Honestly threads in 06/07/08 regarding politics were worse

Well if possible, if political discussion still remained in the drop down menu on the home page, so it's still easy enough to get to and visible, but it's latest topics and trending topics remained off of the front page, that would possibly be a good start. There will definitely be some people who won't see a certain political subject in the hot topics anymore, that may have otherwise caused them to join, or could also turn them away, but that's a call the team has to make. The users don't know how many people are being brought in, are turned off, or are complaining because of the political section. It's not like if it backfires and causes less traffic that you can't put it back or try something else either. One way or another someone's going to end up unhappy about whatever is decided.

Personally I'm fine with how it is now, but I know some people can be pretty thin skinned. Therefore a minor compromise to start might be something to try for now, if the problem is that much of a concern.

Would this impact the forum buddy at all? If the front page no longer shows new and trending political topics, will it effect how direct replies and new posts to those threads show up in the forum buddy?

Hide it from the front page is my opinion. Some of the discussions are really bad and generally devolve into "Trump sucks" vs "SJW's suck" or some similar scenario. But there are great opportunities there to talk about elections, let people know about the state of politics in countries they are not so familiar with and other important stuff. If you are going to remove it, at least give people the option to talk about some important political occurrences (like general elections in major countries) in off-topic discussion.

Edit: I now read through the whole thread. Even though I see how removing the board from the front page could result in less people signing up to participate, I think the case of someone casually finding this site and feeling repelled by some of the politics threads is equally likely. Personally, my life on this site has become a lot more pleasant since I decided to hide politics discussion from the main page. I visit the site more often as a result and participate more.

On the first part: even if the politics section doesn't show up at default at the front page and you only can change it if logged in, people - even not logged in - can click through the forum to it. But not having it on the front page is fair for a gaming forum. Heck, I would remove all offtopic discussion at default from the front page - we are a gaming forum, show gaming threads.

On the decond part: I agree. People have political opinions, it's only natural. If there is no dedicated board for this, these discussions will spill into other boards and discussions. Keep the forum, hide it shameful behind the counter, but allow people to voice their political stuff - if they do a few clicks more or change their default settings.

If that is the problem, I see other options. How about mods can ban a topic from the hot topics section? If a discussion had becoming a back and forth it is still interesting for the participants, but not for the rest, so it can actually go from the hot topics although the thread still stays open. Heck, I even would agree that too old topics (a few days) could be automatically removed from the hot topics. If a thread is active for so long, it is mostly for heated discussion, which will be harder and harder for newcomers to get into. Also it would help against necrobumping.