Horrible Moderation In Politics Forum

[[Phill]]

Lmfao, half of your country believes in Creationism. How retarded are you guys.

Mind you, saying that, you guys effectively control the rest of the world [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Seether]

Believing in creationism and natural sciences such as physics and the theory of evolution are not mutually exclusive for many of the creationists.

[TomCollins]

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Yeah, this was a pretty typical ban.

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FYP

[4 High]

Iron claims he banned me for posting an Anti-Semitic link, yet he couldnt take 5 seconds to alter my post and pm me hey dont post things like this. I have clearly never shown any Anti-Semitic attitudes, and i was CLEARLY making fun of the Congressman and not agreeing, so why jump the gun so badly? Maybe Iron doesnt need to be removed, but instead paired with another moderator who can teach him how to better moderate? I think he has the right intentions, but goes too far sometimes.

[pvn]

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the trolling firm of canis, cardcounter0 & whiskeytown, LLC

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I LOL'd.

[iron81]

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so why jump the gun so badly?

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Because I don't think you realize how seriously the Admins take racism and anti-semitism. This isn't to say my decision was spurred by the admins though. The last time this issue came up, I came down on the side of allowing the questionable content to remain. Mason stepped in and slapped me down hard. The issues that came up when the Politics forum was shut down have not gone away by a long shot.

Personally, I think it would only take two or three incidents similar to the one I linked to for the Politics forum to be shut down permanently. Mason does not like having to deal with the potential for racism on the board. I can't be monitoring the board all the time and it only takes one aggrieved person like Jman to PM Mason and bring the shitstorm down on us. I try very hard to moderate the board to allow discussions of racism that I think are important and interesting, but I would rather shut that topic down entirely than risk the continued existence of the forum.

The only way I can keep a lid on the problem is to get the cooperation of the users to not post links to racist sites. I need to have users think twice about potentially racist material and the best way I know to accomplish that is to have them thinking they might get banned if it crosses the line.

[Mickey Brausch]

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If you are taking suggestions, I'd nominate MickeyBraush, Borodog, Poofler, and Bobman. I respect their judgement, and the first two have experience moderating forums in the past (not on 2p2).

[/ QUOTE ]Thank you but I'll respectfully decline.

In my turn, I would nominate, if I'd be allowed to, Andy Fox and ShakeZula06 to join the Politics Forum mod squad.

Mickey Brausch

[Zeno]

The moderation in the politics forum is not horrible. Could it be improved? – Yes. - How you ask? I have no solution and even if I did I would not offer it. The politics forum should evolve into non-existence, becoming extinct in other words by its own lack of good judgment, humor, and civility added by the dragging dead weight of the infantile posters and the ribald imbecilities displayed by many of the contributors. Let it die the ignoble death that it so plainly deserves.

-Zeno

[Mickey Brausch]

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The politics forum should evolve into non-existence, becoming extinct in other words by its own lack of good judgment, humor, and civility added by the dragging dead weight of the infantile posters and the ribald imbecilities displayed by many of the contributors. Let it die the ignoble death that it so plainly deserves.

[/ QUOTE ]There are exceptions. Those who put an effort to be civil, to engage in a meaningful, if sometimes lively, discussion with people they disagree with and also to see the humorous side in all this, must be disappointed by your desire/suggestion to kill off Politics.

Mickey Brausch

[StellarWind]

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Personally, I think it would only take two or three incidents similar to the one I linked to for the Politics forum to be shut down permanently. Mason does not like having to deal with the potential for racism on the board. I can't be monitoring the board all the time and it only takes one aggrieved person like Jman to PM Mason and bring the shitstorm down on us. I try very hard to moderate the board to allow discussions of racism that I think are important and interesting, but I would rather shut that topic down entirely than risk the continued existence of the forum.

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You might be right. For all I know politics might get shut down again if people aren't careful.

Would that be such a bad thing? Seriously, what use is a politics forum where the discussion is constantly censored and well-intentioned people are afraid of being banned for expressing their honest beliefs?

By censoring politically incorrect opinions about race you aren't helping eliminate racism. Quite the contrary, in your own small way you are an enabler who helps racism to continue.

People believe a lot of things about race that aren't PC. Maybe they are right and maybe they are wrong but most of them are well-intentioned. They have reasons for believing what they believe and these reasons make sense at least in their own minds.

But most of these people aren't stupid either. They know their ideas aren't PC and they don't usually share them except with like-minded people whom they trust.

The rare person who dares to actually articulate these politically incorrect points of view is not a problem, he's a treasure. The taboo line of reasoning comes out of the closet where everyone can see it and debate it. That's important because sometimes unpopular ideas are valid.

But even when the idea in question is completely incorrect it's still useful to have an open discussion. It's the essential first step in making wrong ideas go away. By honestly discussing ideas (instead of PC preaching) you show respect for the people who believe them. You also address the underlying reasons for the beliefs which you might otherwise not even recognize much less understand.

Free speech is a messy thing. Everyone says they believe in it but few actually do (those secret beliefs again).

Give it a try. I promise you there will be some really ugly moments if you do. But in the long run America will be better off if all the disparate races, religions, ethnic groups, social classes, etc. put their cards on the table and say what they really think to each other. It's much better than the current system of talking amongst ourselves in private and thinking suspicious thoughts about everyone else.