I would be more than happy with media, entertainment and otter.
Just ban politics discussion, other forums do it. Now we see why.

*edit* and religious discussion.

Joel, I’m sorry but that’s a very privileged comment. Some people can’t afford to just put reality on hold to discuss entertainment when their very existence and way of life are being threatened by the politics of the day. My media consumption has gone down to a pittance compared to what it used to be, so I have nothing to say about Jurassic World or the latest Criterion releases. I do want to discuss what’s happening in the world with intelligent people, which can happen in the politics forum when it isn’t being sidetracked and derailed by trolls and bigots.

On top of it, a lot of movies now have a political component that’s part of the discussion, whether we want it or not. See Black Panther, Ghostbusters, The Last Jedi, etc.

Then you're free to discuss the messages of those films in their respective threads. As I have said, we are sorting out the P&R forum situation. You have my word on that.

Two "memes" come to mind: "And this is why we cannot have nice things" and (less seriously) "Smoke 'em if you got 'em."

It is sad for us longtime members who have enjoyed the various forums and have made friend's/acquaintances to watch the atmosphere devolve. Years ago, a well-known member (a sexual minority member from the "left side" of the aisle with whom I have had many a pleasant PM conversation) said that he rarely entered the politics thread any more...and that was during what I'd call a very congenial era of the forum, relatively speaking. Now I understand why he felt the way he did.

I also understand the frustrations of Joel, the mods, and everyone else charged with herding us cats. If we could just discuss openly, honestly, and with respect for others to have opinions, we could keep our nice place that we've enjoyed. We could have the opportunity to meet people of all persuasions and to have constructive dialogues. That's ostensibly what all should want...not "It's my way or the highway" ultimatums.

Right?

At the end of the day, the owners have the right to make the rules and conduct the site as they think best. Whether that means members exercising self-discipline and respecting the rights of others, posting limits being imposed per forum, or more drastic measures, one cannot credibly feign surprise that administrators would grow weary of the constant griping/bickering/complaining. Those who have been in a parental supervisory role know exactly how they feel.

Meanwhile, I'll put in a plug for Norm's "Post a Song You Like or Love" thread in the Music Subforum of Entertainment. It's groovy!

In terms of forum activity, I imagine Politics is pretty high on the list here. If they were to nuke it (<-- still a joke) I think that'd kill the page views, and ad views, and... Well... $. Interested to see how it's all sorted out.

It seems since disc talk is pretty dead Politics has taken over since it's the type of thing the masses are brainwashed for.

If you stick to verifiable facts and logic, an opposing view would require refuting facts and logic.

In other words, to paraphrase one of our most frequent posters, "Reals, not feels."

Well they locked the thread about changes, because they don’t want discussion of changes to occur.

Reminds me of how they created a separate “political movie talk” because they didn’t want too much debate about political films. Every time I created a thread to say “ fold it back into movie talk, no one goes to the new forum” they would close after a day.

They just don’t want contentious talk here. Even when it’s about film.

So stupid.

There's a six letter word that starts with an "N" and is used as a slur against black people.

Why is that word banned here?

Is it because the word is aesthetically unpleasing? The admins don't like the look of two "g"s side by side, don't like the way the syllables sound when said out loud?

Or is it something to do with the meaning of the word?

I would assume the latter.

I would assume the admins recognize that it's a word used to demean an entire group of people based on the color of their skin. That it's a word charged with hate, that carries with it a history of murder, rape, slavery, and a thousand other indignities both large and small.

It is, in short, a distillation of white supremacy down to a single word.

Now, if my assumption is correct and that's the reason the word is not allowed here, should this site allow the ideas behind that word while continuing to ban the word?

???

It was closed with a link to this thread and a note to continue discussion here. How many concurrently ongoing threads about moderation in Politics/Religion do there need to be? How is saying "discuss this here" suppressing discussion?

There is a four letter work that starts with a "C" that is banned here as well but we are told it is a meaningless word.

... and I don't think we need to address how there isn't an equivalency between the two, do we?

This thread seems to be about an entire other topic. Something to do with signature lines.

One of the biggest issues facing this country right now is the idea that as long as the Alt-Right/Neo-Nazis are "civil" on how they present their views and beliefs they must be tolerated. Essentially playing the victim whenever people call out their views as hateful and unwelcome. Even going so far as to claim they are being personally attacked instead of being called out on their hate.

One only need to look at the Racism thread here and how the dog whistling was already starting to be called out by the end of the second page and it only got worse as the racism directed towards Obama reached it's peak and the Trump lead escalation of all forms of bigotry took over.

The furor over Bee's comments was never anything but a major scale whaboutism by those trying to minimize the amount of racism coming from the right.

I took a look at the second page and didn't see anything. Could you point out what you're talking about?

I have an advanced degree as a reading specialist, and I still can't make heads or tails out of what you're trying to say.

Could you please reword or clarify for those of us who are a little slow on the uptake? Thanks.

It wasn't the end of the second page. It was literally the second post when Ky-Fi started in on his whole "OH, SO I GUESS WHITE PEOPLE SHOULD JUST SHUT UP AND DIE" routine. By the end of the second page, he had moved on to talking about how black people can't keep their families together.

It started with that and but got worse on the second page as people responded to Tracer Bullet. The typical how dare you look to shut down our free (racist) speach and All Lives Matter BS.

I didn't even know there was a Racism thread.

Must have been kept on the down low.

So this is the kind of thing that people complain about when it comes to creekdipper. Because he's posted in that thread many, many times. So either he's lying, or he's playing some weird "It's not a racism thread, it's a race discussion thread!" nonsense. Either way, it's not constructive, it's not good faith discussion, and it contributes absolutely nothing worthwhile to the forum.

I would be pretty unhappy if the politics forum was gone. It was bad enough when they got rid of Adult Talk...

Well, they finally banned creekdipper. It’s a start. I hope the mods and admins look at other troublesome political forum posters as well.

Thank you mods for removing easily the most toxic poster on the entire site.