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From a moderation point of view, these topics certainly create a LOT more work - so it is not surprising that many sites choose to forbid them.

The problem is that so many people seem to take the topics personally and cannot simply have a reasoned discussion about the issues without resorting to attacks on either the subject or on the people posting with views which do not agree with theirs.

For example, there is so much hatred out there for Trump, many of the posts made by members resort to personal attacks on him (name calling, etc), which doesn't actually add any value to the discussion. We get it that they don't like him - but continually expressing that hatred is not constructive. At the same time, some people who actually support trump get frustrated with the constant attacks and resort to attacks on the posters in return - which also adds no value and is actually likely to get them in trouble for breaking the rules.

This is why I recently added the politics forum guidelines to try and help members understand what I feel constitutes reasonable posts and why so many posts get edited or removed.

We banned these discussions for many years on Somersoft because it was too hard.

I'm trying to find a balance on PropertyChat - my job here is to facilitate discussion, not suppress it. However, there are some topics which are so emotive that a reasonable discussion simply cannot take place.

We are here to discuss property and investing - I certainly don't want to be banning people for posts they make in threads about politics, especially when those people actually add value when discussing real estate.

I don't want to ban entire topics - I think we can end up missing out on valuable discussion and insights if we go down that path. I'm aiming for a more subtle approach and using the tools we have available in the forum software to help guide the discussions.

I'm not sure we've got the balance right yet and perhaps I'm being too idealistic? Always happy to consider suggestions for how we might improve things.

 

By the way - if anyone is struggling with their will power in staying away from discussions which lead them to post with frustration or anger and are thus likely to get them in trouble - I am happy to restrict your posting rights in those topics so that you cannot post there (but can still post elsewhere on the forum).

Currently I can do this for either Politics or Economics discussion topics. If you request a personal topic ban - it is reversible on request if you change your mind.

 

Given how vigorous the current debate about US politics is here in Australia (on PropertyChat), I can only imagine it is even more divisive in the US - so I'm not surprised they have these bans.

FWIW, I know quite a few other forums which ban these discussions too - it's certainly not uncommon.

 

Yes, this is why both the Politics forum and the Economics forum have restrictions on them for new members - and the same mechanism also allows me to ban people from posting in that topic.

In many cases these people are just trolls - they aren't interested in adding value, they just want to make their point known.

There are a lot of people who resent the increases in property prices - either because they are trying to buy a property themselves, or they are simply ideologically opposed to property investment or personal wealth. These people feed on the negative sentiment published by certain economics commentators (you know, the ones who have predicted the dozen or so recessions we've had in the past 10 years ) - and delight in causing consternation amongst the "earnest property investors".

It's called "throwing grenades" ... you lob what you will know to be a very controversial statement on a forum and then sit back and watch the indignant replies come thick and fast. It's a game to them.

We have one person who has been banned at least 10 times already for this kind of destructive behaviour (and more specifically about personal attacks they resort to when our members challenge their point of view) - has shown zero interest in anything relating to property investing - and loves to start controversial threads in the economics forum.

I don't have a problem with people posting negative or bearish opinions - but only if they are doing so from the the perspective of an investor analysing the markets, managing risk and looking for opportunities - and provided that they have actually put some thought into it and have some reasonable basis for their point of view. Someone who has no intention of ever buying an investment property is not going to add value to a property investment forum!

That's kind of like what I'm trying to do with the Politics forum guidelines - I'd like to weed out the name calling and the emotional posts and encourage people to just post about the issues.

Some people seem to take these topics very personally and have difficulty separating their personal feelings and emotions from a reasoned argument.

 

I think part of the issue there is that some people genuinely don't know anything and will see "asking a question on the forum" as doing their basic research.

I think spending some time reading the forum first would be a better choice - but then, there is so much information there that it can be difficult to locate, especially if you don't already know what you are looking for. I'm aiming to help with that somewhat with the new version of the website.

This thread from the early days of Somersoft is still very relevant here: teach us to fish

In particular the reply from "The Wife" is one of the best ever written on this topic - teach us to fish

FWIW, I do know that some of the service providers who frequent the forum get a LOT of enquiries in private via the forum from people looking for basically free advice.

What they should be doing is either asking a general question on the forum for everyone to learn from for free - or else actually paying for specific personalised advice. You can't have it both ways!

 

Maybe I should add a button to the PM reply page which auto-replies "Thanks for your message, but you would be better off posting a question on the forum for everyone to benefit from"