New forum topic: Politics

Given that I don't seem to be able to prevent people from discussing politics on the site (once again proving that prohibition never works! ) - I figured it was time for a different approach.

I have previously restricted discussion on the topic because anything ideological tends to generate very strong feelings which can sometimes lead to conflict within threads, which in turn can lead to personal attacks. I really don't want to have people banned from PropertyChat for getting too heated while discussing politics, so I figured I would just ban the topics instead.

It also takes a LOT of work to keep up with some of these topics and separate the on topic stuff from verboten stuff

Of late, I have tried relaxing this stance somewhat and just restricting threads about Trump - but even that is problematic given that so much of the policy and outcomes are tied to the personality as much as they are tied to the government, so it's kind of impossible to discuss one without the other.

So, as an experiment I have created a new Politics topic.

Rather than it being a free-for-all, I have restricted the ability to post in this topic to paid members only (ie Premium and Business members).

I realise that this will limit the scope of the discussion somewhat and prevent some voices from being heard - but I feel that it is the best way to minimise the amount of work involved in maintaining these discussions. Also, you could just upgrade to Premium membership if you want to take part

EDIT: Rather than it being a free-for-all, I have restricted the ability to post in this topic to members who have already contributed to the forums (ie posted elsewhere) for some time. This means that new members may have to wait a while before being permitted to post in this topic. Premium members automatically gain posting rights.

Anyone deemed to be crossing the line and making things personal, will initially have their ability to post in specific threads revoked, or if continually causing problems - I will revoke their rights to post in the Politics topic completely.

To be clear: yes, you are allowed to discuss Trump in the Politics topic. But please stay on topic (by which I mean don't drag Trump into threads which are not about Trump)!

We'll see how things go and how well behaved everyone is - I may have to make further adjustments to how this works.

 

To be fair though, if it turns out that you're the only one actively posting in there, it's not really going to work

 

That's my plan for PCv2 - any topic can be muted/ignored

 

Which, FWIW, isn't really the intention in this case - it's more intended as a gateway.

After sleeping on it, I think I have a plan which will solve most of the problems while also achieving what I need. Will implement that later today and publish details explaining how it works.

 

Okay - I have changed my approach slightly and edited my first post to reflect those changes.

In summary: there is now an automated process by which members will be granted access to post in the Politics topic.

As of this point in time, a member must have made at least 20 posts in other topics and have been a member for at least 30 days before the system will allow them to post in the Politics forum. These numbers are subject to change.

Premium and Business members get automatic posting rights.

Anyone deemed to be causing problems may have their posting rights revoked, which will effectively ban them from posting in any topic relating to Politics.

Note that I have also set up a similar process for the Economics forum topic (although the numbers are slightly different).

 

This is exactly why I am setting this up. Looking back through the list of people who have been banned - (ignoring the spammers) there are a few people who were just generally abusive and got banned for general posts or were not here to add value and were just trolls, but a significant percentage of banned users were actually because of posts which got too heated in either the Politics forum or the Economics forum.

The thing is that some of these members were contributing well in other parts of the site and actually adding value in the on-topic areas. It was just their fervour on certain topics which caused them to cross the line a few too many times and get them banned.

And yes, they do get warnings - but still manage to get themselves banned because they get so passionate about these topics that they continue to cross the line.

My goal is to encourage people to discuss things, not to stifle discussion. I have no problems banning members who are not here to add value, however it is a shame when some people get banned from the entire site for off topics posts when they could still add value elsewhere on the site.

I tried thread-bans, but all that achieved was to have certain members swap to posting their point of view aggressively in another thread on largely the same topic.

This new mechanism allows me to effectively ban a user from participating in a specific topic without banning them from the site completely.

 

I know I've learnt stuff as a result of the political threads. I haven't changed my fundamental viewpoint, which is influenced by a lifetime, but there are issues where I've shifted in my views as a result of a reasoned and thought out discussion, as distinct from a statement of views only

Sometimes my views have shifted as a result of researching responses to posts. Things which I had taken as a fact turned out to be not so much, and I've found this out only by going to sources.

A small example. I hadn't realised that illegal immigration under Obama had been strongly cut back, and that the net migration of Mexicans had become negative.

 

Just a reminder that discussion of US politics and Trump is currently forbidden on PropertyChat.

See here: