Politics and stuff

[Bruce Wayne]

As some of the longer term members know, we've had long-running discussions about the merits of political threads on GOT as they tend to result in disagreements and in-fighting amongst Blues.

They, and other similarly 'hot' topics, do tend to be discussed however, so we're going to trial putting them all into the upgraded member lounge, where moderation is more relaxed on account of it being primarily used by members who have shown a willingness to support the site.

Threads that will be put there include topics such as politics, religion, guns and so on. Any existing threads on these topics will be moved over to the upgraded lounge by Sunday evening.

 

[coollino]

I understand banning right wingers from political threads and ISIS members from terrorist threads but everything else seems a bit too much.

 

[magicjuan]

We're not binning it completely, we're moving it to a part of the site that is largely unmoderated

And applying a cash for access policy

 

[coollino]

We're not binning it completely, we're moving it to a part of the site that is largely unmoderated

The smiley face shows your uncomfortable with this too.

 

[orchard]

The smiley face shows your uncomfortable with this too.

I don't think he is

 

[Bruce Wayne]

And applying a cash for access policy

this is an Everton discussion forum, not parliament. Cash for access.

The smiley face shows your uncomfortable with this too.

As has been mentioned previously, of the mod team, I probably look in on these threads the most, and this was my idea to try and help matters. I'm quite comfortable with it, and firmly believe in experimenting to see what works and what doesn't. If this doesn't work then we can reassess. It's quite simple.

 

[Clint Planet]

How will we know it hasn't worked?

 

[Jags..class]

Just having a quick look down the recent/new active (in the last 24 hours) threads in the Ale House, Bruce is basically saying that all of these are now suddenly banned:

Donald Trump POTUS
The Orgreave Enquiry
Basic Income For All
Vietnam '67
BBC News
The "Another Shooting in America" thread

And these are only the threads which are blatantly political/"hot topics" based on their subject matter. As people have mentioned, there are plenty of others with a lot of "political" content.

It's basically going to wipe out half of the interesting discussion in the Ale House so that we are just left with cat GIF threads and Carlos's quick reply box. Easy to moderate, sure, but Jesus...

We can always talk about Eastenders

 

[Bruce Wayne]

How will we know it hasn't worked?

<start conspiracy theory>It'll be purely subjective</end conspiracy theory>

 

[orchard]

What do you mean by 'work' Bruce?
It's obviously not going to 'work' for those interested but unable to afford to pay.

lol this is an Everton discussion forum, not parliament. Cash for access.



As has been mentioned previously, of the mod team, I probably look in on these threads the most, and this was my idea to try and help matters. I'm quite comfortable with it, and firmly believe in experimenting to see what works and what doesn't. If this doesn't work then we can reassess. It's quite simple.

 

[Jags..class]

So if we pay our sub and does this mean we have the freedom of speech or will we get banned from threads if the mods don't agree with our point of view.

 

[Clint Planet]

The "it's quite simple" comment was a tad disingenuous, then.m

 

[Clint Planet]

What do you mean by 'work' Bruce?
It's obviously not going to 'work' for those interested but unable to afford to pay.

Quite.

 

[Clint Planet]

So if we pay our sub and does this mean we have the freedom of speech or will we get banned from threads if the mods don't agree with our point of view.

If I'm paying for my free speech, I expect to be allowed to say much more outrageous things.

 

[orly]

I can't be the only person here who thinks this could all be solved with neg rep being reintroduced

 

[Bruce Wayne]

What do you mean by 'work' Bruce?
It's obviously not going to 'work' for those interested but unable to afford to pay.

We try and act in the interests of the whole community. As I've said before, politics is banned on a great many fora precisely because of the nature of discussions, and we've had that in the rules from the very start of GOT. Since that time it's oscillated between a relaxation of those rules>bust ups>tightening of rules and so on at fairly regular intervals. As we have a part of the site that is designed to have more relaxed moderation and is therefore a bit more 'enter at own risk', it seems a natural place to try putting something that has so vexed us for so long.

These threads never change the world, or by and large even one anothers opinions, so 'working' is probably best defined as having fewer bust ups between members.

So if we pay our sub and does this mean we have the freedom of speech or will we get banned from threads if the mods don't agree with our point of view.

The upgraded lounge is largely moderator free. I can't imagine anyone would be banned from a thread for posting something a mod disagreed with.