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[the village idiot]

Personally I would bin any discussion of politics or religion from ARB talk.

 

Members who post on these threads (even if they are from a tree working background) have absolutely no idea of the damage they do to the sites reputation and its appeal to those who just want the site to stick to its fundamental original purpose, which is to talk about trees.

 

You lot have highjacked it for your own selfish agendas.

 

Shame on you all.

 

 

.

 

Be careful where you go with this David.

 

Having a thread that invites members to discuss religion and politics and then shaming members who discuss religion and politics on it is a bizzare move.

 

These are arguably the most important issues in the world. Just look at what is going on. They are difficult subjects to navigate because they can easily hurt people's feelings but we MUST talk about them in all walks of life.

 

If Steve feels that it is damaging his forum then obviously he must take whatever action he sees fit.

 

I would argue that our queeziness on discussing these topics is landing us in very deep doo doo.

[skyhuck]

Be careful where you go with this David.

 

Having a thread that invites members to discuss religion and politics and then shaming members who discuss religion and politics on it is a bizzare move.

 

These are arguably the most important issues in the world. Just look at what is going on. They are difficult subjects to navigate because they can easily hurt people's feelings but we MUST talk about them in all walks of life.

 

If Steve feels that it is damaging his forum then obviously he must take whatever action he sees fit.

 

I would argue that our queeziness on discussing these topics is landing us in very deep doo doo.

 

Well said!!

[Mick Dempsey]

Heard the same.

 

People come, people go.

[skyhuck]

People come, people go.

 

 

A few of us just hang around, like a bad smell

[Daniël Bos]

Using the forum is like a pub analogy, if you go to the pub and are only allowed to talk about 1 topic and are banned from talking about others you'll quickly get bored regurgitate the same stuff and find another pub!

 

This thread is relevant to lots of people and interesting to see lots of people's views.

 

You can always post on other threads and ignore this one.

But if your local pub, usually filled with tree folk who come to have a chat and a quick half of shandy suddenly has a few very loud chaps at the bar, (very)loudly discussing politics (and emotions run high, coz emotive subjects are raised and many offensive statements are made) you've three options only.

 

Either you leave (or just come much less often), coz it's affecting the atmosphere in y'r cozy local.

 

You engage. (Which perpetuates the issue)

 

You ignore them. (Hard, cozy they're loud and some of the things said are so offensive that it's pretty hard to just let them be)

[felixthelogchopper]

But if your local pub, usually filled with tree folk who come to have a chat and a quick half of shandy suddenly has a few very loud chaps at the bar, (very)loudly discussing politics (and emotions run high, coz emotive subjects are raised and many offensive statements are made) you've three options only.

 

Either you leave (or just come much less often), coz it's affecting the atmosphere in y'r cozy local.

 

You engage. (Which perpetuates the issue)

 

You ignore them. (Hard, cozy they're loud and some of the things said are so offensive that it's pretty hard to just let them be)

 

Don't you see that's the whole point of their offensive comments, to provoke an outraged response and fuel an argument where they can chuck insults and be Billy Big Balls while sheltering behind the anonymity of a keyboard?

[Daniël Bos]

Don't you see that's the whole point of their offensive comments, to provoke an outraged response and fuel an argument where they can chuck insults and be Billy Big Balls while sheltering behind the anonymity of a keyboard?

I fear not.

If only causing offense to provoke was the goal, it would be much simpler to ignore or just boot them out

[eggsarascal]

Using the forum is like a pub analogy, if you go to the pub and are only allowed to talk about 1 topic and are banned from talking about others you'll quickly get bored regurgitate the same stuff and find another pub!

 

This thread is relevant to lots of people and interesting to see lots of people's views.

 

You can always post on other threads and ignore this one.

 

This is what happened on another forum I'm a member of. About 12 months ago there was an outright ban on politics and Religion, long term members with hundreds of years boating experience went on to another forum that was started by one member from the original forum.

 

The original forum with over 25 thousands members is almost dead in the water

As a result. It must be remembered that although Arbtalk as thousands of members only a tiny minority of those actually post on a regular basis. I guess that could be down to the reason that some people don't like the politics and religion posts so they don't post elsewhere on the forum.

 

I don't know if it is possible for Steve to 'hide' The Lounge so that people who don't want to see it in their unread posts list could choose not to.

[the village idiot]

But if your local pub, usually filled with tree folk who come to have a chat and a quick half of shandy suddenly has a few very loud chaps at the bar, (very)loudly discussing politics (and emotions run high, coz emotive subjects are raised and many offensive statements are made) you've three options only.

 

Either you leave (or just come much less often), coz it's affecting the atmosphere in y'r cozy local.

 

You engage. (Which perpetuates the issue)

 

You ignore them. (Hard, cozy they're loud and some of the things said are so offensive that it's pretty hard to just let them be)

 

Arbtalk is much more like a town full off tree folk with lots of pubs. In one of the pubs people are discussing religion and politics.

 

If you are in the mood to discuss chainsaws you can go into the chainsaw pub and give the religion/politics pub a miss.

 

The religion/politics pub is pretty packed suggesting that people are happy to spend time there.

 

If you don't like the atmosphere just drink up and move to another watering hole. There are plenty of excellent pubs in Arbtalk town.

[felixthelogchopper]

I fear not.

If only causing offense to provoke was the goal, it would be much simpler to ignore or just boot them out

 

I suspect you may be over-thinking the matter, Dan. Ignore them, leave them arguing with themself and ban when it gets silly, if not before. Never argue with an idiot because they will just drag you down to their level where they have the greater experience.