Why, because O/T might now be an enjoyable place for those who don't enjoy arguing about politics? There's still a place here at PFF to do that, for anyone so inclined.
Problem these days is even a dinner recipe discussion can turn political on the drop of a hat. No mater what you do anymore somebody is offfeeennndddeeedddd and cant just "walk on by" and ignore the things they don't like.
I for one certainly don't want this Forum to self destruct.
Others however, have set the stage. By giving in to demands for a new forum area, (when there are user tools to set individual viewing preferences within a forum section), I fear that you have given into the vocal minority.
You do you, I have no problem with that.
I do have concerns that you have stepped onto a very slippery slope.
I think this new Politics & Religion section will prove to be a "plus" for everyone's Pennock's Totally O/T user experience.
As far as what "olejoedad" is saying, I disagree with him. I think it is good that people will no longer have to depend anymore on the old Topics Checkbox System or TCS (as forum insiders sometimes say) to remove Topics that are marked Politics from their List of Topics page. Now everyone can just decide whether they want to go to the Politics & Religion section or take a pass on it... [pause while live audience stands and applauds]
... and they can make that decision at any moment, instead of having to "fiddle" with their TCS settings. (That would be awkward.) Because, for many of us, or at least for some of us, there are times when we went Politics & Religion and times when we don't, and when we don't want it, we don't even want to see the names or titles of the Politics & Religion kinds of topics on the List of Topics display.
As far as the "slippery slope" concerns, I am sure that is not going to be a problem.
I predict that there will not ever be a request pressed upon Cliff Pennock or upon the forum at large from any "small minority" or "vocal minority" wanting some other new forum section. This was not a spur of the moment decision, to create this new Politics & Religion or PR subsection (as forum insiders are sure to start knowing it.) The rationale for creating this new PR subsection has been evident within the Totally O/T public message or "post" traffic for many years prior.
Cliff Pennock doesn't have to run a reelection campaign to continue as Forum Moderator, but if he did have to do that, he could point to this new Politics & Religion section or subsection, and the recently inaugurated Black List system that helps deconflict certain forum members by preventing them from posting in each other's threads. He could point to these recent and obviously successful forum software innovations and say "I have delivered for you."
"Prove me wrong."
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 02-23-2022).]
I for one certainly don't want this Forum to self destruct.
Others however, have set the stage. By giving in to demands for a new forum area, (when there are user tools to set individual viewing preferences within a forum section), I fear that you have given into the vocal minority.
You do you, I have no problem with that.
I do have concerns that you have stepped onto a very slippery slope.
I think it will be fine.
One of the cattle forums I am on has a similar option. That website, under the original owner until early 2021, has been around since the days of mailing lists, then changed to a discussion board format around the same time this board began. It has expanded greatly over the years to include a lot of different agriculture topics and other sections to cover non-cattle topics that either didn't exist on their own, weren't allowed or were simply not popular 'back in the day'. That board gets a lot of daily activity. Much like PFF, the website owner was owner/admin/moderator, with one assistant mod called mod2. Owner had 1 hard fast rule-NO POLITICS or RELIGION! Even went so far as to say he didn't care if he was the only member left, he wouldn't allow it and Mod2 operated in that vein. Lots of good experience cattlemen got banned or left the board.
Last year (may have been late 2020, the old owner decided to retire andsole the domain. New owner came on, made a few minor changes, had an admin added but also kept the old Mod2 . The new Admin, after watching all the political flareups in the social section called Coffee Shop, added another section called "Politics/religion/controversy". Unlike the way OT had an opt out for religion and politics, the new section required an 'Opt-in" to even see the section. A single pm to admin and she applied postin privileges.Non member visitors to the website seeking cattle information don't even see the section and neither do members that have no interest in politics etc and therefore decline to opt in. It has been an overwhelming success!! The only person that hates it is the old Mod2.
Here's what it looks like. The upper part of the board ,visible to all, contains the usual 'announcements/new guy intro, and all the cattle related sections:
The lower section, contains what I would describe as the social or off topic/non cattle sections. The section I annotated with the star is where all the politics stay (for the most part)
If I were to visit the site without logging in, that section would be neither visible to me to or to post in.
I think Cliff's new version of (and vision for ) OT will work just as well or better.
Problem these days is even a dinner recipe discussion can turn political on the drop of a hat. No mater what you do anymore somebody is offfeeennndddeeedddd and cant just "walk on by" and ignore the things they don't like.
Originally posted by 2.5: Well, as long as you're sure... I guess that settles it.
The concerns about a "slippery slope" were expressed by forum member "olejoedad", in the 5th Reply message or Post #5, counting the Original Post as Post #0.
I don't think there's been any articulation of the "slippery slope" in this context, or what that might lead to.
Does anyone have specific fears or apprehensions about what could come next, now that the Politics & Religion section has been inaugurated? About what could come next, as a direct or indirect consequence of the Politics & Religion section having been established in this way? I don't see any articulation of that, in this thread. Nor do I see any specificity about the "vocal minority" that is referenced in Post #5.
Is there (for example) a fear or apprehension, or even just a concern, that a vocal minority, charged with new energy and ambition in the wake of this decision to inaugurate a Politics & Religion section, can be expected to press a demand that the language of the forum be changed from English to Swedish?
There's no slope more slippery than the Slippery Slope argument itself.
Is there (for example) a fear or apprehension, or even just a concern, that a vocal minority, charged with new energy and ambition in the wake of this decision to inaugurate a Politics & Religion section, can be expected to press a demand that the language of the forum be changed from English to Swedish?
Is there (for example) a fear or apprehension, or even just a concern, that a vocal minority, charged with new energy and ambition in the wake of this decision to inaugurate a Politics & Religion section, can be expected to press a demand that the language of the forum be changed from English to Swedish?
