Goodbye Perhaps?

[Nakosis]

Of course, that would remove all of them.

What I fail to understand is why the idea of a person using personal preferences to opt out of the political forums is so much more troublesome than the idea that one can choose not to be a part of the Eros forum.

Maybe if we had the 'opt in' choice for politics? When you sign up, its a private forum you can sign up for?

(And the immature part of me snickers because only a small part of the world is affected by American politics, but everybody is affected by sex! After all, its how we got here.)

I don't want to opt out of all politics. For example I have no problem discussing laws and constitutions and such. However most Trump/Biden stuff is just garbage and as a US citizen, I'd like to apologize to the rest of the world for hanging our smelly underwear in the breeze for everyone to smell.

 

[JustGeorge]

I don't want to opt out of all politics. For example I have no problem discussing laws and constitutions and such. However most Trump/Biden stuff is just garbage and as a US citizen, I'd like to apologize to the rest of the world for hanging our smelly underwear in the breeze for everyone to smell.

That's a fair point.

 

[We Never Know]

Personally, I'd like to see a ban on American politics on this forum. Surely there are better places on reddit to have at it. I come on once every couple of days, and after a quick scan of new posts, think 'same old same old', and log out. If it wasn't for the few people who try hard to start new and interesting threads, I probably would be gone as well. At one time I tried to start a lot of threads, as its something we all need to contribute to for it to work. But each individual only has so many ideas, and personally, with regard to religion, my interests are 90% Hindu, and 10% religion overall, so mostly I'm only relevant to the few Hindus here.

"Personally, I'd like to see a ban on American politics on this forum"

Or at least make them like the covid forum/thread where they don't pop up every where. They are accessed by going to the bottom of the list and clicking on them and not out in the general lists of what's new.

 

[JustGeorge]

"Personally, I'd like to see a ban on American politics on this forum"

Or at least make them like the covid forum/thread where they don't pop up every where. They are accessed by clicking on them.

Also a good idea.

 

[We Never Know]

Also a good idea.

Yep. Everyone got tired of covid dominating every thing so it was basically set off to the side and only accessed if you wanted to go there.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Unless you haven't noticed, the political threads are a dumpster fire pretty consistently. That is the problem.

As I indicated, I enjoy them. Presently, the hive is agitated and swarming, and we can expect that to be the case a few more times in the next year or more. I find them and that endlessly fascinating, so not a problem by my reckoning.

If the problem to which you refer is that it takes too much of your time to moderate, you might need more help, or perhaps modify your protocols. Do you discuss each complaint as a committee? If so, you can save time there. Is it time-intensive notifying posters that they've been moderated? If so, simplify that.

The US tribalism is the problem and is causing people to leave the forum

If that's correct, that is indeed a problem, but for the owners. It makes your job easier.

Why should we spend too much time dealing with a subtopic that generates far too much flaming and poo-flinging when we don't have to

Don't you have any say in how much time you put into moderating? If it's too much, do less.

 

[Stonetree]

It wasn’t enlightening in a good way. I’m actually feeling quite sad at the moment. I don’t feel welcome here, but at least it’s clear to me why. I can move on from that now that I know. Wishing you all the best. Everyone who thanked all the posts with your general message, all the best to you too.

Wait...!.......You don't know me but I am familiar with your posts......I, for one do not want to lose a fellow member like you!

 

[Rival]

As I indicated, I enjoy them. Presently, the hive is agitated and swarming, and we can expect that to be the case a few more times in the next year or more. I find them and that endlessly fascinating, so not a problem by my reckoning.

If the problem to which you refer is that it takes too much of your time to moderate, you might need more help, or perhaps modify your protocols. Do you discuss each complaint as a committee? If so, you can save time there. Is it time-intensive notifying posters that they've been moderated? If so, simplify that.

If that's correct, that is indeed a problem, but for the owners. It makes your job easier.

Don't you have any say in how much time you put into moderating? If it's too much, do less.

What would best help us moderate is if we didn't need to clean endless piles of ****, basically.

 

[JustGeorge]

As I indicated, I enjoy them. Presently, the hive is agitated and swarming, and we can expect that to be the case a few more times in the next year or more. I find them and that endlessly fascinating, so not a problem by my reckoning.

If the problem to which you refer is that it takes too much of your time to moderate, you might need more help, or perhaps modify your protocols. Do you discuss each complaint as a committee? If so, you can save time there. Is it time-intensive notifying posters that they've been moderated? If so, simplify that.

If that's correct, that is indeed a problem, but for the owners. It makes your job easier.

Don't you have any say in how much time you put into moderating? If it's too much, do less.

Actually, each complaint is oversaw by a committee. Three people have to agree on how the complaint is to be handled.

This is to assure no bias and to reduce misunderstanding.

It wouldn't really be right, in my opinion, if any one staff could go about throwing warnings without consensus. This would potentially allow a staff member to snuff out any opinion they didn't agree with. (I do hear of this happening sometimes at other forums.)

 

[Rival]

If that's correct, that is indeed a problem, but for the owners. It makes your job easier.

The people leaving aren't the people causing the problems.

 

[Vinayaka]

"Personally, I'd like to see a ban on American politics on this forum"

Or at least make them like the covid forum/thread where they don't pop up every where. They are accessed by going to the bottom of the list and clicking on them and not out in the general lists of what's new.

That's a good idea. Or you could make it invisible, like a private forum, where one has to join to discuss.

 

[Spice]

Why would you come to 'Religious Forums' for politics?

I'm not being funny but this is kind of the problem here.

It's an option on the menu....

 

[Rival]

It's an option on the menu....

I think some people are confusing RF for Reddit.

 

[Alien826]

See this thread, might help POLL: Trump/Biden/Etc.

I just looked at it briefly (I'll read it all shortly) and voted "No".
https://www.religiousforums.com/threads/poll-trump-biden-etc.278330/

A large majority want these threads hidden or the political fora deleted.

So? Are we to be ruled by a majority voting system? What if all the atheists voted to remove all religious discussion?

Some people on here talk as though it's the only forum on the internet. There are multiple other fora for politics. Why come to a forum dedicated to religious discussion for that?

It will never make sense to me.

But why should I have to go somewhere else when I like RF a lot for many reasons unrelated to what is discussed?

I'm trying to be polite, but this is all suspiciously like the "USA is a Christian country" argument. I know that the title has "religious" in it, but things change. Incidentally, I don't remember anything in the forum rules that states that discussion is limited to religious matters. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm afraid this is starting to sound like an attempt at censorship, which is something I detest. It's not that the RF staff or owners don't have the right to make any rules they want, this is a private entity and not subject to the 1st Amendment, but I'll say right now that if political discussion is banned, I'm gone.

Please don't take this a personal attack, but it has gotten me a bit riled up.

Incidentally, I would definitely support some improvement to the system of selecting threads or whatever. That would be good regardless of this particular reason.

 

[JustGeorge]

I think some people are confusing RF for Reddit.

I don't use Reddit.

How do you feel its being confused for it?

 

[Spice]

It's called Religious Forums, the main element is the Religion.

If people are coming here for politics specifically rather than for the main event there's an issue.

There are many, many fora dedicated to politics for people who want that. This isn't one of them. So it makes little sense to me.

Also, it's 99.9% US politics. I'm British, I'll be honest: I don't give a damn about US politics and I want it to go away. It's so over the top and stupid.

One of the reasons I believe it should remain an option is due to the "religious" views and ideas that hound us in the US. We may have a constitution that explicitly states "separation of church and state" but that's unfortunately just pretty words.

 

[Rival]

I don't use Reddit.

How do you feel its being confused for it?

Reddit allows discussion of literally anything, whereas RF has a focus (religion).

 

[Rival]

So? Are we to be ruled by a majority voting system? What if all the atheists voted to remove all religious discussion?

Where the membership overwhelmingly wants something we must, as good staff, take it into consideration. If people are leaving because the forum is not what they like, and the majority agree and understand, there is an issue we must deal with. Given the nature of the responses to this and the thread I linked, we are trying to come up with ways to fix the problem.

But why should I have to go somewhere else when I like RF a lot for many reasons unrelated to what is discussed?

I'm trying to be polite, but this is all suspiciously like the "USA is a Christian country" argument. I know that the title has "religious" in it, but things change. Incidentally, I don't remember anything in the forum rules that states that discussion is limited to religious matters. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm afraid this is starting to sound like an attempt at censorship, which is something I detest. It's not that the RF staff or owners don't have the right to make any rules they want, this is a private entity and not subject to the 1st Amendment, but I'll say right now that if political discussion is banned, I'm gone.

Please don't take this a personal attack, but it has gotten me a bit riled up.

Incidentally, I would definitely support some improvement to the system of selecting threads or whatever. That would be good regardless of this particular reason.

We would be marginalizing the topic, not censoring it. We would be marginalizing it in favour of the main focus of the forum, which is religious discussion. We are discussing an opt-in private discussion forum for politics, where it is out of everyone else's way. I don't see that as censorship, but it will not appear in the new posts box unless one opts in. This sounds fair to me and seems to be the best solution to please everyone.

 

[Spice]

I think some people are confusing RF for Reddit.

I don't know anything about Reddit. I came here after Belief Net shut down its forum longing for religious fellowship for the uninformed and heretical like me. I hung around for a while, but like @anna. said, it wasn't very welcoming at that time, so I bowed out for more than 6 years.

I still get a little bummed out every now and then and slide back, but I'm still hanging in there. Overall it's a good community even for those of us who don't appreciate a good fight. LOL

 

[Rival]

One of the reasons I believe it should remain an option is due to the "religious" views and ideas that hound us in the US. We may have a constitution that explicitly states "separation of church and state" but that's unfortunately just pretty words.

Not everyone here is from the US though and are pretty tired of dealing with US-centric politicized issues all the time. If you can't discuss religion without it being politicized I doubt this is the right place. I'm a Brit and have a very different experience of religion. This shouldn't be used as a venting and ranting board for angry Americans. Others would like to join in and have other discussions.