What if Political Threads No Longer Appeared on the "New Threads" List?

[Sw. Vandana Jyothi]

RF hasn't been strictly a "religious forum" for ages and IMO, that's a good thing. The diversity of its forums gives the site a vibrant life. And its rules generally work, the mods are fair and friendly.

Yes, I get that the recent spate of political topics--mostly North American USA--seems to be clogging the "New Threads" list. We haven't known such turmoil since the '60s; neither did we have the internet, social media and recording phones back then. It was a tense time but it never felt like the very foundations of our democracy were at stake. Hopefully, this horror show won't last too much longer, hang in there everybody and things will stabilize back to a normal number of political posts from the North American contingent.

Members have two options as I see it to avoid and see fewer political posts. 1) Don't click on the link of a political post if you don't want to read about it. Duh. And 2) I believe that the New Threads list is auto-generated by people creating posts (is that right, Mods?). So start making other kinds of posts if you want something different to show up on the New Threads list. Hopefully nothing so banal and sad as the kind that ask, "What do you like about me or my posts?" Or "This is what I did today." Criminy, can you please save that for your Facebook page?

 

[Debater Slayer]

Hopefully nothing so banal and sad as the kind that ask, "What do you like about me or my posts?" Or "This is what I did today." Criminy, can you please save that for your Facebook page?

I wanted to comment on something about this specific part: part of the forum's mission statement promotes fellowship and a spirit of community among the membership. Threads like the ones you described may be quite mundane in nature, but this is not always a bad thing at all. Sometimes it is actually healthy and good for the forum because it adds a layer of personal interaction besides all of the debating and arguing that naturally takes place on a forum like this one.

If members want to comment on such threads and get to know each other better, then this is perfectly fine and in line with the forum's mission. Nothing wrong or "sad" about that.

 

[Secret Chief]

Censorship! Goddam communists!

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

If those in charge of the forum wanted only religious discussions, why were forums on other topics created?

Most forums have areas for off-topic discussion, aside from the primary subject. It's like signing up to a forum for stamp collecting to talk about a tv show.

 

[Secret Chief]

I voted other. I would like to see the regional ones, Europe, North America etc go. The others such as Conservative / Socialist only should stay. They are not used that much and the content usually can apply to any country.

Such as brexit?

 

[Kenny]

We will still live if you do... but why would we do it? It is about life and living and even within the faith context, it is applicable.

The deacons we selected by vote. Moses chose leaders of wisdom and set them in charge. Christians were commanded to pray for all those in authority.

So it is religious even when some think it is only secular

 

[lewisnotmiller]

What about members who come here in equal parts to discuss both subjects or those who are more interested in politics? How do you view this idea given that the forum has many such members?

I come here to discuss both. So any move to restrict or limit political threads would not be to my preference.
However if it was more a matter of de-emphasising them (for example, not showing them as the featured threads) then I would have no problem at all.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Why are people coming to a religious forum to discuss primarily politics anyway?

Just speaking for myself on this;

This is my 'social' forum, for better or worse. I don't use Facebook, or Twitter, or anything else. In terms of anything you could loosely call 'social media', I spend time here, a basketball forum, and a beer social media app. That's it.
So out of that set, RF becomes my default holistic discussion forum because I like how it's moderated, and the variance of opinion here. If political discussion was removed from here, I'd need to find another forum, and I'm not sure how easy it would be to find a forum allowing a variety of opinions, and for political discussions which can span the world (even if US focused).

 

[rocala]

Such as brexit?

Europe only of course. We are talking about the new threads list, not the whole forum.

 

[Rival]

Just speaking for myself on this;

This is my 'social' forum, for better or worse. I don't use Facebook, or Twitter, or anything else. In terms of anything you could loosely call 'social media', I spend time here, a basketball forum, and a beer social media app. That's it.
So out of that set, RF becomes my default holistic discussion forum because I like how it's moderated, and the variance of opinion here. If political discussion was removed from here, I'd need to find another forum, and I'm not sure how easy it would be to find a forum allowing a variety of opinions, and for political discussions which can span the world (even if US focused).

This is true for me too. I don't use other SM because it's frankly toxic. I'm just concerned that politics is too 'much' right now and is making some of the more religious discussion inclined folks feel suffocated.

 

[Secret Chief]

I don't see how this move would "take the heat out." The "heat" is in the subject itself. Hiding it in some way doesn't change that. I think it's a really odd suggestion.
My only suggestion is to maybe amalgamate some of the political sub-forums.

 

[Debater Slayer]

Why are people coming to a religious forum to discuss primarily politics anyway?

I'm here to discuss both, personally. At least in my part of the world, religion and politics are often so intertwined that you can rarely discuss one without the other except in very specific contexts.

That and I'm interested in keeping up to date on what's going on in the world. Politics may be stressful and toxic a lot of the time, but the only alternative I see is to be too unaware of so many things about my surroundings. I'm not a fan of the latter.

 

[Sw. Vandana Jyothi]

I wanted to comment on something about this specific part: part of the forum's mission statement promotes fellowship and a spirit of community among the membership. Threads like the ones you described may be quite mundane in nature, but this is not always a bad thing at all. Sometimes it is actually healthy and good for the forum because it adds a layer of personal interaction besides all of the debating and arguing that naturally takes place on a forum like this one.

If members want to comment on such threads and get to know each other better, then this is perfectly fine and in line with the forum's mission. Nothing wrong or "sad" about that.

Fellowship and spirit of community, of course, I'm all for it and hope I foster or least invite it with my posts, too. To stay focused on the OP, would those personal topics be considered more important to show up in New Threads than say, the political ones? Or should the same question be asked of all members: should personal threads be relegated to an opt-in format or separate DIR? Why not ask that question as you're going about determining what should show up in the New Threads list.

And may we agree to disagree? I do think it's sad (but I agree, not wrong!), that people posting anonymously on forums continually have to seek approbation from anonymous people on forums. Beyond the ratings system already in place. At least, doing it right there on the site's home page. Or, for another example, taking a screen shot of high ratings and appending it to all your posts. That's sad. Just my two cents and probably worth about that.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

For clarification, the political threads would still be on the forums; just not on the New Threads list.

Kind of like what happens with the threads in the Psychology board right now sometimes, not always - whether this happening on my screen is an intended feature or a glitch.

 

[SomeRandom]

I don't know, I wasn't there at the forum's inception, but I'm not sure it was intended to be this politics-heavy. US politics dominates, too, which can make non-USians feel sidelined, I imagine.

To be quite honest, as a non USian US politics is like a god awful soap opera. I know it’s all spectacle and drama. And yet here I am for it like

 

[Rival]

To be quite honest, as a non USian US politics is like a god awful soap opera. I know it’s all spectacle and drama. And yet here I am for it like
View attachment 44014

This is precisely why I can't stand it lol. I hate drama

 

[SomeRandom]

This is precisely why I can't stand it lol. I hate drama

Fair enough. But the US is a superpower. Regardless of whether we like it or not, their politics can have consequences for the rest of us peasants. Though I can see why someone would want to engage in something more healthy.

 

[Sw. Vandana Jyothi]

Fair enough. But the US is a superpower. Regardless of whether we like it or not, their politics can have consequences for the rest of us peasants. Though I can see why someone would want to engage in something more healthy.

You are not peasants, you are our equals, our friends! If only you knew how utterly embarrassing it is to be an American at this moment in history. I can hardly raise my head and look other democracies in the eye. I apologize that we're creating such turmoil and sucking all the oxygen out of the spheres right now. There is a huge chunk of us--we're going to the polls in record numbers--who are PRAYING that our karma with the current scenario will soon be over. Please pray with us. Please.

But learn from us, also! Don't let it happen to you! Complacency by an electorate leads to corruption. And it's all downhill from there.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

I would rather have the ability to opt out/ignore than to make that the default.

 

[Debater Slayer]

I would rather have the ability to opt out/ignore than to make that the default.

What did you say again? The above post is blanked out on my screen!

(I agree.)