Political discussions are not welcome on this site

[V7Goose]

Most folks here know this, but maybe a few new members have missed it. While there are many many sites on the web where political discussions are welcome, and even encouraged, this is not one of them. We do not have many rules, but no politics and no religious discussions are important. We have found that these types of threads inevitably lead to unpleasantness and negatively affect the overall feel of our forums.

 

I have just deleted a thread that was purely a political discussion. The deletion had nothing to do with agreement or disagreement about anything that was said, just that we do not allow political discussions. Thanx for listening.

Goose

[dingy]

If anyone finds a particular forum something they do wish to see, then choose the ignore option for that forum.

 

I totally agree with Dons views on Politics and Religion, but for the most part the jokes here are fairly innocent. Other than the ones about the Maytags I can put up with them.

 

Below is a cut of the section at the bottom of the User CP - Edit Option settings. It will allow you to ignore entire sections of the site, such as those utterly offensive jokes about RSV being slower than molasses in December.

 

At some point if we want a site that is open to people having a reasonably good time, then we need to say your rights are fine, as long as they don't infringe on my rights.

 

At some point in the last few generations the rights of the masses became over ruled by the rights of the ones.

 

Gary

 

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af193/gdingy101/ignorelist.jpg

Edited May 12, 2011 by dingy

[V7Goose]

The problem with locking a thread after some members have already posted inflammatory comments is that the very existance of those comments continues to inflame everyone who feels strongly about the subject, and they feel they must respond. So if those posts are still there, but the thread is locked, they just start new threads, spreading the problem.

 

If we try to calm the situation by just editing the most inflammatory stuff, those people who got edited just tend to go all ape about it.

 

We do our utmost to NOT censor or edit any posts here - that is why we try to ask members ahead of time to remember that certain subjects are not acceptable. When we see posts that are borderline, we tend to just grit our teeth and hope the members are willing to live and let live instead of attack each other - we would rather risk the escalation than censor. But when things do go south, we usually feel the best option is to remove the entire thread than make things worse by trying to decide what parts are acceptable and what are not (that becomes taking sides in the argument).

 

There will always be disagreements, and sometimes even heated discussions. If those are around a topic dealing with our bikes or site operation, then at least we are still getting value from the multiple opinions being offered, and the tone of those discussions rarely escalates to the level it always does with politics or religion.

 

I'm sure we do not always make the perfect decisions, but I hope y'all understand that our main focus is to simply keep the tone of our site friendly. Peace.

 

Ride Safe,

Goose

[Freebird]

Folks, I just got home after a LONG week of meetings in Minnesota. I want to thank V7Goose and all our moderators for the great job that they have done here. I decided to delete most of these threads as most were just arguments one way or the other about why we should or shouldn't delete threads and etc. The fact is, the REASONS have been discussed here many times and the rules set long ago. The purpose of Kent's original post was to refresh people's memories and educate any new members who might not have been aware. We have heard the opinions on both sides of these issues many times and there is no reason to go over it all again.

 

Thanks to all of your for your understanding.