Current politics and this forum

No, that wasn't my angle anyway. I disagree with loads of people here. I certainly don't want people banned for that. What ticked me off was I came on this forum at the weekend with my tea and biscuits and a thread I wanted to respond to was locked. So nobody could play any part of the discussion. Which didn't seem fair to the posters having a sensible (ish) discussion. (And it seemed to be the same people as the last time a thread got locked here and posts deleted.) Jason has explained the reasons above, and that's fine. However, I was of the view that instead of locking a thread to enable people to cool down and let the mods investigate the relevant complaints, if the actual posters were given a 24/48hr ban - to cool down if you like - then discussions on that thread could continue. In my mind it served the same purpose of allowing the mods to investigate, but the people not getting personal and crossing the line were still able to contribute to that thread. We could still have hugs and cuddles when they return. 

After all, short bans on the old BF forum never did Jason, Paul and Dalekbuster any harm did they? They are still here preaching their own brand of peace and love in the Divergent Universe and contributing to making this place an enjoyable community.

My next proposition was that repeat offenders should be taken out and given fifty lashes though!

I work for the Canadian government and do my best to avoid political discussion as humanly possible in my off hours, as such I will rarely comment on political comments.

I will say that when it comes political discussion (actually pretty much all online posting), many people would spare themselves a world of trouble by taking the time to read what they wrote before posting and asking themselves whether their word choice could be better thought out to avoid creating heated arguments or their views being misconstrued.

I will defend anyone's right to talk utter rot.

However I expect those people to listen and think about the responses they receive.

Also if we keep the toxic chat in the designated threads then we can now avoid them if we want.

Excellent! I await your approval.

(Those mods over on GB think they are tough cookies, wait until Uncle Stevo turns up with his Cat O' Nine Tails to administer justice here!)

*Ban hammer here I come* ahem, Whipping members did you say? ROFL

I think that it's the only way people will learn

Set up to discuss BF Audios and Doctor Who in general and unfortunately politics is a large part of DW so you'll never get away from that one. Just look at Zygon Invasion/Inversion - very topical and worthy of political discussion.

I understand what you are saying but forums (in general) do expand into other areas, the trick is keeping those posts in the relevant place so people can choose whether to participate or not. There's nothing worse than going into a thread about ... and being hit by unrelated topics/arguments.

Cheers

Tony 

In all fairness, most online forums these days have off-topic sections where anything goes. Which in theory is supposed to stop those types of discussions - usually politics and religion - appearing in unrelevant threads... however, they do still tend to creep in from time to time.

I also make guest appearances on a comics forum and their 'politics' thread has been locked a couple of times since November too. Moderators of all online forums since the election of President Trump and Brexit are living in challenging times!

I never talk politics on this forum. Or almost never. It's not because it doesn't interest me. On the contrary. However I find that unless I'm discussing it with people who are actually interested in listening, I find it causes more problems than is solves. And you rarely find that on the internet.