"- Political Discussion Are Prohibited, As Is Any Discussion On R

[NoidZ]

Why is it prohibited? It's not like it's illegal or something.

If you're afraid of getting discriminative post, ban them! Let the mature (enough) people talk about these things. They are one of the most important things in life and we can't have a discussion about it???

How sad! <_<

 

[declaration]

They would prefer us to talk about which is better between Pong and Pacman.

Seriously, I have never come across a site with such a ridiculous rule. Politics is important and seeing how this is off-topic, it is a pretty stupid rule.

Is it new or something? Because there have been literally hundreds of allowed political and religious debates on here in the past.

We will probably get a warning for discussing the dictator's rules.

 

[epitaph]

It's the outcome of people bothering the mods about unbanning a certain member. After a certain moderator started to question their ways, I s'pose they felt they needed to assert themselves (keeping the team together, y'know?) by enforcing ridiculously strict rules as a testament to themselves. "No sir, nothing wrong here. War is peace".

Of course, none of the claims (as interpreted by the reader or otherwise) in the above text have any substance to them and should not be taken seriously. The board and the server(s) it is hosted on is private property and should be governed the way its owner sees fit.

 

[Vimacs]

Political/Religious discussions are always prone to get into a flame war and/or discriminate/offend some people, and you don't want to do that, do you?

 

[Yorper]

LOL, this is the most stupid thing i've ever heard. EVERYTHING is political, even the comment above about pacman vs pong, all be that a joke comment, that itself is a political argument and therefor would break the rules should anyone ask about that or such similar subjects. Politics governs every aspect of life and the world. :rolleyes:

Maybe they should have more of a statement than a rule stating these forums are not a democracy and are a privilege to use not a right, i think maybe that is what they meant, but saying they ban political talk just makes them look stupid.

EDIT: Fixed couple typos.

 

[declaration]

Political/Religious discussions are always prone to get into a flame war and/or discriminate/offend some people, and you don't want to do that, do you?

Yes. It is important to discuss things even if people may become offended. People get offended in real life, so why not on message boards?

If someone is being particularly aggressive/ has stepped over the line and is clearly not joking, then deal with them individually. A simple warning will probably do the trick. No use treating everyone badly because you fear someone may disagree about politics.

 

[Vimacs]

And when someone gets punished because of the you will be the first one to make a topic "pleas unban xxxx"?
Also, pleas stop creating such "hate" topics towards the moderation team, we are only trying to keep this place clean.

 

[J201605]

I was gonna quote kanye west but I dont feel like getting banned right now.

 

[Vimacs]

No one will be/was ever banned because he stated his opinion...

 

[epitaph]

No one will be/was ever banned because he stated his opinion...

Epicenter was. *ducks*

 

[Ravnos]

I was gonna quote kanye west but I dont feel like getting banned right now.

"I ain't sayin she a gold digger, but she ain't messin with no broke niggas"?

 

[declaration]

Also at pleas stop creating such "hate" topics towards the moderation team, we are only trying to keep this place clean.

But you are keeping it empty and dull too!
We just want to be able to have interesting discussions and not be treated like little kids.

No need to try and protect free individuals from reading an opinion they disagree with.

It is clear the policies and moderation on this site needs a critique. Has one ordinary member come forward and said the new modding has made this place better?

 

[Vimacs]

no he wasn't, he was banned cause he constantly attacked people and constantly spammed the same crap, his case was discussed and every mod agreed.

 

[grahf]

Political discussions online are stupid anyhow. On the internet everyone thinks they are an expert, and nobody is going to change their mind.
Good riddance.

 

[declaration]

Political discussions online are stupid anyhow. On the internet everyone thinks they are an expert, and nobody is going to change their mind.
Good riddance.

That applies to every discussion. Pacman or Pong even!

If you don't like such threads, just ignore them. God knows I have intentionally kept out of a few in my time.

 

[Vimacs]

And yes, we get positive feedback, many people are even saying we need even stricter moding.
Look at how this place was like two years ago, way friendlier, way more helpful.
It hurts me to see how a minority of vocal people have turned this place down, but i realize that it is never going to be the same again.
But you cant tell me you haven't noticed how much friendlier this place got after some of the worst annoyances where removed.

 

[saehn]

And yes, we get positive feedback, many people are even saying we need even stricter moding.
Look at how this place was like two years ago, way friendlier, way more helpful.
It hurts me to see how a minority of vocal people have turned this place down, but i realize that it is never going to be the same again.
But you cant tell me you haven't noticed how much friendlier this place got after some of the worst annoyances where removed.

So you listen to the people who are asking for restrictions on speech instead of the people asking for openess and fairness?

Why do you think we're seeing these reactions to the new rules? A few people were willing to speak up for something they thought was right. The goal was to have the moderators make a better, more open community... not to clamp down and add further restrictions. Was this done as an act of revenge against those would dare question the mods' decisions?

The ban on discussing religion and politics is ridiculous. Any non-GP2X topic that is of any importance will at least involve some oblique reference to one of those two ideas. They are intrinsic to our lives, how we define ourselves. If these forums were to solely be GP2X-related, that should have been stated from the start... and the Off-Topic Discussion forum need never have been created.

The way to avoid being "offended" by political or religious discussions is as simple as it's always been: if you don't like it, don't participate. This is READING. You don't have to read. You can always stop. Nothing is being pumped into your eyes.

The ban on questioning the actions or decisions of moderators is laughable. People who make decisions regarding other peoples' lives will always have their actions questioned. Respect is not unquestioning adherence to rules. Only a personality operating from an authoritarian perspective would ever believe that.

The two basic needs still stand:

1) Open the banning/warning process. Make it public. There should be accountability in the process.

2) Do not close non-abusive controversial threads that involve the willing participation of members. If someone doesn't want to read about something, they won't.

And, finally a new need: revise the new rules, removing the draconian elements. This needs to be an open community once again. People will respect reasonable rules (as many of the new rules are). My thanks to the mods that stand up for openness and fairness, please continue your good work.

 

[EvilDragon]

Geeez, I never had time lately to read int he Off topic section... looks like some weird stuff is going on here...

@saehn:
Yes, I AM for free and open speech.
Discussion about bannings however are NOT possible in my opinion at a board with over 10.000 members.
Did you think about what would happen if 10.000 members start discussing about a ban for somebody?
It might most probably lead into a flame war. Which would lead more members to request bans for other flaming members and go into a vicious circle and permanent talking about bannings... instead of the primary goal of this board: Discussing about the gp2x and the GP32.

I'm probably one of the least strict mods... I barely close any threads (and if I do, I leave a reason why, if it isn't obvious)... however, a lot of guys actually told me I should be more strict.

However, about the rules (like political or religious discussions are not allowed):
Well, that's simply a moderating problems.
Topics like these have to be watched VERY carefully. The often lead into flamewars, which need to be moderated. But this is no commercial or professional board here.
We mods do that in our SPARE TIME! We don't get any money here (like the pspupdates.com guys).
So we try to keep the time for moderating the boards as low as possible.
This is why these rules exist. In my opinion, no major problem. Remember that this is a board to discuss about gp2x and the GP32, if you want to discuss about religious or other "dangerous" stuff, well, go to a board which DOES discuss about these topics.

One of the hardest things at a big board is to hold a good balance in moderation.
You can NEVER satisfy every board member.

So whatever we do, there will always be a lot of guys disagreeing with us.

The only possible solution in my opinion is: Work together. We mods try to do our best. And you guys try to NOT open a topic or start a discussion about EVERY decision we take, mmkay?
Otherwise, these boards will soon end into a 'Discussions-about-mod-decisions-board' insterad of a board about the gp2x and gp32...

 

[Vimacs]

First off, I'm sorry to not have the time right now to give you a the full reply you desrve, its 3:45am over here and I'm tired.
But there's at least one point i realy want to reply to before going to sleep.

So you listen to the people who are asking for restrictions on speech instead of the people asking for openness and fairness?

Of course I don't.
I'm all for openness and freedom of speech, however this is a forum (dedicated to a handheld) and as always when communicating in text form things you may mean in a totaly friendly way can come over as unfriendly attacks on groups/people, that's one of the major problems you will always face on the internet.
no one wants to restrict anyone here in their freedom of speech but as you see things can realy get over the top, and in the end its the community as a whole which will suffer, this has to be controlled in some form.
Now what is fair? Is it fair when a minority can destroy the fun for a bigger group by starting flames or being aggressive on other members?

I think we can all agree that the situation how it is right now is not ideal and some things have to be changed for the good of all, I'm sure some changes will happen, what they are i cant say, but i hope that everyone will profit from it.

If you find spelling/grammatical/logical errors its cause I can barely keep my eyes open,
I wish everyone a good night, I will take some time tomorrow to answer the rest of your post(s).

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

ED, these topics usually do get reported by somebody* when they get out of hand, right? You guys also rely on us, as it's obvious that you cannot be everywhere all the time.

Political/religious discussions shouldn't be an issue as they SHOULD be reported by one of us when they get out of hand. As mods you hold the power to keep the place in check, but in a board with 10,000 members, we play just a significant a role


Flamers should be delt with accordingly once the topic in question is reported. It's silly to ban types of discussions when, as pointed out, they make up such a significant part of the world.

* TelcoLou :rolleyes: