Politics on the forum

[john luke]

The moderating team have been discussing politics and want to seek members views.  The politics club was created shortly after the creation of the forum to give members an opportunity to discuss political issues, whilst at the same time shielding members who were not interested in politics by ensuring that political threads did not appear in their 'unread posts' list.  

There is a specific question above regarding the Ukraine thread, however the purpose of this thread is to ascertain members views generally on how threads with some political content should be handled on the forum.

Nothing has changed to the forum rules or the way in which the moderation team handle political posts, however members views generally on this issue would be appreciated.

[galenkia]

Most general threads do end up with a political side as anything related to current affairs generally is involved in politics. 

If you moved every thread where politics were mentioned you'd have nothing left. 

For me, only threads that are political from creation should be in the political section. Either that or warn members if threads are going too off topic and just be about politics then it will be moved. 

A few political post's in a thread is not a problem. 

[Stillearly]

Threads like the Covid and Ukraine ones , I stopped reading ages ago , they got completely boring with the same back and forth .. I am not a member of the political club , because I want to come here for a fun and friendly time , without the nastiness that politics invariably creates ...  it's worse when posters try and introduce a political element to just fun vanilla threads imho .... I do agree that any current affairs thread is likely to have a political element,  but when that moves on from banter to overtly political,  I would prefer for it to be moved

I know it's a thankless task for the mods , but on the whole I think the light touch moderation works pretty well and the report button is always available 

if there was a ignore thread function, that would be even better 😉 

 

[Sherlock]

Leave the thread where it is, and just moderate it better! And stop troll arseholes from commenting!

[Lemondropkid]

Have voted for the politics thread having flicked at it for a whole 30 seconds.

As mod team/admin/owner I'd see it as no brainer. Why would you want new Users looking for a Thai forum to land and see a Ukraine thread?

Fully appreaciate there's lots off non Thai stuff, but don't see any mileage in having something so contentious , front and centre.

Just move it.

Edited May 31, 2022 by Lemondropkid

[lazarus]

Just prior to the general Ukraine thread I started a Ukraine thread in the politics club / world section. It's still there.

If the post is about Russia attacking and battling Ukraine...fine.

IMO, any 'political' posts about the EU, US or China on the general Ukraine thread should be moved over to the Politics Club Ukraine thread. Easy.

A few posters just seem to want to butt in with their broader opinions (damn the rules)

[Kathmandu]

3 hours ago, lazarus said:

A few posters just seem to want to butt in with their broader opinions (damn the rules)

Yes, the anti-soy latte gang can get very, very agitated.

[forcebwithu]

I can appreciate how it becomes more work for the mod team when a topic becomes infected with political posts. But from what I've seen of most BM's a gentle reminder is all it takes to get a topic back on track. For the BM that doesn't take the hint, is there an option available to the mods to put that BM on mod watch for a specific topic?

Ultimately if it becomes too much work then move or merge the topic to the politics club.

[Krapow]

Just move the political posts to the politics section, and tell/warn any posters who persist in posting politics in it to desist, post it in the politics section or action will be taken against them. 

Why should a good current affairs thread about something that impacts us all be moved to somewhere some don't want to read, and where it will end up with nothing more than political back and forth squabbling from entrenched views that won't change no matter.

I started the Ukraine thread and asked that politics be kept out of it, i also reiterated that at certain points during it. 

It's not hard, a few clicks, move what needs to be moved, so the vast majority can still access and read it. 

[Khun Ling]

Is it possible to move it to VIP section where new members cant see it?

[Nightcrawler]

Thanks for comments so far guys. 

Not easy to satisfy everyone as you might imagine. 

Taking off the Mod hat off for  a moment, as an actively posting member, my concern would be about balance. 

Lets not forget what the primary function of this forum is about. The ONE thing, if not many others, that we All have in common is our connection with Thailand, whether as a visitor, expat, family connections or for new members thinking of visiting Thailand. 

Of course politics will creep into general topics from time to time, but should not hijack the original theme of a topic, In my opinion. 

What strikes me most, is that because the last couple of years has restricted many of us from visiting Thailand, and therefore, there has been less Thai centric discussion. 

Now that things are opening again and we return to some sense of normality. I hope we see a lot more trip reports, info on what is happening on the ground and a lot more Thai focused chit chat. 

I think that the Politics Clubs were the right way to go from the.very beginning of 247, but not the perfect answer. 

As a Moderator, one of my ideas, would be to have an Overspil topic in the Politics Club section where we could simply move and posts which become political rather than remove them and try to avoid the topic becoming a Punch and Judy show. Sometimes we only need to express an opinion once rather than just keeping repeating the same argument using a different form of words. 

The Ukraine topic, which is of discussion, is one of those more difficult to manage, and can be headache at times, because of its close relation to Politics. But, it is a situation that affects us all in one way or another. 

Some interesting ideas so far, and please keep them coming. We are here to serve the members and to continue the smooth running of the forum in the best way we can, 

[KWA]

There's been more than just the Ukraine thread moved to politics recently I think, and it's wrong to do so IMO.  Start a new one there or move the relevant posts to an existing one.

It's the same half dozen or so culprits who can't seem to help themselves, so hand out warnings and suspensions if they continue to pollute regular threads.

[roobob]

17 hours ago, Sherlock said:

Leave the thread where it is, and just moderate it better! And stop troll arseholes from commenting!

Good point...but can we let the Mods be the judge of the trolls instead of a few BMs who constantly drag out the troll word when others have a different view/opinion.

cheers

[lazarus]

Maybe there should be a "troll corner" section for... ummm ... "a few BMs " ...

No holds barred.

[roobob]

2 hours ago, lazarus said:

Maybe there should be a "troll corner" section for... ummm ... "a few BMs " ...

No holds barred.

Thanks for emphasizing my above point,

cheers

[Butch]

3 hours ago, roobob said:

Good point...but can we let the Mods be the judge of the trolls instead of a few BMs who constantly drag out the troll word when others have a different view/opinion.

cheers

I agree, but when the BM in question posts something deliberately contentious to gain reaction, then he is indeed trolling. If you take offence to the word troll, and free speech isn't your thing, can we replace it with the word "c**t"?.

 

Anyway, in reply to the thread:

There will always be an overlap of politics in many contentious and topical threads. I personally try to avoid most of it, maybe the occasional comment of how the Govt run the UK but nothing much more than that, thus it's an opinion rather than me dictating my doctrine upon all and sundry.

More importantly I think we need to avoid thread drift and deliberate threadfucking / derailment. the topic in question has gone from current events in Ukraine - to which news source is more reliable. We need the thread to be on track of what is current in Ukraine, rather than concentrate on who's opinion is in favour of which side of the conflict reporting and who's is not, because that was established a long time ago.

The problem is it has (myself included) BM's discrediting each other which then turns into a shitfight, calms down and then repeats itself. Not helped by some BM's refusing to accept others points, even when they're in the minority.

Rather than moving a thread into a section or club which I and others don't want to be drawn into, perhaps have a "3 strike" rule to BM's who post in the thread and break the rules. I'm not sure of the forum software, but if say I had my 3 strikes and @Nightcrawlerthen told me "post in that topic again you're banned" then that would be enough, I'd avoid it , full stop.

However @Nightcrawler is right in his earlier post, many topics have served as a distraction for us as we've not been able to visit Thailand. I'm sure as time goes on the forum will progress onto more Thai centric subjects as we visit and start to look back on the last 2 years and the effect it had on all of us.

This is a great forum, the best out there, very well moderated, well balanced , friendly and fair to all. One topic that has perhaps garnered some friction and opinions that we disagree on shouldn't detract from what Lanza wanted.

 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2022 by Butch

[Evil Penevil]

6 hours ago, Nightcrawler said:

As a Moderator, one of my ideas, would be to have an Overspil topic in the Politics Club section where we could simply move and posts which become political rather than remove them and try to avoid the topic becoming a Punch and Judy show. Sometimes we only need to express an opinion once rather than just keeping repeating the same argument using a different form of words. 

This is an approach that has been used with success by some other boards.  In the days when Martin (RIP) ran Pattaya Talk, he would "spin off" the posts that got too political or harshly contentious  into separate threads in a special section of the board while leaving the non-political, non-contentious posts in place.  

The guys who wanted to argue could continue to do so without disturbing what was a constructive thread on the main board or frightening away new posters.

It struck me as curious that once the over-the-top posts were moved, the arguing almost always stopped.

Evil

Edited June 1, 2022 by Evil Penevil

[Nightcrawler]

38 minutes ago, Evil Penevil said:

This is an approach that has been used with success by some other boards.  In the days when Martin (RIP) ran Pattaya Talk, he would "spin off" the posts that got too political or harshly contentious  into separate threads in a special section of the board while leaving the non-political, non-contentious posts in place.  

The guys who wanted to argue could continue to do so without disturbing what was a constructive thread on the main board or frightening away new posters.

It struck me as curious that once the over-the-top posts were moved, the arguing almost always stopped.

Evil

I remember that, I think it was called "Purgatory" 

[lazarus]

20 hours ago, roobob said:

Thanks for emphasizing my above point,

cheers

Thanks. You were my thought in mind. Always funny. 

[Derek Dangleberries]

On 6/1/2022 at 9:45 AM, Krapow said:

Just move the political posts to the politics section, and tell/warn any posters who persist in posting politics in it to desist, post it in the politics section or action will be taken against them. 

Why should a good current affairs thread about something that impacts us all be moved to somewhere some don't want to read, and where it will end up with nothing more than political back and forth squabbling from entrenched views that won't change no matter.

I started the Ukraine thread and asked that politics be kept out of it, i also reiterated that at certain points during it. 

It's not hard, a few clicks, move what needs to be moved, so the vast majority can still access and read it. 

But how do you stop somebody bringing up Brexit when you are describing the delight that your daughter experienced being served by a robot ............in Thailand??

[lazarus]

6 minutes ago, Derek Dangleberries said:

But how do you stop somebody bringing up Brexit when you are describing the delight that your daughter experienced being served by a robot ............in Thailand??

I had a wise old Geography professor who used to say (a lot):

"things go together"

They really do. Hard to sort it all out these days. People read and view most everything through their own filters.

[OldCrank]

A new member asks what is/are BMs, thanks. 

[Lemondropkid]

6 minutes ago, OldCrank said:

A new member asks what is/are BMs, thanks. 

Bored Members🙂