View Poll Results: Should PF have a "Political Discussion" sub-forum?

Voters
77. You may not vote on this poll
  • Yes, herd the cats into one pen.

    45 58.44%
  • No, leave it like it is

    32 41.56%
Page 9 of 10 FirstFirst ... 78910 LastLast
Results 81 to 90 of 91

Thread: Politics sub-forum

  1. #81
    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Nesbitt View Post
    This is the way I do it.

    I'm going to vote no. I just clicked on new posts and there were only 11 out 40 threads that I am going to read. I always click new posts and never just go to the forums and sub forums. I read threads I find interesting and ignore the rest. I usually don't know what sub forum it is in.

    I love thread drift. Some of the best stuff comes out with thread drift.
    What I don't understand is how a new sub forum would hinder you doing the above?

    I use the new post button almost exclusively, I'm also experimenting with ignore threads. Previously I had a bunch of members and forums on ignore. It is a rare occasion that a political thread interests me but that said, subjects relating to the 2A do.

    A new sub forum for politics and one for 2A would allow me to bulk filter what I don't want to read but make no difference to those interested in politics. At the end of the day it's a convenience. But if I've been smart and not looked at the forum all day, hitting that new posts thread might not be 4 or more pages long and I'm just not going to look through all 4 pages to decide what to read meaning I'll read more which I'd guess is the forums wish.

  2. #82
    we should do a F.A.S.T. shoot out of YESes vs NOes.
    Whichever side has more Advanced scorers wins.

  3. #83
    Quote Originally Posted by BehindBlueI's View Post
    #1 is a solid point, and perhaps worthy of it's own forum either way. A "2nd amendment legal/political" forum where court cases, pending legislation proposals, etc. could be showcased outside of the air fryer/chainsaw/pictures of trees sort of threads may actually get those topics more exposure.

    #2 I've already touched on. It would not be Romper Room rules and would likely be more strictly monitored then GD as far as needing to stay on topic, civility, etc.
    If it goes like this I'm a yes. I feel it's important to segregate 2A from all other political BS, especially on this forum because of the magnitude of intellect here. One can get "Bubba's Guide the the 2A" almost anywhere, but P-F is definitely NOT that. I just hate to see it blended in with all the other political issues as it just diminishes some of P-F's value.
    Last edited by Spartan1980; 06-19-2020 at 12:37 AM.

  4. #84
    Site Supporter Hambo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Location
    Behind the Photonic Curtain
    My experience with forums that have a political section is that you will find a whole new group of members who only post in the politics subforum. The other thing I've seen is that it's never a discussion. Those who disagree with the majority get piled on, which we already see here. No good comes of any of it.

    I would vote for option C: no political threads. There are plenty of forums where you can hear your favorite bias or argue endlessly with those who oppose you.

    Since that is unlikely to be popular, it's just one more forum I have to block.
    "Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA

  5. #85
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Erie County, NY
    My experience is exactly that. The political subforum in a dedicated topic like this is usually just a circle jerk, attaboy of one political viewpoint. It just leads to ill will for those who decide to play in it. I agree, again from experience, it will be full of folks who just post their viewpoint over and over again and will contribute little to the technical nature of overall p-f.

    While some topics do mention politics as a necessary component of technical discussions, like nuances of an assault weapons ban or evaluation of police actions, pure politics is a waste of time for p-f.

    If we do have a subforum, if you just become a total denizen of that, the moderators should toss your butt.

  6. #86
    Quote Originally Posted by Hambo View Post
    My experience with forums that have a political section is that you will find a whole new group of members who only post in the politics subforum. The other thing I've seen is that it's never a discussion. Those who disagree with the majority get piled on, which we already see here. No good comes of any of it.

    I would vote for option C: no political threads. There are plenty of forums where you can hear your favorite bias or argue endlessly with those who oppose you.

    Since that is unlikely to be popular, it's just one more forum I have to block.
    Just my observation from a few forums with that rule - it invariably asks the staff to decide what is/isn't political and then fights ensue over what threads are left open and which ones are closed due to "politics" (is it "politics" or is it "current events"? On this forum those two topics tend to tread VERY closely to each other), and in the end it tended to make things worse. Members (who were otherwise well-behaved) started taking shots at each other in other threads, both in the form of personal attacks (because someone else got a "win" on me, and now's my chance to hit back) and in making snide comments that didn't overtly argue a political point but led to a very clear "what did you mean by that/oh, nothing...", as well as intentionally taking a threads in a political direction with the express intention of getting them closed.

    That's not to say it couldn't work with effective moderation... but I foresee the workload going through the roof for the mods. Shutting down politics always seemed to throw gas on the drama fire (and you're always either pulling the trigger too early or tensions get high and someone has to get the last word); IMO, asking for/enforcing grown-up behavior is more effective and I think as far as behavior goes, this is one of the better communities on the internet where that approach would work.

  7. #87
    I don’t really care for the political nonsense.

    If LL decided to crack down on that sort of subject matter, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings, however that would be accomplished.

  8. #88
    Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2016
    Location
    Ventura County
    I voted No. other gun forums have “politics” and that is where things get dicey. I would hate to see folks here get into political debates and start ignoring each other or getting banned. This is one of if not the best firearm forums. People here really know their shit. On top of that, there are a lot of very helpful people . I also like the ribbing everyone dishes out....keep as is please..

    F

  9. #89
    I voted yes so I can ignore all political threads with one click. Political discourse is part of the reason I bailed on almost all social media platforms. I bet a lot of PF lurkers dislike politics.

  10. #90
    Now that the poll has closed have you pondered the options?

    Of course, now that I have GD back on ignore, I might have missed the creation of the politics sub-forum.

User Tag List

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •