Why I think Political discussion should not be allowed on forums such as this
A recent ‘Boris big win’ thread has highlighted this issue for me. Now politics is an area in which I hold strong feelings and one upon which I try to stay informed. In the ‘Boris big win’ thread there are comments that I strongly agree with and ones I strongly disagree with (I have now deleted my only response to that thread because I felt it was hypocritical to add to it at all). The problem is that some of the comment I find so poorly informed and dogmatic that, for me, it creates a very negative view of the writer. A negative view that is now likely to influence the opinion of other, non politics related, issues they may subsequently post about. It reminds me of the, oft attributed to Dennis Thatcher, quote “why not remain silent and appear stupid than speak and leave no doubt” . In short, I believe that heated (and they always become heated) discussions about politics (and religion for that matter) have no place on a ‘hobby/interest’ based forum and are only likely to create unnecessary division and resentment.
Edit:
Within the ‘Boris big win’ thread Marco alludes to the pink fish media (pfm) forum and that he feels they handle political discussion well. I would disagree with that though. What they do well is to keep any sort of discussion out of the general forum areas and force it to occur in the ‘any other business’ section. However, there are people, long standing members even, who exclusively post on political issues. In fact they don’t just post on political issues, they actively promote one sided opinions in favour of a specific political agenda which they happen to support. These people literally never post about music or audio gear, their sole interest is to influence the political beliefs of that forums membership. For that reason I think this aspect is actually poorly moderated/managed on pfm.
Occasionally, AoS has had members join the forum who have turned out to be primarily interested in pushing a particular political viewpoint rather than discussing music and audio; those people have been promptly shown the door and that, in my opinion, is good moderation/management of the issue.