Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG
"Best", like politics, is a matter of opinion. 
EM's been growing pretty steadily for 3+ years with minimal political blather. If limiting political discussion has crimped the growth rate, I'm 100% fine with that. |
+1
There are lots of places for partisan, "everyone who disagrees with me is bad, wrong, stupid, evil, worthless, ignorant, naive, paranoid...blah, blah blah" discussions.
I get caught up in this sort of thing once in a while, and I don't think I have ever gotten any useful information out of it. I appreciate it when a forum tries to keep the political white noise to a minimum, even if it means that when I get up on my high horse and start issuing fatwas, my post gets pulled and/or I get a reminder to "keep it clean." It can come from a mod or from some members, either way works.
People act weird when they are sure there can't be any repercussions (plenty of research to back this up), which drives a lot of the vitriol on internet forums, so it makes sense to lay down some rules and guidelines to keep it civil, and to keep members who have valuable stuff to contribute, but don't have any patience for the yelling-match format, from being driven off by the more "boisterous" members.
Preventing, managing and resolving schisms is absolutely a valid, even critical, matter for forum managers. I've been through enough forum breakups to know that they suck.
Keep up the good work, Darin.